Undskyld, har De en vase, der passer til den her buket?

De is the formal way to say you in Danish. It is capitalized to show respect and distinguish it from other words.

In modern Danish, De sounds polite, formal, and a bit old-fashioned. You might hear it in:

• very formal customer service
• communication with older people who prefer it
• historical or literary language

Most Danes today would usually say du instead.

Related forms are:

• De = you, subject
• Dem = you, object
• Deres = your

Yes. In fact, that is what most people would say today.

A more modern everyday version would be:

Undskyld, har du en vase, der passer til den her buket?

Both mean the same thing, but De makes the sentence more formal and polite.

Undskyld means excuse me or sorry.

At the start of a sentence like this, it is used to get someone's attention politely, just like English Excuse me.

So here it is not really an apology for doing something wrong. It is more a polite opener before asking a question.

Because this is a yes-no question.

In Danish, yes-no questions usually put the verb first:

• Har De en vase? = Do you have a vase?
• De har en vase. = You have a vase.

So:

• har De = question word order
• De har = statement word order

Passer til means matches, goes with, or suits.

So en vase, der passer til den her buket means:

• a vase that matches this bouquet
• a vase that is suitable for this bouquet

The idea is not only that the bouquet physically fits in the vase, but also that the vase is the right kind for it.

Because the Danish expression is passe til noget when something matches or goes with something else.

Examples:

• Det passer til kjolen. = It matches the dress.
• Den vase passer til buketten. = That vase matches the bouquet.

So til is part of the normal expression here.

Here der introduces a relative clause, similar to English that or which.

The relative clause is:

• der passer til den her buket = that matches this bouquet

It tells you more about en vase.

In this sentence, der is very natural because the vase is the thing that passes. In other words, der is linked to the subject of the relative clause.

You may also see som in some relative clauses, but der is extremely common in sentences like this.

Den her buket means this bouquet.

In spoken Danish, den her is very common and natural:

• den her buket = this bouquet

Denne buket also means this bouquet, but it sounds more formal or written.

So:

• den her = common in everyday speech
• denne = more formal, written, or careful style

Because after den her and det her, Danish normally uses the noun in the indefinite form:

• den her buket = this bouquet
• det her hus = this house

So even though English learners may expect something like a definite form, Danish does not say den her buketten.

Danish nouns have grammatical gender:

• en words = common gender
• et words = neuter gender

Both vase and buket are common-gender nouns, so they take en in the singular indefinite form:

• en vase
• en buket

That is why you also get den her buket and not det her buket, because buket is an en-word.

Yes, but it sounds quite formal because of De.

A native speaker would understand it perfectly, but in everyday Danish, especially in shops, many people would be more likely to say:

Undskyld, har du en vase, der passer til den her buket?

So the original sentence is correct and polite, but a bit more formal than what you will usually hear in daily conversation.