Lidt citron gør salaten friskere, og min kone siger, at den også smager godt i vand.

Lidt means a little / a bit of, so lidt citron means a little lemon in the sense of a little lemon juice/lemon flavor/lemon added to something.

A learner might expect en citron, but that would mean a lemon as a whole countable object. Here Danish is treating citron more like a substance or ingredient.

So:

• en citron = a lemon
• lidt citron = a little lemon / a bit of lemon

This is very natural when talking about food and drink.

Because citron is being used in a more general, uncountable ingredient-like way.

In English, we do something similar:

• a lemon
• some lemon
• a little lemon

In Danish, lidt citron works the same way. It does not need en because it is not talking about one whole lemon as an individual object.

Here gør means makes.

The verb is gøre = to do / to make, and in this sentence it is used in the pattern:

• X gør Y + adjective
• X makes Y + adjective

So:

• Lidt citron gør salaten friskere
• A little lemon makes the salad fresher

This is a very useful pattern in Danish.

Examples:

• Solen gør mig glad. = The sun makes me happy.
• Sukker gør kaffen sødere. = Sugar makes the coffee sweeter.

Salaten means the salad.

Danish often uses the definite form when talking about a specific thing already understood from the context. The definite form is usually made by adding an ending:

• en salat = a salad
• salaten = the salad

So gør salaten friskere means makes the salad fresher, not just makes salad fresher in a general sense.

Friskere is the comparative form of frisk.

• frisk = fresh
• friskere = fresher

So the sentence says the lemon makes the salad fresher, not simply fresh.

This is parallel to English comparatives:

• fresh → fresher
• sweet → sweeter

In Danish:

• frisk → friskere
• sød → sødere

In Danish, many short adjectives form the comparative with -ere, just like English often uses -er.

So:

• frisk → friskere
• god → bedre
• varm → varmere

Using mere frisk would usually sound less natural here. Friskere is the standard and natural form.

It means my wife says.

Breakdown:

• min = my
• kone = wife
• siger = says

So:

• min kone siger = my wife says

This is a straightforward main clause with normal Danish word order: subject + verb.

At here means that.

It introduces a subordinate clause:

• min kone siger, at ...
• my wife says that ...

In English, that is often optional:

• My wife says that it also tastes good in water.
• My wife says it also tastes good in water.

In Danish, at is very commonly used in this kind of sentence.

This is a very important Danish grammar point.

In a subordinate clause introduced by at, adverbs like også often come before the finite verb.

So Danish has:

• at den også smager godt

not usually:

• at den smager også godt

Breakdown:

• den = it
• også = also
• smager = tastes

This is different from main clause word order, where Danish follows the V2 rule much more strongly.

Compare:

• Den smager også godt. = It also tastes good.
  (main clause)
• ... at den også smager godt. = ... that it also tastes good.
  (subordinate clause)

Den means it, and here it most naturally refers to citron — in other words, the lemon/lemon juice/lemon flavor.

So the idea is:

• a little lemon makes the salad fresher
• and my wife says it also tastes good in water

Grammatically, den is used for nouns of common gender (words that take en). Citron is common gender:

• en citron
• therefore den

A learner may notice that salaten is also common gender, so den could look ambiguous in isolation. But the meaning of the sentence makes it clear that den refers to the lemon.

Because Danish uses the verb smage = to taste when talking about flavor.

• smager godt = tastes good

If you said er god, that would mean is good, which is more general and does not specifically describe taste.

Compare:

• Den smager godt. = It tastes good.
• Den er god. = It is good.

Both can be possible in some situations, but smager godt is the natural choice when discussing food or drink flavor.

Here godt means well / good in the expression smage godt = to taste good.

This is a fixed and very common expression. Even though god is the adjective good, Danish often uses the -t form in expressions like this after certain verbs.

Common examples:

• Det smager godt. = It tastes good.
• Det lyder godt. = It sounds good.
• Det ser godt ud. = It looks good.

So smager godt is the normal phrase to learn as a chunk.

Literally it means in water.

In natural English, you might say:

• in water
• with water
• in drinking water
• added to water

The Danish phrase smager godt i vand means that lemon tastes good when put into water.

So this is a normal way to express the idea of lemon in a glass of water or mixed with water.

Because Danish punctuation traditionally uses commas to mark subordinate clauses quite clearly.

So in:

• min kone siger, at den også smager godt i vand

the comma comes before the subordinate clause introduced by at.

You will often see this in Danish writing. Comma use in Danish can feel stronger or more regular than in English.

Yes. Og simply means and.

It connects the two parts of the sentence:

• Lidt citron gør salaten friskere
• og min kone siger, at den også smager godt i vand

So the structure is:

• statement 1
• and
• statement 2

Very straightforward.

Yes, that would also be possible in many contexts.

• citron = lemon
• citronsaft = lemon juice

In everyday language, lidt citron can naturally suggest a bit of lemon juice or some lemon added. Danish often uses the simpler word even when the exact physical form is not spelled out.

So the sentence is natural as it stands, even if the practical meaning is something like a little lemon juice.

The sentence has two main parts joined by og:

1. Lidt citron gør salaten friskere

   • subject-like quantity phrase: lidt citron
   • verb: gør
   • object: salaten
   • complement: friskere

2. min kone siger, at den også smager godt i vand

   • main clause: min kone siger
   • subordinate clause: at den også smager godt i vand

So it is a good example of:

• a simple statement
• plus a second statement
• containing a subordinate clause with at

That makes it useful for learning both vocabulary and word order.