Breakdown of Kofferten er gul, men han låner sin venns svarte hatt.
være
to be
han
he
men
but
vennen
the friend
sin
his
kofferten
the suitcase
gul
yellow
låne
to borrow
svart
black
hatten
the hat
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Questions & Answers about Kofferten er gul, men han låner sin venns svarte hatt.
Why is kofferten spelled with -en at the end?
Koffert is a common‐gender noun meaning “suitcase.” Its indefinite form is en koffert, and you make it definite by adding -en:
• en koffert → kofferten (“the suitcase”).
Why is gul not inflected to gule, since kofferten is definite?
When an adjective follows a copular verb like er (“is”), it stands predicatively and does not agree in number or definiteness. You therefore say kofferten er gul, not *gule.
Why does the sentence use han? Is it referring to the suitcase?
No. Han is the 3rd-person masculine pronoun (“he”), used for male people. Inanimate objects like a suitcase take den or det, not han. Here han clearly refers to a man borrowing the hat.
What does sin mean in sin venns? Why not use hans?
Sin is the reflexive possessive pronoun that refers back to the subject of its clause. Since the subject is han (“he”), sin venn means “his (own) friend.” If you said hans venn, it would mean “someone else’s friend” (not the friend of our “he”).
How is the genitive formed in venns?
You form the possessive/genitive of a noun by adding -s directly to the noun:
• venn → venns (“friend’s”).
Why is svart inflected to svarte before hatt?
Adjectives used attributively (before a noun) agree in number and definiteness. Because sin venns svarte hatt is a definite phrase (owned by someone), you add -e to the adjective: svart → svarte.
Why is there no article (like en) before svarte hatt?
The possessive pronoun sin already acts as a determiner, so you drop en. You say sin venns svarte hatt, not sin en venns svarte hatt.
Why is there a comma before men (“but”)?
Just like in English, you separate two independent clauses with a comma when they are joined by the coordinating conjunction men.
Shouldn’t the verb invert after men, as in men låner han?
No. In coordinate clauses introduced by men, you keep the normal main‐clause word order: men + subject + verb → men han låner….