Hun får lov til at holde ranglen selv, så længe hun ikke putter den i munden.

Får lov til at is a very common Danish way to say that someone is allowed to do something.

• Hun får lov til at holde ranglen = She is allowed to hold the rattle
• Literally, it is closer to she gets permission to hold the rattle

Compared with må:

• Hun må holde ranglen also means she may/is allowed to hold the rattle
• But får lov til at often sounds a bit more like permission is being granted by someone

So in a sentence about a child, får lov til at can feel especially natural, because it suggests an adult is allowing it.

Because at holde is the infinitive form, like English to hold.

After får lov til you normally use:

• får lov til at + infinitive

So:

• Hun får lov til at holde ...
• not Hun får lov til at holder ...

The verb holder would be a finite present-tense form, but after at you need the infinitive.

Ranglen is the definite singular form of rangle.

• en rangle = a rattle
• ranglen = the rattle

Danish usually makes the definite form by adding the article to the end of the noun instead of putting a separate word before it.

So:

• en bog = a book
• bogen = the book

and similarly:

• en rangle
• ranglen

Here selv means something like:

• herself
• on her own
• by herself

It adds emphasis. The idea is that she is allowed to hold the rattle herself, rather than someone else holding it for her.

So:

• Hun holder ranglen selv = She holds the rattle herself

It does not mean self in a literal standalone sense; it is an emphatic word.

Here så længe means as long as.

It introduces a condition:

• Hun får lov til at holde ranglen selv, så længe hun ikke putter den i munden.
• She is allowed to hold the rattle herself as long as she does not put it in her mouth.

So this is not about duration in the simple sense of for a long time. It means provided that / on condition that.

This is because så længe hun ikke putter den i munden is a subordinate clause, and Danish word order changes in subordinate clauses.

In a main clause, you would normally get:

• Hun putter ikke den i munden or more naturally Hun putter den ikke i munden

But in a subordinate clause introduced by så længe, at, fordi, hvis, etc., the sentence adverb ikke comes before the finite verb:

• ... så længe hun ikke putter den i munden

A useful rule of thumb:

• main clause: verb comes early
• subordinate clause: ikke often comes before the finite verb

Because rangle is a common-gender noun:

• en rangle

Common-gender nouns are referred to with den.

So:

• ranglen = the rattle
• den = it referring back to ranglen

If the noun were a neuter noun (et-word), you would normally use det instead.

Danish very often uses the definite form with body parts when the owner is obvious from context.

So:

• i munden literally = in the mouth
• but in natural English we understand it as in her mouth

This is very common in Danish:

• Han vasker hænderne = He washes his hands
• Hun slog sig i hovedet = She hit her head

You can use a possessive in Danish, but it is often unnecessary and can sound more marked or emphatic when the possessor is already clear.

Yes, here putter means puts or sticks/places something somewhere.

It is a very common everyday Danish verb, especially when something is being put:

• into a container
• into a bag
• into the mouth
• into a pocket

So putter den i munden means puts it in her mouth.

In this kind of sentence, putte sounds very natural. It is often more everyday and child-related than a more formal verb like placere.

Both patterns exist in Danish, but they do not mean exactly the same thing.

• holde ranglen = hold the rattle
• holde i ranglen = hold on to the rattle / have a grip on the rattle

In this sentence, holde ranglen is the natural choice because the rattle is the direct object of the action.

So the focus is simply that she is allowed to hold the rattle.

Because så længe hun ikke putter den i munden is a subordinate clause, and many Danish writers put a comma before subordinate clauses.

So this version:

• Hun får lov til at holde ranglen selv, så længe hun ikke putter den i munden.

uses a traditional start comma.

In modern Danish, you may also see the sentence written without that comma, depending on comma style:

• Hun får lov til at holde ranglen selv så længe hun ikke putter den i munden.

Both styles are seen, but learners should know that the comma before subordinate clauses is very common.