Lad være med at afbryde hende, mens hun forklarer planen.

It is a very common Danish way to say don’t do something.

So Lad være med at afbryde hende means Don’t interrupt her.

Literally, the words do not map neatly onto natural English. Lad comes from lade (let), and være means be, but in this expression the whole phrase works as a fixed idiom:

lad være med at + infinitive = don’t + verb

So it is best learned as one chunk, not word by word.

Danish can use a negative imperative, but lad være med at + infinitive is often the most natural everyday way to tell someone not to do something.

So:

• Lad være med at afbryde hende = very natural
• Afbryd hende ikke = possible, but often feels more marked, direct, or contrastive

A learner should treat lad være med at as the safe, standard pattern for don’t ...

Because afbryde is in the infinitive, and Danish normally uses at as the infinitive marker, like English to.

Here the pattern is:

lad være med at + infinitive

So:

• at afbryde = to interrupt

You need the whole structure together:

• lad
• være
• med
• at
• afbryde

Because hende is the object form of the pronoun, while hun is the subject form.

Compare:

• hun forklarer planen = she explains/is explaining the plan
• afbryde hende = interrupt her

So in this sentence:

• hende is the person being interrupted, so it is the object
• hun is the subject of forklarer, so it is the subject form

This is similar to English she vs her.

Mens means while.

It introduces the time clause:

• mens hun forklarer planen = while she is explaining the plan

It tells you that the interrupting would happen at the same time as her explanation.

In Danish, the definite article is often attached to the end of the noun.

So:

• plan = plan
• planen = the plan

That -en is the definite ending.

This is one of the big differences from English. Instead of a separate word like the, Danish often puts definiteness onto the noun itself.

Forklarer is present tense.

Danish often uses the simple present where English might use either:

• explains
• is explaining

So hun forklarer planen can mean:

• she explains the plan
• she is explaining the plan

In this sentence, because of mens and the context, the natural English meaning is while she is explaining the plan.

Yes. Afbryde is built from:

• af- = a prefix
• bryde = break

But as a whole, afbryde means interrupt, not literally break off in every context.

It is a normal Danish verb, and in this sentence it appears in the infinitive:

• at afbryde

A present-tense form would be:

• hun afbryder = she interrupts / is interrupting

Yes, mens introduces a subordinate clause, and Danish subordinate clauses follow subordinate-clause word order.

In this specific sentence, the order looks normal:

• mens hun forklarer planen

But the difference becomes clearer when you add something like ikke:

• main clause: Hun forklarer ikke planen
• subordinate clause: mens hun ikke forklarer planen

So after mens, the subject normally comes before sentence adverbs like ikke.

Usually not in this sentence, if you want the meaning while.

• mens = while, at the same time
• når = when / whenever

So:

• mens hun forklarer planen = while she is explaining the plan
• når hun forklarer planen = when / whenever she explains the plan

That changes the meaning. Here mens is the right choice because the focus is on not interrupting during the explanation.

It is fairly direct, but completely normal and not rude by itself.

Lad være med at afbryde hende sounds like a straightforward instruction: Don’t interrupt her.

If you wanted to make it softer, you could say something like:

• Kan du lade være med at afbryde hende, mens hun forklarer planen?
  = Could you not interrupt her while she explains the plan?

If you wanted to sound stronger, you might say:

• Stop med at afbryde hende.
  = Stop interrupting her.

So the original sentence is direct, natural, and neutral in many situations.