Min mor vil ikke sælge bøgerne; hun vil hellere donere dem eller forære dem til naboerne.

My mother does not want to sell the books; she would rather donate them or give them to the neighbors.

Breakdown of Min mor vil ikke sælge bøgerne; hun vil hellere donere dem eller forære dem til naboerne.

• bogen: the book
• min: my
• til: to
• hun: she

Questions & Answers about Min mor vil ikke sælge bøgerne; hun vil hellere donere dem eller forære dem til naboerne.

Why is it bøgerne and naboerne, not separate words for the books and the neighbors?

Because Danish usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun as a suffix.

• bog = book
• bøger = books
• bøgerne = the books

And:

• nabo = neighbor
• naboer = neighbors
• naboerne = the neighbors

So where English uses a separate word like the, Danish often adds -en, -et, or -ne to the noun.

Why is it vil ikke sælge and not ikke vil sælge?

In a normal main clause, Danish usually puts ikke after the finite verb.

Here, the finite verb is vil.

So the pattern is:

• hun vil ikke sælge ... = she will not sell ...

This is very common in Danish word order:

• Jeg kan ikke komme. = I cannot come.
• Han vil ikke spise. = He does not want to eat.

So vil ikke sælge is the expected order.

What exactly does vil mean here?