I en bisætning kommer grundleddet ofte før ikke, og den ordstilling kræver lidt øvelse.

Bisætning means subordinate clause: a clause that depends on a main clause.

Examples:

• Jeg ved, at han kommer. = I know that he is coming.
• The part at han kommer is the bisætning.

Common Danish words that introduce subordinate clauses include at (that), fordi (because), når (when), hvis (if), and som (who/which/that).

Grundleddet means the subject of the clause.

So in a clause like:

• Han kommer ikke. = He is not coming.

Han is the grundled / subject.

You may also see subjekt in more formal grammar, but grundled is a very common school-grammar term in Danish.

Because grundleddet is the definite form: the subject, not just a subject or subject in general.

• grundled = subject
• grundleddet = the subject

In this sentence, Danish is talking about the subject as a grammatical element, so the definite form sounds natural.

No. The whole sentence is a main clause.

The first part, I en bisætning, just means In a subordinate clause. It is a prepositional phrase placed at the beginning of the sentence.

So the structure is roughly:

• I en bisætning = fronted adverbial phrase
• kommer = finite verb
• grundleddet = subject

That is why the word order may look unusual to an English speaker.

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

Here, the sentence begins with I en bisætning. Since that first element takes position 1, the finite verb kommer must come next.

So:

• Position 1: I en bisætning
• Position 2: kommer
• Then: grundleddet

This is normal Danish main-clause word order.

Compare:

• Grundleddet kommer ofte før ikke.
• I en bisætning kommer grundleddet ofte før ikke.

Both are correct, but when the sentence starts with I en bisætning, the verb moves before the subject.

Ikke means not.

In this sentence, it is being mentioned as a word whose position matters in Danish word order. The sentence is explaining that in a subordinate clause, the subject often comes before ikke.

So this is not mainly about negation in meaning; it is about the placement of the word ikke.

Here før means before.

So:

• grundleddet ofte før ikke = the subject often before not

More naturally in English:

• the subject often comes before not

It is talking about order in the sentence, not time.

Den ordstilling means that word order.

It refers back to the word-order pattern just mentioned: the subject being placed before ikke in a subordinate clause.

So den here is pointing back to the previously described idea:

• the subject before ikke

Ofte means often, and it makes the statement slightly less absolute.

As a basic learning rule, Danish subordinate clauses usually place the subject before sentence adverbs like ikke:

• ..., at han ikke kommer.

That said, real language can have variation because of emphasis, style, fixed expressions, or more advanced structures. So ofte makes the sentence sound more careful and realistic.

For a learner, the important takeaway is:

• In subordinate clauses, subject + ikke is the normal pattern.

Yes.

Main clause:

• Han kommer ikke. = He is not coming.

Subordinate clause:

• Jeg ved, at han ikke kommer. = I know that he is not coming.

In the subordinate clause at han ikke kommer:

• han = subject
• ikke = not
• kommer = comes/is coming

So you can clearly see the pattern:

• subject + ikke + verb

That is the word order the sentence is talking about.

In a main clause, Danish follows the V2 rule, so the finite verb is in second position:

• Han kommer ikke.
• I dag kommer han ikke.

In a subordinate clause, the order is typically different:

• ..., at han ikke kommer
• ..., fordi han ikke kommer

So a very useful contrast is:

Main clause:

• Han kommer ikke.

Subordinate clause:

• ..., at han ikke kommer.

That contrast is one of the key word-order patterns Danish learners have to get used to.

Because øvelse here means practice, not an exercise.

• kræver lidt øvelse = requires a little practice
• en øvelse would usually mean an exercise or one practice task

So lidt øvelse is the natural way to say that something takes some practice to master.

No. You may also hear subjekt.

But:

• grundled is very common in school grammar and beginner explanations
• subjekt is also understood and is closer to the international grammatical term

So if you see either grundled or subjekt, they usually mean the same thing here.