Learn Hardcore Danish: Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen, bliver hun nogle gange trist. - When she works alone all day, she sometimes becomes sad.

Når is used for:
- Repeated / habitual actions
  - Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen, bliver hun nogle gange trist.
    = Every time she works alone all day, she sometimes gets sad.
- Future events
  - Når jeg kommer hjem, ringer jeg til dig. (When I get home, I’ll call you.)
Da is used for:
- A single event in the past
  - Da hun arbejdede alene hele dagen, blev hun trist.
    = That time (on that occasion) when she worked alone all day, she became sad.

Because the sentence describes something that can happen repeatedly, når is the correct choice.

Why is the word order “Når hun arbejder …” and not “Når arbejder hun …”?

In Danish, subordinate clauses (introduced by words like når, fordi, at, hvis) have subject–verb order:

Subordinate clause: Når hun arbejder
- hun (subject) comes before arbejder (verb).

In main clauses, Danish normally has verb-second (V2) word order:

Main clause here: bliver hun nogle gange trist
- bliver (verb) comes first, then hun (subject).

So:

Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen = subordinate clause → S–V word order.
bliver hun nogle gange trist = main clause → V2 word order (verb first here, because a clause (Når …) is placed in front of it).

Why is there a comma before bliver?

The sentence has two clauses:

Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen – a subordinate clause (introduced by når).
bliver hun nogle gange trist – the main clause.

In standard Danish punctuation, you put a comma between a subordinate clause and the main clause:

Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen, bliver hun nogle gange trist.

So the comma simply marks the boundary between the når-clause and the main clause.

Why do we say bliver hun trist and not er hun trist?

bliver
- adjective = becomes / gets (a change of state)
- bliver hun trist = she becomes sad / ends up sad.
er
- adjective = is (a state, not the change)
- er hun trist = she is sad (describing her current emotional state, not how she got there).

Because the sentence talks about the effect of working alone all day (she ends up sad as a result), bliver is more natural than er.

What’s the difference between trist and ked af det?

Both can mean sad, but they’re used a bit differently:

trist
- Short, neutral, often used in writing and speech.
- Can describe both people and situations:
  - Hun er trist. (She is sad.)
  - Det er en trist historie. (It’s a sad story.)
ked af det
- Literally: “sorry about it / hurt about it”.
- Very common in everyday speech for emotionally hurt / sad:
  - Hun er ked af det. (She is sad / upset.)

In this sentence, you could also say:

… bliver hun nogle gange ked af det.

It would sound very natural, maybe a bit more colloquial and emotional. Trist can sound just a touch more neutral or “bookish” depending on context.

Why is nogle gange placed between hun and trist? Could it go somewhere else?

The adverb phrase nogle gange (sometimes) is placed in the middle field of the main clause:

bliver hun nogle gange trist

This is a very typical position for frequency adverbs in Danish.

You have a few other options, each with a slightly different emphasis:

Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen, bliver hun trist nogle gange.
– Possible, but less common; nogle gange sounds more like an afterthought.
Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen, bliver hun nogle gange trist.
– Neutral and very natural.
Nogle gange bliver hun trist, når hun arbejder alene hele dagen.
– Now nogle gange is emphasized: Sometimes she gets sad (in that situation).

In most cases, the original word order is the most natural.

Why is it alene hele dagen and not hele dagen alene?

Both orders are grammatically possible, but they don’t feel exactly the same:

arbejder alene hele dagen
- Focus is slightly on the fact that she is alone while working, and that this situation lasts the whole day.
arbejder hele dagen alene
- Sounds more like emphasizing the duration first (“all day”) and then adding that this was alone.
- It can sound a little heavier or more marked; the rhythm is different.

In everyday speech, alene hele dagen is a very natural and common order here. It flows smoothly and highlights the “working alone” situation as a whole-day thing.

Could we say hele dagen lang instead of hele dagen? Is there a difference?

Yes, you could say:

Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen lang, bliver hun nogle gange trist.

hele dagen lang literally means the whole day long. The nuance:

hele dagen – “all day”
hele dagen lang – “all day long”, with a bit more emphasis on the length or tediousness of the time.

Both are correct; hele dagen is slightly more neutral.

Why is the present tense used? It sounds like a general statement, not just now.

In Danish, the present tense is often used for:

General truths or habits.
Things that happen repeatedly.

In English, you do the same with the simple present:

Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen, bliver hun nogle gange trist.
= When she works alone all day, she sometimes gets sad.

We’re not talking about today specifically, but about what typically happens. So the present tense is exactly what you want in Danish here.

Why is the word order in the main clause “bliver hun … trist” and not “hun bliver … trist”?

Danish main clauses usually follow the verb-second (V2) rule:

The finite verb must be in second position, but “second” means second element, not necessarily second word.

In this sentence:

The entire subordinate clause Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen counts as the first element.
The finite verb bliver must therefore come second, i.e. immediately after that clause.
The subject hun comes after the verb.

So the structure is:

[Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen], [bliver] [hun] [nogle gange trist].

If you started with the subject, you could say:

Hun bliver nogle gange trist, når hun arbejder alene hele dagen.

Here, hun is the first element, and bliver is still second → still V2.

Can I add så: “Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen, så bliver hun nogle gange trist”?

Yes, you will often hear:

Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen, så bliver hun nogle gange trist.

Points to note:

så here is a kind of linking word: then / in that case.
It’s common in spoken Danish and informal writing.
In more formal or “tight” written Danish, people often omit så:
- Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen, bliver hun nogle gange trist. (more neutral/standard)
- Når hun arbejder alene hele dagen, så bliver hun nogle gange trist. (a bit more conversational)

Both are correct; the original version is simply slightly more formal and concise.