Når vaskemaskinen er færdig, lægger jeg vasketøjet i tørretumbleren.

Here når means when. In Danish, når is used for something habitual, general, or still in the future. Da is usually used for a single completed event in the past.

So:

• Når vaskemaskinen er færdig... = When the washing machine is finished...
• Da vaskemaskinen var færdig... = When the washing machine was finished... in a past story

Danish often uses the present tense for actions that happen regularly or are expected to happen next, especially after time words like når.

So er and lægger are both present tense, but the sentence can still mean something like:

• a routine: Whenever the washing machine is done, I put the laundry in the dryer
• a near-future action: When the washing machine is done, I’ll put the laundry in the dryer

This is very normal in Danish.

This is because Danish main clauses follow the verb-second rule.

The whole clause Når vaskemaskinen er færdig counts as the first element of the sentence. That means the finite verb of the main clause, lægger, must come next, in second position. The subject jeg comes after it.

So:

• Jeg lægger vasketøjet i tørretumbleren.
• Når vaskemaskinen er færdig, lægger jeg vasketøjet i tørretumbleren.

That inversion is completely normal in Danish.

Those endings are the definite article attached to the noun. Danish usually says the by adding it to the end of the noun instead of putting a separate word before it.

In this sentence:

• vaskemaskinen = the washing machine
• tørretumbleren = the dryer / tumble dryer
• vasketøjet = the laundry

The reason for the different endings is grammatical gender:

• common gender nouns usually take -en
• neuter nouns usually take -et

So vaskemaskine and tørretumbler are common gender, while vasketøj is neuter.

Yes. Vasketøj is usually treated as a collective or mass noun, much like English laundry. Even though it refers to many items, grammatically it behaves like a singular noun.

So vasketøjet means the laundry, not the laundries.

Because færdig is a predicate adjective, and it agrees with the subject.

The subject here is vaskemaskinen, which is singular and common gender, so the correct form is færdig.

Compare:

• vaskemaskinen er færdig = common gender singular
• programmet er færdigt = neuter singular
• maskinerne er færdige = plural

Yes. In Danish, it is very natural to say that an appliance er færdig when its cycle or task is finished.

So vaskemaskinen er færdig means the washing machine has finished running. It does not mean the machine has been built or completed in some permanent sense.

English often uses similar shortcuts, such as the washing machine is done or the machine has finished.

Danish often uses i for both in and into. The verb and the context usually make it clear whether the meaning is location or movement.

Here lægger already shows movement, so i tørretumbleren is understood as into the dryer.

If you wanted to make the movement extra explicit, you could say ind i tørretumbleren, but it is not necessary here.

This is a very common Danish learner question.

• lægge = to lay / put something somewhere
• ligge = to lie / be lying somewhere

So lægger is used here because the subject jeg is actively placing the laundry in the dryer.

Compare:

• Jeg lægger vasketøjet i tørretumbleren. = I put the laundry in the dryer.
• Vasketøjet ligger i tørretumbleren. = The laundry is in the dryer.

So lægge is the action of putting it there, and ligge is the state afterward.

Because Når vaskemaskinen er færdig is a subordinate clause, and Danish normally separates a subordinate clause from the main clause with a comma.

So the structure is:

• subordinate clause: Når vaskemaskinen er færdig
• main clause: lægger jeg vasketøjet i tørretumbleren

That is why the comma appears after færdig.