Politely discussing noise from next door | Learn Danish in English

Sentence explanations

1. Naboen var ret støjende i går aftes.

   The neighbor was quite noisy last night.

   Naboen

   the neighbor

   var

   was

   ret

   quite

   støjende

   noisy

   i går aftes

   last night

   More detail

   Naboen means “the neighbor” here. The base noun is nabo (“neighbor”); -en marks the definite singular form for this noun, so naboen refers to one specific neighbor. Example: En nabo bor her. — “A neighbor lives here.” var is the past-tense form of være (“to be”). It is used for past states and does not change for the subject’s person or number in this sentence. Example: De var trætte. — “They were tired.” ret means “quite” or “rather” here. It intensifies the following description without meaning “correct” in this use. Example: Det er ret koldt. — “It is quite cold.” støjende means “noisy.” It describes the neighbor’s behavior or condition in the sentence. The related verb is støje (“make noise”); støjende is the descriptive form used here. Example: Gaden er støjende. — “The street is noisy.” i går aftes is the time expression “last night.” It places the described state in the previous evening or night. Example: Jeg arbejdede i går aftes. — “I worked last night.” Together, Naboen var ret støjende says that the specific neighbor had a fairly high level of noise at that past time, and i går aftes specifies when this was. The complete utterance therefore means: “The neighbor was quite noisy last night.”

2. Jeg hørte høj musik, mens vi prøvede at sove.

   I heard loud music while we were trying to sleep.

   Jeg

   I

   hørte

   heard

   høj

   loud

   musik

   music

   mens

   while

   vi

   we

   prøvede

   tried

   at sove

   to sleep

   More detail

   Jeg means “I” and is the subject pronoun for the speaker. It does not change for grammatical gender. In Danish, the subject pronoun is normally placed before the finite verb in a straightforward statement. hørte is the past-tense form of høre, “to hear.” The form hørte is used with different subjects as well: jeg hørte = “I heard,” and vi hørte = “we heard.” This is a past event, not an ongoing “was hearing” form. Example: Jeg hørte en lyd. — “I heard a sound.” høj means “loud” here because it describes the volume of the music. Its basic form is høj; the comparison forms are højere (“louder”) and højest (“loudest”). In this phrase, høj comes before the noun it describes. Example: Musikken er høj. — “The music is loud.” musik is the noun “music.” It is commonly used as a mass or uncounted noun when referring to music generally or to music as a sound, so the sentence does not specify a number of musical items. In høj musik, the adjective describes the music’s volume. Example: Jeg kan godt lide musik. — “I like music.” mens introduces a time clause meaning “while.” It connects two events that overlap in time. The clause after it has its own subject and finite verb, rather than simply adding an infinitive. Example: Hun læser, mens han laver mad. — “She reads while he cooks.” vi is the first-person plural subject pronoun, “we.” It refers to the speaker together with at least one other person, but the supplied sentence does not identify who the other person or people are. Danish uses vi for this grammatical role without marking gender. prøvede is the past-tense form of prøve, “to try.” Here it describes an attempt that was in progress during the hearing of the music. prøvede can be used with both singular and plural subjects; the subject vi supplies the meaning “we tried.” Example: Vi prøvede igen. — “We tried again.” at sove is the infinitive construction “to sleep”: at marks the infinitive, and sove is the verb “sleep.” After prøve, Danish commonly uses at plus an infinitive to express what someone tries to do: prøve at sove = “try to sleep.” Example: Jeg prøver at læse. — “I am trying to read.” Together, Jeg hørte høj musik means “I heard loud music.” The conjunction mens then adds the overlapping time clause vi prøvede at sove, “we were trying to sleep.” Thus the complete utterance means: “I heard loud music while we were trying to sleep.”

3. Skal vi lægge en høflig besked?

   Should we leave a polite message?

