Min nabo siger, at hendes nummerplade blev væk sidste år, så nu tager hun et billede af den hver måned.

My neighbor says that her license plate got lost last year, so now she takes a picture of it every month.

Breakdown of Min nabo siger, at hendes nummerplade blev væk sidste år, så nu tager hun et billede af den hver måned.

• et: a
• hver: every
• af: of
• min: my

Questions & Answers about Min nabo siger, at hendes nummerplade blev væk sidste år, så nu tager hun et billede af den hver måned.

What does blev væk mean here?

Blev væk is a very common Danish expression meaning got lost, went missing, or disappeared.

• blev = past tense of blive = became
• væk = away/gone

So literally it looks like became gone, but in natural English you would usually say:

• her license plate went missing
• her license plate got lost
• her license plate disappeared

It is different from var væk, which means was gone/missing and describes a state rather than the change into that state.

Why is it hendes nummerplade and not sin nummerplade?

Because Danish sin/sit/sine is only used when the possessor is the subject of the same clause.

In the clause:

at hendes nummerplade blev væk

the subject is nummerplade (the license plate), not hun.

So the owner cannot be referred to with sin here. You need hendes = her.

Compare:

• Hun mistede sin nummerplade. = She lost her own license plate.
  Here hun is the subject, so sin is correct.

• Min nabo siger, at hendes nummerplade blev væk.
  Here the subject inside the at-clause is nummerplade, so hendes is correct.

Why is at used after ?