Breakdown of Jeg holder op med at stege, når panden begynder at ryge.
Questions & Answers about Jeg holder op med at stege, når panden begynder at ryge.
In Danish, the verb phrase is at holde op med at + infinitive when you mean to stop doing something.
- holde op = stop (in general)
- holde op med = stop with something / stop doing something
- Then you add at + infinitive for the action: at stege (to fry).
So Jeg holder op med at stege is the standard, natural structure.
Both can translate as stop, but they differ slightly in style and common usage:
- holde op (med at …) is very common and idiomatic for stop doing an activity/habit/action.
- stoppe is also common, often a bit more direct/neutral and is used a lot for physical stopping too.
In this sentence, Jeg holder op med at stege sounds very natural; Jeg stopper med at stege is possible but slightly less idiomatic.
It’s just how the Danish construction works: holde op med literally resembles “stop with …”, but you should learn it as a fixed pattern meaning stop doing. You don’t translate med word-for-word here.
Danish uses at before infinitives (like “to” in English), but in many common verb patterns you’ll see it more than once:
- med at stege: the activity you stop (to fry)
- begynder at ryge: the activity that begins (to smoke)
Each infinitive clause has its own at.
Stege is broader than English “fry.” It commonly means to cook something in a pan (pan-fry / sauté / sear), and it can also be used for roasting (depending on context), but in everyday kitchen talk:
- at stege (på en pande) = cook/fry in a pan
- at stege i ovnen = roast/bake (less common but possible)
Here, because panden (the pan) is mentioned, stege clearly means fry/pan-cook.
når is used for:
- repeated situations (“whenever”), and
- general conditions in the present/future (“when” meaning as soon as / at the time that)
da is typically used for:
- past, one-time events (“when” in the past narrative sense)
Since the sentence is a general rule/condition (“I stop frying when the pan starts smoking”), når is correct.
Yes, typically. Danish comma rules vary (start-comma vs. no-start-comma systems), but in both systems you generally put a comma between the main clause and a subordinate clause introduced by words like når.
So: Jeg holder op med at stege, når panden begynder at ryge.
In subordinate clauses (introduced by når, at, fordi, etc.), Danish usually has subject before the finite verb:
- når panden begynder ... (subject panden
- verb begynder)
In main clauses, Danish often uses V2 word order (the finite verb in second position), which can lead to inversion in questions or when something else is in first position. But this is a subordinate clause, so no inversion like in English questions.
It means starts to give off smoke (from overheating oil/fat or burned food). Danish uses ryge for “to smoke” in both senses:
- a person smokes: Han ryger.
- something emits smoke: Det ryger. / Panden begynder at ryge.
Context makes it clear it’s smoke from heat.
Danish often uses the definite form when talking about a specific item in the situation—especially something obvious from context (the pan you’re currently using).
- panden = “the pan” (the one on the stove right now)
Using en pande would sound like you’re introducing a pan as a new, non-specific object, which is less natural here.
Yes. If you start with the subordinate clause, the main clause follows Danish V2 rules, so you get inversion (verb before subject):
- Når panden begynder at ryge, holder jeg op med at stege.
Notice holder comes before jeg in the main clause because something else (Når...) is in first position.
Yes, that’s possible:
- ... når panden ryger = “when the pan smokes”
- ... når panden begynder at ryge = “when the pan starts to smoke” (more explicit about the moment it begins)
Using begynder at emphasizes the threshold point when smoking begins.
Yes, holder is present tense of at holde.
Past tense versions:
- Past: Jeg holdt op med at stege, da panden begyndte at ryge.
(Typically da fits well here because it’s a specific past event.)
You could also keep når if you mean a repeated habit in the past context, but for a single past incident, da is usually best.
It can be either, depending on context:
- Habit/general rule: “I stop frying when the pan starts smoking.”
- A specific future situation can also use når: “I’ll stop frying when the pan starts smoking.”
Danish present tense often covers both present habitual and near-future meaning, with context doing the work. If you want to be very explicit about the future, you might add something like så or a time reference, but it isn’t required.