Breakdown of Jeg bliver glad, når jeg ser min mor i stuen.
Questions & Answers about Jeg bliver glad, når jeg ser min mor i stuen.
Bliver means “become / get”, so Jeg bliver glad focuses on a change of state: “I get happy / I become happy.”
Jeg er glad is more like a state description: “I am happy.” Both can be possible in real life, but the sentence you gave emphasizes that you start feeling happy when the condition happens.
It’s present tense. Danish often uses the present tense for general truths and repeated situations, and it can also cover “future-like” meaning depending on context. Here it’s a general/typical situation: “I get happy when I see my mom…”
Når is used for repeated/typical situations or general conditions (“whenever/when”).
Da is typically used for a single, completed event in the past (“when (that one time)”).
So:
- Jeg bliver glad, når jeg ser min mor… = whenever I see her (in general)
- Jeg blev glad, da jeg så min mor… = I got happy when I saw her (that time)
Because når jeg ser min mor i stuen is a subordinate clause (it has its own subject + verb), and Danish normally uses a comma to separate a main clause from a following subordinate clause:
Jeg bliver glad, når …
(Some styles allow “comma optional” in certain cases, but this one is the standard, safest punctuation.)
In Danish main clauses, the finite verb is usually in 2nd position (V2), which can produce Ser jeg… in questions or after fronting.
But in subordinate clauses (introduced by words like når, at, fordi, som), Danish uses subject before verb:
- når jeg ser (subordinate clause)
not når ser jeg.
- Main clause negation: Jeg bliver ikke glad, når jeg ser min mor i stuen.
Here ikke comes after the finite verb (bliver) in the main clause.
If you want to negate the subordinate clause (“when I don’t see my mom…”), then it goes in the subordinate clause:
- Jeg bliver glad, når jeg ikke ser min mor i stuen. (odd meaning, but grammatically correct)
Yes. Blive can mean both:
- become/get: Jeg bliver glad = I get happy
- stay/remain: Bliv her! = Stay here!
Context makes it clear. With an adjective describing a new feeling/state (glad), it’s typically become/get.
Min mor is just “my mother” as a direct object of ser (“see”).
Min mors is the genitive form (“my mother’s”), used to show possession:
- min mors bil = my mother’s car
In your sentence, you’re seeing the person, not something belonging to her.
For rooms, Danish normally uses i = “in”:
- i stuen = in the living room
På stuen is used in other senses, e.g. “on the ward” (på stuen in some hospital contexts) or set phrases, but for a normal living room location, i stuen is the standard choice.
Yes, stuen is the definite form: “the living room.”
- en stue = a living room
- stuen = the living room
Danish often attaches the definite article as a suffix (-en/-et).
Yes, it can move depending on what you want to emphasize. Common options:
- Jeg bliver glad, når jeg ser min mor i stuen. (neutral)
- Jeg bliver glad, når jeg i stuen ser min mor. (more marked; focuses on “in the living room”)
- Jeg bliver glad, når jeg ser min mor, når hun er i stuen. (possible but repetitive)
The original is the most natural, with the location phrase at the end of the subordinate clause.
It’s ambiguous in theory, but in practice it usually means the sighting happens in the living room, implying both of you are there or at least that she is there. If you wanted to specify clearly:
- “when I see my mom who is in the living room”: når jeg ser min mor, som er i stuen
- “when I’m in the living room and see my mom”: når jeg er i stuen og ser min mor
Normally you write ser with no accent. Danish sometimes uses an accent for emphasis or to avoid ambiguity (e.g., én vs en), but it’s optional and not standard in this sentence.
Yes, and it becomes more explicitly “every time”:
- Jeg bliver glad, hver gang jeg ser min mor i stuen. = I get happy every time I see my mom in the living room.
Når is more neutral and common for “when/whenever.”