De her pensler er små, og de der ruller er bedre til den store væg.

These brushes are small, and those rollers are better for the big wall.

Breakdown of De her pensler er små, og de der ruller er bedre til den store væg.

• og: and
• stor: big
• være: to be
• lille: small

Questions & Answers about De her pensler er små, og de der ruller er bedre til den store væg.

What do de her and de der mean, and why are they two words?

They are demonstrative phrases:

• de her = these
• de der = those

Literally, they are built from:

• de = the plural determiner
• her = here
• der = there

So Danish often expresses these/those as something like the ones here / the ones there.

In this sentence:

• de her pensler = these brushes
• de der ruller = those rollers

This is very common in everyday Danish.

Why does Danish use de her and de der instead of a single word like English these and those?

Because modern spoken Danish often prefers these two-word expressions.

There are also more formal or written-style single-word demonstratives:

• disse = these
• de = those / those ones in some formal contexts

But in normal conversation, learners will hear de her and de der much more often.

So:

• de her pensler sounds natural and everyday
• disse pensler sounds more formal or written