Frakkens knap ligger i min lomme.

Frakkens means the coat’s.

It comes from:

• frakke = coat
• frakken = the coat
• frakkens = the coat’s

In Danish, possession is often shown by adding -s, similar to English 's.

So:

• frakkens knap = the coat’s button

Here the -s is attached to the definite form frakken, giving frakkens.

Because in Danish, when a noun is possessed, the possessed noun is usually not made definite.

So Danish says:

• frakkens knap

literally: the coat’s button

Even though English often uses the button, Danish leaves knap in its basic form here. The whole phrase is already definite because frakkens identifies which button we mean.

This is very common:

• mandens bil = the man’s car
• husets dør = the house’s door

Not:

• mandens bilen
• husets døren

Danish often prefers a position verb when talking about where something is located.

Here, ligger means lies / is lying and is used for things that are thought of as resting horizontally or simply being somewhere.

So:

• Frakkens knap ligger i min lomme.

is more natural than just using er.

English usually just says is, but Danish often chooses among verbs like:

• ligge = lie / be lying
• stå = stand / be standing
• sidde = sit / be situated

A button in a pocket is naturally described with ligger.

Yes, that would be understandable and grammatically correct.

But ligger sounds more natural and more idiomatic in this context, because Danish likes to describe the physical position of things.

So:

• er i min lomme = more neutral, just says it is there
• ligger i min lomme = more natural for an object resting in a pocket

Because lomme is a common-gender noun (an en-word).

In Danish, possessives change according to the gender/number of the noun that follows:

• min for common gender singular
• mit for neuter singular
• mine for plural

Examples:

• min lomme = my pocket
• mit hus = my house
• mine lommer = my pockets

Since lomme is common gender, min is correct.

Because Danish normally does not use an article together with a possessive in this kind of phrase.

So Danish says:

• min lomme = my pocket

not something like:

• den min lomme

This is similar to English, where we say my pocket, not the my pocket.

Here knap means button, as in a button on clothing.

So:

• frakkens knap = the coat’s button

Be careful, because knap can also appear in other meanings in Danish, for example in contexts where it means barely / hardly as an adverb. But in this sentence it is clearly the noun button.

It is grammatical and understandable, but many Danes might more naturally say:

• Knappen på frakken ligger i min lomme.

That literally means:

• The button on the coat is in my pocket.

Danish often uses på phrases instead of the -s possessive, especially when talking about parts of things.

So both are possible, but:

• frakkens knap = perfectly correct
• knappen på frakken = often more natural in everyday speech

Because that is the subject of the sentence: the thing that is being talked about.

The structure is:

• Frakkens knap = subject
• ligger = verb
• i min lomme = place expression

So the sentence follows normal Danish word order:

Subject + verb + adverbial

A very literal version would be:

• The coat’s button lies in my pocket.

That is closer to the Danish structure than the most natural English translation.

Natural English would usually be:

• The coat’s button is in my pocket.
• The button from the coat is in my pocket.

But the Danish keeps the idea of physical position with ligger.

No, the k in knap is normally silent.

So knap is pronounced approximately like nap in English, though with a Danish vowel quality.

This is useful to know because English speakers often want to pronounce the k, but in standard Danish they should not.

Frakke usually means coat, especially an outer coat.

It is not the usual word for a normal jacket. For jacket, Danish more often uses words like:

• jakke = jacket
• frakke = coat

So in this sentence, the image is more like a coat button than a jacket button.