Min niece kiggede på hendes kind, men hun sagde ikke noget, da hun så plasteret ved læben.

In Danish, a possessive such as min, din, hans, or hendes usually replaces the article.

So you say:

• min niece = my niece
• hendes kind = her cheek

Not:

• den min niece
• hendes kinden

Also, when a possessive is present, the noun normally does not take the definite ending.

Kigge på is a very common fixed expression meaning look at or watch.

So:

• kigge på noget = look at something

The på is part of the expression. English also needs a preposition here: look at.

Without på, kigge is more general, like look or peek.

This is a very important Danish grammar point.

Danish uses sin/sit/sine when the possessor is the same as the subject of the clause.

So if the niece is looking at her own cheek, Danish would normally use:

• Min niece kiggede på sin kind

If the sentence says:

• Min niece kiggede på hendes kind

that usually suggests she looked at another female person's cheek, not her own.

English uses her for both meanings, but Danish makes this distinction.

Grammatically, it can be ambiguous.

Because the sentence already contains:

• min niece
• hendes

the later hun could refer to the niece or to another female person, depending on context.

Danish often relies on context here, just like English does. If the writer wants to make it clearer, they can repeat the noun instead of using hun.

Because Danish main clauses follow the verb-second pattern.

In a normal main clause, the finite verb comes early, typically right after the subject if the subject comes first:

• hun sagde ikke noget

So the order is:

• subject + finite verb + negation + object

English speakers often want to place ikke directly before the verb, but that is not how standard Danish main-clause word order works.

Both are possible, but ikke noget is very common and neutral.

• hun sagde ikke noget = she said nothing / she didn’t say anything
• hun sagde ingenting = she said nothing

Ikke noget is not considered incorrect double negation here. It is a normal Danish way to say not anything.

Here da means when in the sense of a specific event in the past.

• da hun så plasteret = when she saw the plaster

A useful rule is:

• da = when, for a specific past event
• når = when, for repeated events, general truths, or future situations

So this sentence uses da because it describes one particular moment.

Same spelling, different meaning.

In this sentence, så is the past tense of se:

• se = see
• så = saw

You can tell it is a verb here because it comes after hun and has an object:

• hun så plasteret

In another sentence, så could mean so, then, or thus.

Because Danish usually marks definiteness by adding an ending to the noun.

Examples:

• et plaster = a plaster

• plasteret = the plaster

• en læbe = a lip
• læben = the lip

So instead of a separate word like English the, Danish often adds -et, -en, or another definite ending.

Because ved means by, near, or at.

So:

• ved læben = by the lip / near the lip

This suggests the plaster is close to the lip, not necessarily directly on it.

If the plaster were actually on the lip itself, på læben would be more direct.

With body parts, Danish often uses the definite form when the owner is obvious from context.

So ved læben can sound more natural than repeating hendes.

Danish often avoids unnecessary possessives in these cases. If you really need to emphasize whose lip it is, you can say ved hendes læbe, but the shorter version is often preferred.

The sentence contains three past-tense verbs:

• kiggede from kigge
• sagde from sige
• så from se

So you can see both patterns:

• a regular past form: kiggede
• irregular past forms: sagde, så

This is very typical of Danish: many common verbs are irregular, especially short high-frequency verbs like se and sige.