Breakdown of Børnene keder sig sjældent, når deres forældre leger med dem i haven.
Questions & Answers about Børnene keder sig sjældent, når deres forældre leger med dem i haven.
Børn means children (indefinite plural).
Børnene means the children (definite plural).
Danish often marks definiteness by adding an ending instead of using a separate article like the:
- et barn = a child
- barnet = the child
- børn = children
- børnene = the children
In this sentence we are talking about specific children (the children already known in the context), so Danish uses børnene.
Approximate pronunciation (in simple English terms):
- Bør-: like burn but with rounded lips and a shorter vowel; a bit like British bird, but more rounded.
- -ne-: like ne in nerd, but very short and weak.
- Final -ne is one syllable: -nə.
Rough IPA: [ˈbɶɐ̯nə]
Syllables: Bør-ne (2 syllables, stress on the first: BØR-ne).
At kede sig is a reflexive verb that means to be bored or to get bored.
- kede by itself can mean to bore (to make someone bored).
- sig is the reflexive pronoun (himself / herself / themselves).
So literally børnene keder sig is like saying “the children bore themselves”, which idiomatically means “the children are bored” or “the children get bored”.
You must include sig in this meaning:
- ✅ Børnene keder sig. = The children are bored.
- ❌ Børnene keder. (ungrammatical in this meaning)
In neutral sentences, Danish frequency adverbs like sjældent (rarely) usually come after the verb (or verb + reflexive), similar to English “are rarely”:
- Børnene keder sig sjældent. = The children are rarely bored.
If you put sjældent in front, you must change the word order because of the V2 rule (the verb must be second):
- Sjældent keder børnene sig. = Rarely are the children bored.
But you cannot just say *Børnene sjældent keder sig; that would break normal word order. So in the original structure, keder sig sjældent is the natural placement.
Sjældent = rarely / seldom.
It implies something does happen, but not often.
Rough scale in English:
- aldrig = never
- sjældent = rarely / seldom
- ikke så tit = not so often
- ofte = often
- altid = always
So Børnene keder sig sjældent suggests that boredom is possible, but happens infrequently.
Når deres forældre leger med dem i haven is a subordinate clause (a “when”-clause) attached to the main clause Børnene keder sig sjældent.
Traditional Danish punctuation almost always places a comma before a subordinate clause starting with words like når, fordi, at, hvis, da. Under modern “new comma” rules, that comma is optional, but still very common and fully correct.
So both are acceptable:
- Børnene keder sig sjældent, når deres forældre leger med dem i haven.
- Børnene keder sig sjældent når deres forældre leger med dem i haven.
Most Danes would still write it with the comma.
Both når and da can mean when, but they’re used differently:
- når:
- for repeated, habitual, or future events
- “whenever / when (usually / every time)”
- da:
- for single events in the past
Here we are talking about a general habit: whenever their parents play with them, the children rarely get bored. That’s repeated/typical, so Danish uses når:
- Børnene keder sig sjældent, når deres forældre leger med dem i haven.
Example contrast:
- Da deres forældre legede med dem i haven i går, kedede de sig ikke.
When their parents played with them in the garden yesterday, they weren’t bored.
(one specific past occasion → da)
Danish has a reflexive possessive (sin / sit / sine) which refers back to the subject of the same clause:
- Børnene leger med sine forældre.
The children play with their (own) parents.
(børnene is the subject; sine refers back to it.)
But in the sentence:
- når deres forældre leger med dem i haven
the subject of the subordinate clause is deres forældre (their parents), not børnene.
The possessive deres here refers to the children (from the main clause), who are not the subject of this clause, so you cannot use sine. You must use deres:
- ✅ når deres forældre leger med dem (their parents play with them)
- ❌ når sine forældre leger med dem (ungrammatical)
So: use sin/sit/sine only when the possessor is the subject of that clause. Otherwise, use hans / hendes / deres.
Both are grammatically possible, but slightly different:
- ... leger med dem = play with them
Uses the pronoun dem, which clearly refers back to børnene (the children mentioned before). - ... leger med børnene = play with the children
Grammatically fine, but could in some contexts sound like it might refer to some children (not clearly the same ones), depending on broader context.
Using dem makes the reference very clear and avoids repeating børnene. Danish often prefers pronouns in this kind of structure for natural flow.
De and dem are subject vs. object forms of they / them:
- de = they (subject)
- dem = them (object, after prepositions, after verbs)
After a preposition like med (with), you need the object form:
- med dem = with them
- ❌ med de (wrong)
Similarly:
- De leger med dem. = They play with them.
(de as subject, dem as object)
Forældre means parents (mother and father, or two parents in general). It is inherently plural in Danish.
- forældre = parents
- There is no common singular forælder in everyday language for “a parent” (though it exists, it’s rare/formal). Usually people say:
- mor = mother
- far = father
So deres forældre = their parents.
Danish has two different verbs that both translate to play in English:
- at lege: to play (in a childlike, free way; with toys, in the garden, pretend play, etc.)
- at spille: to play (a game with rules, a sport, an instrument, a performance)
In this sentence, we mean general, playful activity between parents and children in the garden, so lege is the correct verb:
- forældre leger med børnene = parents play (around) with the children
- forældre spiller fodbold med børnene = parents play football with the children (a specific game/sport → spille)
Have = garden / yard (indefinite)
Haven = the garden / the yard (definite)
Danish marks the definite form by adding an ending:
- en have = a garden
- haven = the garden
The sentence talks about a specific, known garden (their garden), so Danish uses the definite haven, just like English uses the:
- ... i haven = in the garden / in the yard
- ... i en have = in a garden (some garden, not specific)
Have / haven typically refers to the private outdoor area by a house. In English, this can be either:
- garden (more British usage)
- yard (more American usage, especially if it’s just grass / open space)
Context decides the best translation. In this sentence:
- ... leger med dem i haven
could be “…play with them in the garden” or “…play with them in the yard.”
In a subordinate clause introduced by når, Danish word order is:
[conjunction] + [subject] + [verb] + (rest)
So:
- når (conjunction)
- deres forældre (subject)
- leger (verb)
- med dem i haven (rest)
This is different from a main clause that might start with something else, where the conjugated verb must come second (V2 rule). Inside the når-clause, you do not move the verb to second position; it stays after the subject.
Yes, one simple rephrasing that keeps the grammar patterns clear:
- Børnene keder sig næsten aldrig, når deres forældre leger med dem i haven.
(The children are almost never bored when their parents play with them in the garden.)
Here næsten aldrig (almost never) replaces sjældent, but the word order and structure are essentially the same, which can help you see the pattern:
- [Subject] Børnene
- [Verb + reflexive] keder sig
- [Adverb] næsten aldrig
- [Subordinate clause] når deres forældre leger med dem i haven.