Learn Hardcore Danish: Vores hold vinder ofte konkurrencer, når vi arbejder godt sammen. - Our team often wins competitions when we work well together.

at vinde (to win) → vinder in the present tense
- jeg vinder – I win
- du vinder – you win
- han/hun vinder – he/she wins
- vi vinder – we win
- vores hold vinder – our team wins

So “vinder” is the present tense form for all subjects. You never add -er or anything else depending on who is doing the action; “vinder” is already the correct present form.

Why is “hold” singular here, even though in English we sometimes think of a team as many people?

In Danish, “et hold” is grammatically a singular neuter noun meaning “a team / a side / a squad.”

et hold – a team
holdet – the team
vores hold – our team

Even if a team contains many people, in Danish it is treated as one unit, grammatically singular. The verb still doesn’t change anyway (see previous answer), so “vores hold vinder” is the normal way to say “our team wins.”

What exactly is the difference between “vores hold” and “vi” in this sentence: “Vores hold vinder …, når vi arbejder godt sammen”?

“vores hold” = our team (a noun phrase)
“vi” = we (a subject pronoun)

So the structure is:

Vores hold vinder ofte konkurrencer
→ Our team often wins competitions
når vi arbejder godt sammen
→ when we work well together

“Vores hold” is talking about the team as an entity.
“Vi” refers to the people on that team (including the speaker).

You could roughly paraphrase it as: “Our team wins often when we (the members) work well together.”

Why is the word order “Vores hold vinder ofte konkurrencer” and not “Vores hold ofte vinder konkurrencer”?

In a main clause in Danish, the typical order is:

Subject
Finitive verb (conjugated verb)
Mid-position adverb (like ofte)
Object / other information

So you get:

Vores hold (subject)
vinder (verb)
ofte (adverb)
konkurrencer (object)

→ “Vores hold vinder ofte konkurrencer”

Putting “ofte” before “vinder” would sound wrong in a normal statement:

✖ Vores hold ofte vinder konkurrencer

However, you can move other elements to the front in special constructions (questions, emphasis, etc.), but the finite verb must stay in second position in main clauses.

Why is the word order “når vi arbejder godt sammen” and not “når arbejder vi godt sammen”?

“Når vi arbejder godt sammen” is a subordinate clause (a dependent clause) introduced by “når” (when).

In Danish:

In a main clause, the verb is usually second:
- Vi arbejder godt sammen.
In a subordinate clause after a conjunction like når, fordi, at, hvis, the order is:
1. Conjunction
2. Subject
3. Verb
4. Other elements

So:

når (conjunction)
vi (subject)
arbejder (verb)
godt sammen (adverb + particle)

→ “når vi arbejder godt sammen”

If you said “når arbejder vi godt sammen”, it would sound like the beginning of a question: “When do we work well together?” rather than part of a conditional statement.

Why is there a comma before “når”: “… konkurrencer, når vi arbejder godt sammen”? Is it required?

Yes, in standard written Danish you normally place a comma between a main clause and a following subordinate clause.

Main clause: Vores hold vinder ofte konkurrencer
Subordinate clause: når vi arbejder godt sammen

You separate them with a comma:

Vores hold vinder ofte konkurrencer, når vi arbejder godt sammen.

This is required under both of the commonly taught comma systems in Danish (the older “startkomma” and the newer “nyt komma”).

If you reverse the order, you still separate the clauses with a comma:

Når vi arbejder godt sammen, vinder vores hold ofte konkurrencer.

Why is the present tense used: “vinder” and “arbejder”? Could it mean something like “wins / is winning” and “work / are working”?

Yes. Danish only has one simple present tense form, and it covers both of these English uses:

vinder = wins or is winning depending on context
arbejder = works or is working

In this sentence, the present tense expresses a general, repeated situation:

Vores hold vinder ofte konkurrencer, når vi arbejder godt sammen.
→ Our team often wins competitions when we work well together.

You would not use a separate continuous form (like er ved at vinde) here; that’s only for more specific, ongoing actions.

What is the difference between “arbejder sammen” and “samarbejder”? Could I say “når vi samarbejder godt”?

Both are possible, but there is a nuance:

arbejde sammen
- Literally: work together
- Focuses a bit more on working on something together as a group.
samarbejde (verb: samarbejder)
- Literally: cooperate
- Emphasises cooperation / collaboration, sometimes a bit more formal or abstract.

Your sentence:

når vi arbejder godt sammen
→ sounds very natural and everyday: when we work well together (as a team).

You can say:

Vores hold vinder ofte konkurrencer, når vi samarbejder godt.

This is also correct and idiomatic, with a slightly stronger emphasis on the quality of cooperation rather than just physically working together.

Why is it “konkurrencer” and not “konkurrence” or “konkurrencerne”?

Danish marks both number (singular/plural) and definiteness (the/them) on nouns.

Singular: en konkurrence – a competition
Definite singular: konkurrencen – the competition
Plural: konkurrencer – competitions
Definite plural: konkurrencerne – the competitions

In this sentence we are talking about competitions in general, not specific ones:

Vores hold vinder ofte konkurrencer …
→ Our team often wins competitions …

So we use indefinite plural: konkurrencer.
If you said “konkurrencerne”, it would mean those particular competitions, which is more specific and not implied here.

How do you pronounce some of these tricky words, like “vores”, “hold”, “ofte”, and “arbejder”?

Approximate pronunciations (in simple English-like terms, not strict IPA):

vores
- Roughly: “vor-ess” (the r is lightly pronounced; final -es is not like English “ease”, more like a short “ess”).
hold
- Roughly: “hol” with a short, open o, and the d is basically silent. Not like English “hold”; closer to “holl”.
ofte
- Roughly: “of-te” or “off-te”, short o, with a clear f and t.
arbejder
- Roughly: “ar-bai-der”, where “ej” sounds like English “eye”, and the d is soft, almost like an English soft “th” or barely there.
sammen
- Roughly: “sam-men”, both m’s pronounced, short a.

Pronunciation will vary slightly by region, but these are close enough to be understood by Danish speakers.