Skyggen falder over bordet.

Because -en is the definite article attached to the noun.

• skygge = shadow
• skyggen = the shadow

In Danish, you often do not use a separate word for the. Instead, you add an ending to the noun.

Here, skygge is a common-gender noun, so the definite ending is -en:

• en skygge = a shadow
• skyggen = the shadow

Because bord is a neuter noun, not a common-gender noun.

In Danish:

• common gender nouns usually take -en in the definite form
• neuter nouns usually take -et in the definite form

So:

• et bord = a table
• bordet = the table

That is why the sentence has over bordet.

You normally learn the gender together with the noun:

• en skygge
• et bord

That is the safest habit in Danish. Do not memorize just the noun by itself if you can avoid it.

The indefinite article tells you the gender:

• en = common gender
• et = neuter

That gender then affects the definite form:

• en skygge → skyggen
• et bord → bordet

falder is the present tense of falde.

So:

• at falde = to fall
• falder = falls / is falling

In Danish, the present tense can often cover both a simple present and a present-progressive idea, depending on context.

Examples:

• Skyggen falder over bordet. = The shadow falls over the table or The shadow is falling over the table
• Jeg falder. = I fall / I am falling

Because Danish does not usually form the present progressive the way English does.

English often says:

• The shadow is falling

Danish usually just uses the ordinary present tense:

• Skyggen falder

So Danish falder can mean:

• falls
• is falling

The exact nuance comes from context, not from a special verb form.

over is a preposition, and here it means over / across / onto depending on context.

In this sentence, it describes where the shadow falls:

• falder over bordet = falls over the table

With shadows, Danish often uses over in the sense of spreading across something.

So this is not a special fixed expression you must memorize as a single unit; it is mainly:

• falder = falls
• over bordet = over the table

Not in this sentence.

In English, fall over often means topple:

• The chair fell over.

But in Skyggen falder over bordet, over is not making a phrasal verb with that meaning. It is simply showing where the shadow falls or stretches:

• over bordet = over the table

So do not interpret it as the shadow topples. It is about the shadow moving or lying across the table.

This is the normal Danish main-clause order:

subject + verb + other elements

So:

• Skyggen = subject
• falder = verb
• over bordet = prepositional phrase

This is very similar to normal English word order:

• The shadow falls over the table

Then Danish usually requires inversion, meaning the verb comes before the subject.

For example:

• Over bordet falder skyggen.

That literally looks like:

• Over the table falls the shadow.

This is less neutral and more stylistic, but it shows an important Danish rule:

If something other than the subject comes first in a main clause, the finite verb still stays in the second position.

So:

• Skyggen falder over bordet.
• Over bordet falder skyggen.

Both are grammatical, but the first is the neutral everyday version.

Sometimes, but it is not exactly the same.

• over bordet suggests the shadow falls across or over the table
• på bordet suggests the shadow falls on the table

Both can be possible depending on the situation, but over bordet often gives a sense of the shadow spreading across the table’s surface or area.

So the choice of preposition affects the image slightly.

A rough guide is:

SKYG-gen FAL-der O-ver BOR-det

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• y in skyggen is not like English y. It is a front rounded vowel, which many English speakers find difficult.
• g in skyggen is not always pronounced as a strong English g sound in connected speech.
• d in falder is usually softer than an English d
• r in Danish is also quite different from most English r sounds

If you are learning pronunciation, it is best to hear this from native audio rather than rely only on spelling.

It is most naturally understood literally: a shadow is falling over a table.

However, Danish—like English—can sometimes use shadow imagery more figuratively in the right context. Still, this exact sentence strongly suggests a physical scene unless the wider context makes it metaphorical.

So for a learner, the safest reading is the literal one.