Vi varmer olie i panden, før vi lægger maden i den.

They are both present tense verb forms.

• varme = to heat

• varmer = heat / are heating

• lægge = to lay / put
• lægger = lay / put / are putting

In Danish, the present tense is often made by adding -r to the infinitive.

Also, Danish often uses the present tense in instructions, recipes, and general descriptions, just like English can:

• Vi varmer olie... = We heat oil...
• not necessarily only right now, but also as a general procedure.

Because olie is being used as a mass noun, like English oil.

So Danish says:

• Vi varmer olie = We heat oil

not:

• Vi varmer en olie

That would sound wrong in the same way that we heat an oil sounds wrong in ordinary English.

If you meant a specific oil already known in the context, you could say:

• olien = the oil

panden is the definite singular form of en pande.

• en pande = a frying pan / pan
• panden = the frying pan / the pan

Danish often makes the definite form by adding the article to the end of the noun:

• en bil → bilen
• en stol → stolen
• en pande → panden

A useful extra note: panden can also mean the forehead in other contexts. Here, because of olie and maden, it clearly means the pan.

Because maden means the food, not just food in a general sense.

• mad = food, food in general
• maden = the food, the meal, the food we are talking about

In this sentence, it refers to specific food that is about to be put into the pan, so the definite form is natural.

Using panden suggests that the pan is treated as a specific, understood pan in the situation.

So:

• i en pande = in a pan / in some pan
• i panden = in the pan

In instructions, Danish often uses the definite form when the object is obvious from context. If you are cooking, there is a particular pan you are using, so panden sounds natural.

Here i means in / into.

The idea is that the oil is heated in the pan, and later the food is placed into it.

With containers and cooking vessels, i is very natural because something is inside them. So:

• olie i panden = oil in the pan
• lægger maden i den = put the food in it

A small nuance: with frying, Danish sometimes also uses på panden in other expressions, because food is physically on the pan’s surface. But in this sentence, i is perfectly natural because it focuses on putting something into the pan as a container.

Because lægge means to lay / put something somewhere, while ligge means to lie / be lying.

This is a very important Danish pair:

• lægge = to place something
• ligge = to be in a lying position / to be located

In the sentence, we are actively putting the food into the pan, so Danish uses lægger:

• Vi lægger maden i den = We put the food in it

If you said maden ligger i den, that would mean:

• the food is lying in it

So lægger is the correct choice because there is an action of placing.

den is a pronoun meaning it, and it refers back to panden.

Since pande is a common-gender noun (en pande), the matching pronoun is den:

• en pande → den
• et hus → det

So:

• i den = in it

It avoids repeating panden:

• før vi lægger maden i den instead of
• før vi lægger maden i panden

Both are possible, but the pronoun sounds more natural and less repetitive.

før means before, and here it introduces a subordinate clause:

• før vi lægger maden i den = before we put the food in it

In Danish subordinate clauses, the word order is usually straightforward:

• conjunction + subject + verb

So:

• før vi lægger...

not:

• før lægger vi...

If you put the før-clause first, the main clause changes word order:

• Før vi lægger maden i den, varmer vi olie i panden.

That inversion in the main clause is normal Danish word order after a fronted clause.

Because før vi lægger maden i den is a subordinate clause, and many Danish writers put a comma before such clauses.

So:

• Vi varmer olie i panden, før vi lægger maden i den.

However, it is also common in modern Danish to leave that comma out:

• Vi varmer olie i panden før vi lægger maden i den.

Both can be seen, depending on the comma style being used. So the comma here is not something you need to worry about too much as a beginner; the important thing is to recognize that før introduces a subordinate clause.

Because the subordinate clause needs its own subject.

The sentence has two clauses:

1. Vi varmer olie i panden
2. før vi lægger maden i den

Each clause has vi as its subject. Danish normally states the subject clearly in both clauses, just as English does:

• We heat oil in the pan before we put the food in it.

So the second vi is completely normal and necessary.