Min søster lod mig tage de gamle tallerkener, fordi hun ikke havde plads til dem.

Lod is the past tense of lade.

In this sentence, lade means to let or to allow:

• lade = to let
• lod = let / allowed

So:

• Min søster lod mig tage ... = My sister let me take ...

Be careful: lade can also have other meanings in other contexts, such as leave or have something done, but here it clearly means let/allow.

A very common pattern in Danish is:

lade + object + infinitive

So here:

• lod = let
• mig = me
• tage = take

Together:

• lod mig tage = let me take

This is similar to English let someone do something:

• She let me go
• Hun lod mig gå

So the structure is very natural Danish.

Because mig is the object form of jeg.

Compare:

• jeg = I
• mig = me

In Min søster lod mig tage ..., the sister is doing the action of allowing, and me is the person being allowed. That makes mig the object.

Just like in English:

• She let I take the plates ❌
• She let me take the plates ✅

Danish works the same way here:

• Hun lod jeg tage ... ❌
• Hun lod mig tage ... ✅

After lade, Danish normally uses a bare infinitive, meaning the infinitive without at.

So you say:

• lod mig tage = let me take

not:

• lod mig at tage ❌

This is similar to English let me take, not let me to take.

Other verbs in Danish also take a bare infinitive in certain patterns, but lade is one of the most important ones to learn.

Because this noun phrase is definite plural: the old plates.

Breakdown:

• de = the
• gamle = old
• tallerkener = plates

In Danish, when a plural noun is definite and has an adjective before it, you use:

de + adjective + plural noun

So:

• gamle tallerkener = old plates
• de gamle tallerkener = the old plates

This is a very important pattern.

Because adjectives in Danish often change form depending on grammar.

Here, gamle has -e because it is used before a plural definite noun phrase:

• de gamle tallerkener = the old plates

You also often see -e on adjectives with common-gender definite nouns:

• den gamle stol = the old chair

So the -e form is very common in definite phrases and in plural phrases.

Because the definiteness is already being shown by de.

Danish can mark definiteness in two different-looking ways:

1. With a suffix on the noun:

   • tallerkenerne = the plates

2. With de plus an adjective:

   • de gamle tallerkener = the old plates

When there is an adjective before the noun, Danish normally uses the separate definite word de and the noun stays in its regular plural form:

• de gamle tallerkener ✅

Not:

• de gamle tallerkenerne ❌

So this is normal Danish grammar.

Fordi means because and introduces a subordinate clause.

In Danish subordinate clauses, words like ikke usually come before the finite verb.

So:

• fordi hun ikke havde plads til dem

Breakdown:

• fordi = because
• hun = she
• ikke = not
• havde = had

This is a very useful pattern to remember:

• main clause: Hun havde ikke plads
• subordinate clause: ... fordi hun ikke havde plads

That change in the position of ikke is one of the key things English speakers need to get used to in Danish.

Because the whole sentence is in the past.

Main clause:

• Min søster lod mig tage ...
• lod is past tense

So the reason clause is also in the past:

• fordi hun ikke havde plads til dem
• havde = had

If the sentence were in the present, you would expect something like:

• Min søster lader mig tage de gamle tallerkener, fordi hun ikke har plads til dem.

So lod / havde match each other as past-tense forms.

The expression plads til means space for or room for.

So:

• plads til dem = space for them

This is just the normal Danish preposition with plads in this meaning.

Examples:

• Jeg har ikke plads til den. = I don’t have room for it.
• Har du plads til flere gæster? = Do you have room for more guests?

So in the sentence, hun ikke havde plads til dem means she did not have room for the plates.

Because dem is the object form of they.

Compare:

• de = they
• dem = them

After the preposition til, Danish uses the object form:

• til dem = for them

Just like English:

• for they ❌
• for them ✅

So:

• plads til de ❌
• plads til dem ✅

In theory, pronouns can sometimes be ambiguous, but here dem most naturally refers to de gamle tallerkener.

So the meaning is:

• she did not have room for the old plates

That is the most logical reading, and it is what a Danish speaker would normally understand from the sentence.

Yes. Min søster is the normal and natural way to say my sister.

Breakdown:

• min = my
• søster = sister

Danish does not use an article here, just as English does not:

• my sister
• min søster

Also note that Danish nouns are not capitalized the way German nouns are, so søster stays lowercase unless it begins a sentence.

No. Lade is a very useful verb with several meanings depending on the pattern.

For example:

• lade nogen gøre noget = let someone do something
• lade noget stå = leave something standing
• lade sig gøre = be possible
• lade bilen reparere = have the car repaired

But in your sentence, because it is followed by mig tage, the meaning is clearly:

• let me take

So the grammar pattern helps tell you which meaning is intended.