Må jeg låne din blyant?

May I borrow your pencil?

Breakdown of Må jeg låne din blyant?

• jeg: I
• blyanten: the pencil
• din: your
• måtte: may
• låne: to lend

Questions & Answers about Må jeg låne din blyant?

Why does the sentence start with Må and not Jeg?

Because må is a modal verb (may / be allowed to / can in the sense of permission). In Danish main clauses, when you form a question, the finite verb usually comes first (V2 rule), so you get:

• Statement: Jeg må låne din blyant.
• Question: Må jeg låne din blyant?

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What exactly does må mean here, and how is it different from kan?

Må is about permission or acceptability: May I…?/Am I allowed to…?
Kan is about ability or possibility: Can I…?/Am I able to…?

In everyday Danish, people often use kan for polite requests too, but the nuance is:

• Må jeg låne din blyant? = asking permission (very natural here)
• Kan jeg låne din blyant? = asking if it’s possible / okay (also very common)

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Why is låne in the infinitive form (not låner or lånte)?

After a modal verb like må, Danish uses the bare infinitive (without at):

• Jeg må låne… (I may borrow…) Not:
• Jeg må låner… (incorrect)

So må + infinitive is the pattern.

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Do I need at before låne?

No. After modal verbs (må, kan, vil, skal, bør), you typically don’t use at:

• Må jeg låne… (correct)
• Må jeg at låne… (incorrect)

You would use at in other infinitive constructions, e.g. Jeg prøver at låne en blyant.

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Why is it din and not dit or dine?

It depends on the gender/number of the noun:

• din = common gender singular (en-words)
• dit = neuter singular (et-words)
• dine = plural

Blyant is common gender: en blyant, so it takes din: din blyant.

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Why isn’t there an article like en before blyant?

Because you already specify whose pencil it is with din. In Danish, a possessive usually replaces the indefinite article:

• en blyant = a pencil
• din blyant = your pencil (not en din blyant)

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Is din always “your”, or can it mean something else?

In this sentence, din is singular “your” (talking to one person). Danish distinguishes:

• din/dit/dine = your (one person, informal)
• jeres = your (plural “you”)
• Deres = your (formal/polite “you” in writing or very formal speech)

So din here assumes you’re speaking to one person informally.

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How do I pronounce Må jeg låne din blyant? (especially må and jeg)?

A rough guide:

• må: like English moh with a long vowel (Danish å is a long open “aw/oh”-type sound depending on accent).
• jeg: often sounds like yai or a softened yei in many accents (the g is not a hard “g”).
• låne: LOH-neh (first syllable stressed)
• blyant: roughly BLÜ-an(t) (the y is a front rounded vowel, not English “y”)

Exact pronunciation varies by region, but the key surprises for English speakers are å, the soft jeg, and Danish y.

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Is this sentence polite, and how would I make it more/less formal?

Yes, it’s polite and normal. Variants:

• Neutral/polite: Må jeg låne din blyant?
• Very common everyday request: Kan jeg låne din blyant?
• More polite/softened: Må jeg lige låne din blyant? (adds lige = “just/for a moment”)
• More direct: Jeg vil gerne låne din blyant. (“I’d like to borrow your pencil.”)

Very formal address would typically involve Deres (rare in speech): Må jeg låne Deres blyant?

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Does låne mean “borrow” or “lend”? I’ve heard confusion about this in Scandinavian languages.

In Danish:

• låne = to borrow (take and use temporarily)
• låne … ud = to lend out

So Må jeg låne din blyant? clearly means May I borrow your pencil?
If you mean “Can you lend me your pencil?”, you’d typically say:

• Kan du låne mig din blyant? (common) or more explicitly:
• Kan du låne din blyant ud til mig?

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Where does the object go, and could I move words around?

The basic structure here is fixed: Må (verb) + jeg (subject) + låne (infinitive) + din blyant (object)

You can add adverbs, but they usually go after the subject:

• Må jeg lige låne din blyant?
• Må jeg hurtigt låne din blyant?

Keeping the verb-first question order is the main thing.