Om aftenen går en ræv forbi teltet, mens vi sidder stille og lytter.

Om aftenen means in the evening or during the evening.

It is a common Danish time expression used to set the scene. In a sentence like this, it tells you when everything is happening before the main action starts.

They mean different things:

• i aften = tonight, meaning this specific evening
• om aftenen = in the evening, more general or scene-setting

So Om aftenen går en ræv forbi teltet ... sounds like In the evening, a fox passes the tent ..., while I aften ... would sound more like Tonight ...

Because Danish main clauses usually follow the V2 rule: the finite verb must come in second position.

Here, Om aftenen has been placed first to set the time. That means the verb går must come next, and the subject en ræv comes after it:

• Om aftenen = first position
• går = second position
• en ræv = subject after the verb

If there were no fronted time phrase, you would normally get:

• En ræv går forbi teltet.

En ræv means a fox, so the fox is being introduced as new information.

If you said ræven, that would mean the fox, which suggests the listener already knows which fox you mean.

So:

• en ræv = a fox
• ræven = the fox

Går comes from gå, which often means walk or go.

In this sentence, both walks past and goes past are reasonable translations. With animals, Danish often uses gå quite naturally for movement on foot.

So går en ræv forbi teltet is basically a fox walks/goes past the tent.

Forbi means past or by.

In går ... forbi teltet, it shows movement past something:

• gå forbi huset = walk past the house
• køre forbi skolen = drive past the school

So går en ræv forbi teltet means that the fox passes the tent.

Teltet means the tent, so it refers to a specific tent, probably one already understood from the situation — most likely our tent or the tent we are at/in.

Compare:

• et telt = a tent, any tent
• teltet = the tent, a specific tent

In this sentence, the definite form sounds natural because the tent is part of the shared scene.

Mens means while.

It connects two actions happening at the same time:

• en ræv går forbi teltet = a fox passes the tent
• mens vi sidder stille og lytter = while we sit still and listen

So mens introduces the background action that is happening at the same time as the fox passes.

Because mens introduces a subordinate clause.

In Danish, subordinate clauses normally do not follow the V2 rule. So the word order is more like:

• mens vi sidder stille og lytter

Here the subject vi comes before the verb sidder.

That is different from the main clause, where the verb had to stay in second position:

• Om aftenen går en ræv forbi teltet

Danish often uses the simple present where English would use the present progressive.

So:

• går can mean walks / is walking
• sidder can mean sit / are sitting
• lytter can mean listen / are listening

The ongoing meaning usually comes from the context, not from a special verb form like English -ing.

This is a very common Danish pattern.

A posture verb such as:

• sidde = sit
• stå = stand
• ligge = lie

can be followed by og plus another verb to describe what someone is doing in that position.

So:

• vi sidder og lytter = we are sitting and listening

It sounds very natural in Danish.

Stille here means still or quietly.

The expression sidde stille means sit still or remain quiet and not move around.

So:

• vi sidder stille og lytter = we sit still and listen

It helps create the mood of being silent and attentive.

Lytte can be used on its own when the thing being listened to is obvious or unimportant.

So vi lytter simply means we are listening.

If you want to say what you are listening to, you usually use til:

• vi lytter til vinden = we listen to the wind
• hun lytter til musik = she listens to music

In this sentence, the object is left unstated.

Because mens vi sidder stille og lytter is a subordinate clause, and Danish normally uses a comma before that kind of clause.

So the comma helps show the structure:

• main clause: Om aftenen går en ræv forbi teltet
• subordinate clause: mens vi sidder stille og lytter

This punctuation is standard in Danish.