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Jeg tilføjer ingrediensen til suppen, så den smager bedre.

Jeg tilføjer ingrediensen til suppen, så den smager bedre.
I add the ingredient to the soup so it tastes better.

Breakdown of Jeg tilføjer ingrediensen til suppen, så den smager bedre.

jeg
I
smage
to taste
til
to
den
it
så
so
bedre
better
tilføje
to add
ingrediensen
the ingredient
suppen
the soup
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Questions & Answers about Jeg tilføjer ingrediensen til suppen, så den smager bedre.

Why is there a comma before så?

Because the sentence is made of two clauses:

  • Main clause: Jeg tilføjer ingrediensen til suppen
  • Result clause: så den smager bedre

In Danish, when så means so/so that and introduces a new clause, it’s normally separated by a comma.

What does så mean here, and what kind of word is it?

Here så means so / so that, introducing a result: you add the ingredient so that the soup tastes better. Grammatically, it works like a conjunction linking two clauses.

Why is it den and not det?

Because suppe is common gender (en suppe), and the common-gender pronoun is den.
So den refers back to suppen (the soup).

Rule of thumb:

  • en-words → den
  • et-words → det
Does den refer to ingrediensen or suppen?

It refers to suppen. Even though ingrediensen is also an en-word, the meaning and structure strongly point to the soup being what will smage bedre (taste better).

Why do both nouns have -en at the end: ingrediensen, suppen?

That -en is the Danish way of marking the definite form (like the in English) for many en-words:

  • en suppe → suppen (the soup)
  • en ingrediens → ingrediensen (the ingredient)

Instead of a separate word (the), Danish often adds the ending.

Could I also say Jeg tilføjer en ingrediens til en suppe...?

Yes, but it changes the meaning:

  • Jeg tilføjer ingrediensen til suppen = a specific known ingredient and a specific soup (the ingredient, the soup)
  • Jeg tilføjer en ingrediens til en suppe = any ingredient and any soup (more general, less specific)
What is the infinitive and tense of tilføjer?
  • Infinitive: at tilføje (to add)
  • Present tense: (jeg) tilføjer

Many Danish present-tense verbs add -r:

  • tilføje → tilføjer
  • smage → smager
Why is Danish using the present tense here?

Danish present tense covers several common English uses, including:

  • a general/habitual action: I add the ingredient (when I make it)...
  • something happening right now: I’m adding the ingredient...

If you wanted to make it explicitly “right now,” you could also say something like Jeg er ved at tilføje..., but the plain present is very common.

Why is it tilføjer X til Y—what does til do?

The verb tilføje typically takes this pattern:

  • tilføje [something] til [something] = add [something] to [something]

So:

  • ingrediensen = what you add
  • til suppen = where you add it
Why is the word order så den smager bedre and not something like så smager den bedre?

Because så can do two different jobs:

1) så = so/so that (conjunction introducing a clause)
→ normal clause word order: så den smager bedre

2) så = then (adverb, often causing inversion)
→ you can get inversion like: så smager den bedre = then it tastes better

Your sentence uses meaning #1 (result: “so that…”).

What exactly does smager mean here—“tastes” or “flavours”?

smager is from at smage and means tastes (how something tastes).
So den smager bedre means it tastes better (i.e., the soup has a better taste).

If you meant “it is better” in a broader sense, you’d likely use er bedre instead.

What does bedre mean grammatically—why not something like mere god?

bedre is the comparative form of god (good):

  • god = good
  • bedre = better
  • bedst = best

Danish uses an irregular comparative here, like English good → better.