Hun køber ikke bogen, før hun har set titlen og forsiden.

Danish often uses the present tense to talk about the future when the timing is clear from the context.

So Hun køber ikke bogen, før ... literally looks like She does not buy the book, before ..., but it naturally means She won’t buy the book until/before she has seen ...

English often uses will, but Danish very often does not need a separate future form.

In a normal Danish main clause, ikke usually comes after the finite verb and before many other sentence elements, including the direct object.

So:

• Hun køber ikke bogen
• subject: Hun
• finite verb: køber
• negation: ikke
• object: bogen

This is a very common pattern in Danish main clauses.

Compare:

• Hun køber bogen = She buys the book
• Hun køber ikke bogen = She does not buy the book

In Danish, the definite article is usually added as an ending to the noun rather than being a separate word before it.

So:

• bog = book
• bogen = the book

This is one of the most important differences from English.

Likewise:

• titel = title
• titlen = the title
• forside = front cover
• forsiden = the front cover

A separate determiner like den is used in other situations, for example with adjectives:

• bogen = the book
• den røde bog = the red book

Før means before and introduces a subordinate clause.

In this sentence:

• før hun har set titlen og forsiden

it means before she has seen the title and the cover.

So før connects the two parts:

• Hun køber ikke bogen
• før hun har set titlen og forsiden

Together, the idea is that she will not buy it until she has first seen those things.

Because før hun har set titlen og forsiden is a subordinate clause, and Danish normally separates such clauses with a comma.

So the comma marks the boundary between:

• main clause: Hun køber ikke bogen
• subordinate clause: før hun har set titlen og forsiden

This is very typical Danish punctuation.

Because før introduces a subordinate clause, and subordinate clauses in Danish usually keep the order:

• conjunction
• subject
• finite verb
• other elements

So:

• før hun har set ...

not:

• før har hun set ...

The version har hun would be the kind of inversion you see in main clauses, not here.

Har set is the present perfect:

• har = has
• set = seen

It shows that the seeing must be completed before the buying happens.

So the logic is:

1. she sees the title and the cover
2. then she buys the book

That is why Danish uses har set here. It makes the earlier action clearly completed relative to the buying.

Set is the past participle of se (to see).

The forms are:

• se = to see
• ser = sees/is seeing
• så = saw
• set = seen

So:

• hun har set = she has seen

Because the second part is a full clause of its own, and it needs its own subject.

So:

• Hun køber ikke bogen = main clause
• før hun har set titlen og forsiden = subordinate clause

Even though the subject is the same person, Danish still states it again, just as English does in before she has seen...

They are definite because the sentence refers to the title and the front cover of that specific book.

So the idea is not just any title or any cover, but the title and cover belonging to the book being considered.

That is why Danish uses:

• titlen = the title
• forsiden = the front cover

In this sentence, the most natural English meaning is often closer to until:

• She won’t buy the book until she has seen the title and the cover.

But the Danish word is still før, literally before.

This happens because the main clause is negative:

• Hun køber ikke bogen, før ...

A negative clause with før often corresponds to English not ... until.

So grammatically it is før, but idiomatically English often prefers until here.

Yes, you could say Hun vil ikke købe bogen, før hun har set titlen og forsiden, and that would make the future meaning more explicit.

But Hun køber ikke bogen, før ... is already very natural Danish. Danish often does not need a separate future marker when the context already makes the timing clear.

So both are possible, but the original sentence is completely normal.

Grammatically, they are simply two nouns joined by og (and), both functioning as objects of set.

So:

• har set titlen og forsiden = has seen the title and the front cover

You do not need to repeat the verb or any article before the second noun, because each noun already has its own definite ending:

• titlen
• forsiden

That makes the phrase compact and natural.