Kan De se, om det samme foder også passer til en ung kanin?

De is the formal, polite way to say you in Danish. It is capitalized to distinguish it from de, which normally means they.

In modern spoken Danish, using De sounds quite formal, old-fashioned, or very polite. You might see it in customer service, formal letters, or when addressing someone respectfully, especially in older-style language.

So in this sentence, Kan De se ...? means Can you tell/check ...? in a polite form.

Because this is a yes/no question.

In Danish, yes/no questions usually put the finite verb first:

• De kan se det. = You can see it.
• Kan De se det? = Can you see it?

So Kan De se ...? follows normal Danish question word order: verb + subject + infinitive.

Literally, yes. But in this sentence it is more idiomatic.

Here, se does not necessarily mean physical seeing with the eyes. It can also mean something like:

• check
• tell
• see whether
• find out

So Kan De se, om ... is often best understood as:

• Can you check whether ...
• Can you tell if ...

This is very common in Danish.

Here om means whether or if.

It introduces an indirect yes/no clause:

• Kan De se, om det samme foder også passer ...? = Can you tell/check whether the same feed also suits ...?

This is different from other meanings of om, such as about, around, or in (with time expressions).

In this sentence, it specifically marks a clause whose answer could be yes or no.

Because om det samme foder også passer til en ung kanin is a subordinate clause.

Danish often uses commas to separate subordinate clauses from the main clause. So:

• Main clause: Kan De se
• Subordinate clause: om det samme foder også passer til en ung kanin

That is why the comma appears before om.

It means the same feed or the same food.

Breakdown:

• det = the for a neuter singular noun
• samme = same
• foder = feed / pet food / animal food

So det samme foder refers to the same type of feed already mentioned earlier in the conversation.

The word det is used because foder is a neuter noun: et foder.

Because Danish usually uses demonstrative/article + adjective + noun in this kind of structure.

So you get:

• det samme foder

not:

• samme foderet

This is similar to other Danish patterns such as:

• det store hus = the big house
• den lille bil = the small car

When an adjective comes before a definite noun in Danish, the noun itself is often not marked with the definite ending. Instead, you use den/det/de before it.

Passer til means fits, suits, or is suitable for.

In this sentence, it means that the feed is appropriate for a young rabbit.

So:

• foderet passer til en ung kanin = the feed is suitable for a young rabbit

The preposition til is part of the expression here. You cannot just use passer alone with the same meaning.

Because passe til takes til.

So the structure is:

• noget passer til nogen/noget = something suits/is suitable for someone/something

Examples:

• Denne farve passer til dig.
• Maden passer til hunde.
• Det samme foder passer til en ung kanin.

So til en ung kanin means for a young rabbit in the sense of suitable for a young rabbit.

Because kanin is a common gender noun, not a neuter noun.

So:

• en kanin = a rabbit
• den unge kanin = the young rabbit
• en ung kanin = a young rabbit

The adjective ung stays in its common-gender singular indefinite form here.

You would only use ungt with a neuter singular noun, for example:

• et ungt dyr = a young animal

Because this is a subordinate clause, and Danish adverb placement often changes in subordinate clauses.

The subordinate clause is:

• om det samme foder også passer til en ung kanin

Here også comes before the finite verb passer.

This is normal Danish word order in subordinate clauses. A rough pattern is:

• subject + adverb + finite verb

So:

• det samme foder også passer

not:

• det samme foder passer også

The position of også can sometimes shift for emphasis, but the version in your sentence is very natural.

Yes, but it sounds formal because of De.

Everything else is natural and standard. If you made it informal, a modern everyday version would usually use du instead:

• Kan du se, om det samme foder også passer til en ung kanin?

That would be the most common version in ordinary conversation today. The original sentence is still correct, but more polite and formal.