Learn Hardcore Danish: Praktikken giver hende erfaring på en rigtig arbejdsplads, før hun får et rigtigt job. - The internship gives her experience at a real workplace before she gets a real job.

In the sentence, we are talking about a specific internship that “gives her experience”, so Danish uses the definite form: Praktikken = the internship (this particular one).

Why is it hende and not hun?

Danish, like English, has different forms of the pronoun “she” depending on function:

hun = subject form (she)
hende = object form (her)

In the sentence:

Praktikken (subject)
giver (verb)
hende (indirect object: gives her)
erfaring (direct object: experience)

Because “her” is the recipient of the experience, it must be the object form hende, not hun.

Why is it erfaring in the singular and not erfaringer in the plural?

Erfaring in Danish can work like experience in English: it can be both countable and uncountable:

erfaring (uncountable) = experience in general
erfaringer (plural) = specific experiences, individual events

In this sentence, erfaring is used in a general sense: the internship gives her (some) experience, not necessarily a list of specific experiences.

You could say erfaringer if you wanted to highlight several distinct experiences, but erfaring is more natural and neutral here.

Why do we say giver hende erfaring and not something like giver erfaring til hende?

Both structures are grammatically possible, but they differ in naturalness:

giver hende erfaring = gives her experience (most natural)
giver erfaring til hende = gives experience to her (more formal / heavier, and unusual here)

Danish, like English, normally places the indirect object (the person) directly after the verb, then the direct object:

Praktikken giver hende (IO) erfaring (DO).

Adding til hende would sound a bit awkward and is usually only used when you need to stress the direction (e.g. send something *to her*).

Why is it på en rigtig arbejdsplads and not i en rigtig arbejdsplads?

The preposition på is used with arbejdsplads to express “at a workplace”:

på en arbejdsplads = at a workplace
på hospitalet = at the hospital
på kontoret = at the office

I usually means inside something physically (in a box, in a room, in a house), so i en arbejdsplads would sound strange, like in the interior of a workplace building.

So:

erfaring på en rigtig arbejdsplads = experience at a real workplace, which is what is meant here.

What is the difference between rigtig and rigtigt?

Rigtig is the base form of the adjective; rigtigt is:

the neuter singular form of the adjective (agreeing with a neuter noun), and/or
an adverb (really, correctly).

In this sentence we have both forms as adjectives:

en rigtig arbejdsplads
- arbejdsplads is common gender (en arbejdsplads) → adjective: rigtig
et rigtigt job
- job is neuter gender (et job) → adjective: rigtigt

So rigtig / rigtigt change form to match the noun’s gender and number:

en rigtig mand
et rigtigt job
to rigtige jobs

Here, it’s only about gender agreement, not adverbial use.

Why is it en rigtig arbejdsplads but et rigtigt job?

This is about grammatical gender:

arbejdsplads
- common gender (n-words) → en arbejdsplads
- therefore: en rigtig arbejdsplads
job
- neuter gender (t-words) → et job
- therefore: et rigtigt job

The adjective must agree with the noun:

en
- rigtig
  - arbejdsplads
et
- rigtigt
  - job

So you’re seeing both genders in the same sentence, which is why rigtig appears in two different forms.

Why is there a comma before før?

Før hun får et rigtigt job is a subordinate clause (“before she gets a real job”).

In Danish punctuation, it’s very common (and in many styles expected) to put a comma before a subordinate clause:

…, før hun får et rigtigt job.

With the “new comma” rules, you may sometimes omit certain commas, but putting a comma before før when it introduces a subordinate clause is still standard and correct.

So the comma marks the boundary between:

main clause: Praktikken giver hende erfaring på en rigtig arbejdsplads
subordinate clause: før hun får et rigtigt job

Why is it hun får (present tense) and not something like a future tense?

Danish does not have a separate grammatical future tense like will get built into the verb. Instead, Danish usually uses the present tense to talk about the future when the context makes the time clear:

før hun får et rigtigt job = before she gets a real job / before she will get a real job

The word før (“before”) already shows that this is about the future relative to the internship, so present tense får is used to express that future meaning.

You can form future with vil or skal, but that would sound different:

før hun vil få et rigtigt job – sounds odd and unnecessarily heavy here
før hun skal have et rigtigt job – also very unusual in this context

So før hun får is the natural way to say “before she gets”.

Can we say inden hun får et rigtigt job instead of før hun får et rigtigt job?

Yes, you can say:

… før hun får et rigtigt job.
… inden hun får et rigtigt job.

In many contexts, før and inden both mean before and are interchangeable, especially with clauses introduced by hun + verb.

Very rough nuance (not strict rules):

før has a slightly more neutral, simple “earlier in time” feel
inden can sometimes feel a bit more like before the point when… / within the time before…, but in this sentence the difference is tiny or nonexistent in normal speech.

Both are correct and natural here.

Could we put the før-clause first, like in English: “Before she gets a real job, the internship gives her experience …”?

Yes. You can change the order:

Praktikken giver hende erfaring på en rigtig arbejdsplads, før hun får et rigtigt job.
Før hun får et rigtigt job, giver praktikken hende erfaring på en rigtig arbejdsplads.

When you move a subordinate clause like Før hun får et rigtigt job to the front, Danish word order still follows the V2 rule in the main clause that follows:

Før hun får et rigtigt job, giver praktikken hende erfaring …
- The finite verb giver must come in second position in the main clause, after the whole fronted phrase (Før hun får et rigtigt job).

So you can front the time clause, but you must keep giver as the second element of the main clause that follows.

Does rigtig / rigtigt here mean “real” or “correct”?

Here, rigtig / rigtigt means “real / genuine / proper”, not “correct / right (answer)”.

en rigtig arbejdsplads = a real workplace (as opposed to, say, a school setting or a simulation)
et rigtigt job = a real job (proper, formal employment)

Rigtig can mean:

correct:
- Det er rigtigt. = That’s right / correct.
real / genuine / proper (as here):
- en rigtig ven = a real friend
- et rigtigt job = a real job

In this sentence it clearly has the second meaning.