Hvis ovnen var større, ville vi bage til hele familien på én gang.

If the oven were bigger, we would bake for the whole family at once.

Breakdown of Hvis ovnen var større, ville vi bage til hele familien på én gang.

• stor: big
• være: to be
• vi: we
• hvis: if
• til: for
• hele: the whole
• familien: the family
• ville: would
• på én gang: at once
• bage: to bake
• ovnen: the oven

Questions & Answers about Hvis ovnen var større, ville vi bage til hele familien på én gang.

Why does Danish use var (past tense) in Hvis ovnen var større when the situation is about the present/hypothetical?

Danish commonly uses the past tense to mark an unreal or hypothetical condition, much like English If the oven were bigger. So var here doesn’t primarily mean “was (in the past)”; it signals “not true right now / imagined.”

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Could I also say Hvis ovnen er større?

Yes, but it changes the meaning.

• Hvis ovnen er større, ... = a real/possible condition (maybe it is bigger, and then we’ll do X).
• Hvis ovnen var større, ... = an unreal/hypothetical condition (it isn’t bigger; we’re imagining it).

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What is the role of ville in ville vi bage?

Ville expresses “would” in conditional sentences. The structure is:

• Hvis + (condition in past/hypothetical form), ville + (result).
  So ville vi bage = “we would bake.”

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Why is the word order ville vi bage and not vi ville bage?

Because the main clause comes after a fronted clause (Hvis ...), Danish uses V2 word order: the finite verb must be in second position.
So after the comma:

• First position: (implied connector from the conditional setup)
• Second position: ville (finite verb)
• Then: vi (subject)
  Result: ..., ville vi bage ...

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Is the comma required in Hvis ..., ville ...?

In modern Danish, a comma before the main clause is standard and strongly recommended:
Hvis ovnen var større, ville vi bage ...
It helps show the boundary between the subordinate clause and the main clause.

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What does ovnen mean exactly, and why does it have -en at the end?

Ovn = “oven.”
Ovnen = “the oven.”
The ending -en is the definite suffix for many common-gender nouns (en-words). So Danish often attaches the to the end of the noun.

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Why is it større and not stor?

Stor = “big/large.”
Større = “bigger/larger” (comparative).
Since the sentence compares the oven to its current size (“if it were bigger”), Danish uses the comparative form.

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What does bage til hele familien mean—why til?

Here til means “for” in the sense of “intended for / for the benefit of.”
So bage til hele familien = “bake for the whole family.”
It’s a common pattern: lave/mad til nogen, bage til nogen = make/cook/bake for someone.

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Could it be bage for hele familien instead?

You’ll most often hear til in this “intended recipient” meaning. For can occur in some contexts, but til is the default choice for “making something for someone” in everyday Danish.

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Why is it hele familien and not hele familie?

Because familien is definite: “the family.”

• en familie = a family
• familien = the family
  And hele (“whole/entire”) commonly combines with the definite form when you mean a specific complete group: hele familien = “the whole family.”

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What does på én gang mean, and why is én spelled with an accent?

På én gang means “at once / in one go.”
The accent in én often marks “one (single)” to distinguish it from en (the article “a/an” or “one” without emphasis). It’s especially common in set phrases like på én gang.

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How would you pronounce the key parts of this sentence (roughly)?

A rough guide (not perfect IPA, but useful):

• Hvis ≈ “vis” (the h is silent)
• ovnen ≈ “OV-nen” with a soft, reduced second syllable
• større ≈ “STUR-uh” (with Danish rounded vowel; the ending is very reduced)
• ville ≈ “VIL-uh” (often reduced)
• familien ≈ “fa-MEE-lee-en” (but with Danish reductions in natural speech)
• på én gang ≈ “paw EN gang” (with én stressed)