Hvis De vil have en mindre portion bagefter, kan tjeneren servere den på den store bakke.

De is the formal/polite way to say you in Danish. It is used when speaking respectfully to a customer, guest, or someone you do not know well.

• De = formal you
• du = informal you

So this sentence sounds polite, which fits a situation involving a waiter and a customer.

In traditional and formal Danish, De, Dem, and Deres are often capitalized when they mean the polite form of you.

So:

• De = formal you
• de = they

The capital letter helps show that this is the polite pronoun, not the third-person plural pronoun.

Hvis means if. It introduces a conditional clause:

• Hvis De vil have en mindre portion bagefter = If you would like a smaller portion afterwards

This first part sets up the condition for what follows in the main clause.

This is because Danish is a V2 language in main clauses. That means the finite verb usually comes in the second position.

The sentence begins with the if-clause:

• Hvis De vil have en mindre portion bagefter

After that whole clause, the main clause starts, and the verb comes first:

• kan tjeneren servere den på den store bakke

So the structure is:

• fronted element: Hvis ... bagefter
• finite verb: kan
• subject: tjeneren

This is very common in Danish when something comes before the main clause.

Portion is a common-gender noun in Danish, so its indefinite singular form takes en:

• en portion = a portion

The adjective mindre means smaller / less large here. So:

• en mindre portion = a smaller portion

There is no extra ending on portion here because it is just the normal indefinite singular noun.

Mindre is the comparative form of lille or små/lille in the sense of smaller or less.

So:

• lille = small
• mindre = smaller

In this sentence, en mindre portion means a smaller portion, not just a small portion.

Tjeneren means the waiter.

• en tjener = a waiter
• tjeneren = the waiter

The ending -en makes the noun definite. Danish usually adds the definite article as a suffix rather than using a separate word like English the.

Den refers back to en mindre portion.

Since portion is a common-gender noun, the pronoun used for it is den.

So:

• en portion → den
• et glas → det

Here, servere den means serve it.

This is the normal pattern for a definite noun phrase with an adjective in Danish.

Compare:

• en stor bakke = a big tray
• den store bakke = the big tray

In definite phrases, Danish typically uses:

1. a separate definite word like den
2. an -e ending on the adjective
3. the noun in its base form after the adjective

So den store bakke is exactly what you would expect for the big tray.

Yes. På usually means on, and here it is quite literal:

• på den store bakke = on the big tray

A bakke is a tray, so the waiter is serving the portion on that tray.

Bagefter means afterwards or later.

In this sentence it modifies the first clause:

• Hvis De vil have en mindre portion bagefter = If you would like a smaller portion afterwards

It often appears toward the end of a clause, as it does here. Danish adverbs can move around somewhat, but this placement is very natural.

Not always. In Danish, vil have can mean:

• want
• would like
• sometimes something close to wish to have

So in this sentence, De vil have is best understood as something polite like:

• you would like
• you want

It does not necessarily sound as strongly future-oriented as English will have.

Kan is the present tense of kunne, meaning can / be able to.

So:

• kan tjeneren servere den = the waiter can serve it

Here it expresses possibility or ability: if the customer wants a smaller portion afterwards, the waiter is able to serve it on the large tray.

It sounds polite and somewhat formal, mainly because of De.

The rest of the sentence is normal Danish, but many modern speakers would more often use du in everyday conversation, especially in casual settings.

A more informal version might use:

• Hvis du vil have en mindre portion bagefter, kan tjeneren servere den på den store bakke.

So the sentence is correct and natural, but the pronoun makes it more formal than everyday speech.