Breakdown of Hvis min bror mister sin billet, må han købe en ny.
Questions & Answers about Hvis min bror mister sin billet, må han købe en ny.
Hvis means if and introduces a condition that may or may not happen: Hvis min bror mister sin billet... = If my brother loses his ticket...
Når is closer to when in the sense of whenever / when it happens (expected or habitual). So Når min bror mister sin billet... would suggest it’s something that (regularly) happens or is expected to happen.
Danish is a V2 language in main clauses: the finite verb is typically in position 2. When you front a subordinate clause like Hvis min bror mister sin billet, it takes position 1 in the main clause, so the main verb comes right after it:
Hvis ... , må han ...
So after the comma, må appears immediately.
In Danish it’s standard to put a comma between a subordinate clause and the following main clause, especially when the subordinate clause comes first:
Hvis ... , må ...
Some writing styles use slightly different comma rules, but this comma is very common and considered correct.
Here må expresses necessity / having to (often due to circumstances): he must/has to buy a new one.
- kan = can / be able to (ability/possibility): han kan købe en ny = he can buy a new one.
- skal = shall / must often with a stronger sense of plan, instruction, or obligation: han skal købe en ny = he is supposed to buy a new one / he has to (as a rule).
Because the ticket belongs to the subject of the clause (min bror). Danish uses the reflexive possessive sin/sit/sine when the owner is the grammatical subject of that clause.
- min bror mister sin billet = my brother loses his own ticket.
If you used hans billet, it would usually mean someone else’s (some other male’s) ticket, not necessarily the brother’s.
They agree with the noun being owned:
- sin
- common gender singular: sin billet (a ticket)
- sit
- neuter singular: sit pas (a passport)
- sine
- plural: sine billetter (tickets)
In Danish, when you use a possessive (min, din, hans, etc.), the noun usually takes indefinite form (no definite ending):
- min bror = my brother
- broren = the brother
You generally don’t combine min with -en/-et in standard usage.
Because billet is a common-gender noun (en billet), so the adjective takes the common-gender form ny and you keep the indefinite article: købe en ny (billet).
If the noun were neuter, you’d get et nyt ... (e.g., et nyt pas).
Danish often omits a noun when it’s clear from context. en ny here is shorthand for en ny billet. It’s very natural in everyday Danish. You can repeat billet, but it may sound a bit more explicit or formal.
Yes, it’s a subordinate clause introduced by hvis. Inside subordinate clauses, Danish typically does not use V2 in the same way as main clauses. Here the word order is straightforward: subject min bror + verb mister + object sin billet.
Yes. If you start with the main clause, the word order becomes normal main-clause order (verb second without fronting a clause):
Han må købe en ny, hvis min bror mister sin billet.
Meaning stays the same; it just changes what you foreground.
Yes. Danish commonly uses the present tense in if/when clauses to refer to a future possibility:
Hvis han mister ... can mean If he loses ... (in the future). English does this too: If he loses his ticket, he has to... (not If he will lose).
Han is the subject form (he), and after må he is the subject of the main clause: må han købe...
Ham is the object form (him) and would be used as an object, e.g., Jeg ser ham = I see him.