   Skal vi

   Should we

   lægge

   leave

   høflig

   polite

   besked

   message

   More detail

   Skal vi combines the modal verb skal with the subject pronoun vi (“we”). In this question, skal presents a suggestion for joint action: “Should we …?” The pronoun vi is the first-person plural form, used when the speaker includes themself and at least one other person. After skal, the next verb appears in the infinitive: Skal vi lægge …? lægge means “to put” or, in this context, “to leave” something in a place. It is the infinitive form after the modal skal. A useful contrast is lægge (“put/place,” an action) versus ligge (“lie/be located,” a state). Example: Jeg lægger bogen på bordet. — “I put the book on the table.” høflig describes the message as courteous or polite. It is an adjective in its basic form. In this sentence it modifies the common-gender noun besked, whose indefinite singular form is marked by en; the adjective therefore appears as høflig, not the neuter form høfligt. Its comparative form is høfligere (“more polite”). Example: Hun skriver en høflig e-mail. — “She writes a polite email.” besked means “message.” It is a common-gender noun: en besked is “a message,” while beskeden is “the message.” Its plural is beskeder. Here, en besked refers to one unspecified message; the article marks indefinite singular, not a separately stated numerical count. Together, Skal vi lægge asks whether the speaker and the other person or people should leave something, en høflig characterizes it as polite, and besked identifies that thing as a message. The whole utterance therefore means: “Should we leave a polite message?”

4. Vi bør gøre den venlig, ikke vred.

   We should make it friendly, not angry.

   Vi bør

   we should

   gøre

   make

   den

   it

   venlig

   friendly

   ikke

   not

   vred

   angry

   More detail

   Vi bør means “we should.” Vi is the first-person plural subject, “we.” Bør is the present-tense modal verb “should/ought to”; it does not change for person or number. Danish modal verbs are followed directly by the infinitive: Vi bør gøre = “We should make/do,” without at before gøre. Gøre is the infinitive of “to do/make.” In this sentence it has the causative pattern gøre + object + adjective: “make the object [adjective].” For example, De gør rummet lyst means “They make the room bright.” Den is a third-person singular pronoun meaning “it” here. It is the common-gender singular form; the neuter counterpart is det. The fixed sentence and translation identify its role as the thing being made a certain way, but they do not identify a specific referent. Venlig means “friendly” here. It is a common-gender singular adjective form, matching den in gøre den venlig. The same adjective has the neuter singular form venligt and the plural form venlige, for example et venligt svar = “a friendly answer” and venlige mennesker = “friendly people.” Ikke is the ordinary Danish negation word “not.” Here it introduces a contrast for the following adjective: the intended result is friendly rather than angry. Its scope is shown by the neighboring phrase ikke vred, not by gøre itself. Vred means “angry.” In ikke vred, it is the common-gender singular adjective form; related forms include neuter singular vredt and plural vrede, as in et vredt svar = “an angry answer” and vrede mennesker = “angry people.” Together, Vi bør gøre den venlig says “We should make it friendly.” Adding ikke vred contrasts the two possible descriptions of the resulting state: “not angry.” The whole utterance is therefore “We should make it friendly, not angry.”

5. Jeg siger, at støjen gjorde, at vi ikke kunne sove.

   I'll say the noise kept us from sleeping.

   Jeg

   I

   siger

   say

   støjen

   the noise

   gjorde

   caused

   vi

   we

   ikke kunne

   could not

   sove

   sleep

   More detail

   Jeg is the Danish first-person singular pronoun, meaning “I.” A useful contrast is vi (“we”), which refers to the speaker together with at least one other person. siger is the present form of sige (“say”). In this sentence, the fixed translation presents the statement as “I’ll say”; Danish can use the present form for a future or intended statement when the context supports that reading. Example: Jeg siger det nu. — “I’m saying it now.” støjen means “the noise” here. It is the definite singular form of the noun støj (“noise”): støj is indefinite, while støjen refers to a specific noise. Example: Støjen er høj. — “The noise is loud.” gjorde is the past form of gøre (“do/make”) and means “caused” in this construction. The pattern gøre, at ... can introduce a result: something causes the situation described in the following clause. Example: Regnen gjorde, at kampen stoppede. — “The rain caused the match to stop.” vi is the first-person plural pronoun, “we.” Here it is the subject of the subordinate clause and refers to the speaker together with the other people included by “we,” as reflected by the fixed translation “us.” ikke kunne combines ikke (“not”) with kunne, which is both the infinitive and the past form of kunne (“can/be able to”). Together here they mean “could not.” When kunne expresses ability, it is followed by an infinitive: Vi kunne blive. — “We could stay.” In this subordinate clause, the negation comes before kunne: vi ikke kunne .... sove is the infinitive “sleep.” After the modal kunne, Danish uses the infinitive without an infinitive marker, so kunne sove means “could sleep.” With ikke, ikke kunne sove means “could not sleep.” Together, Jeg siger, at introduces what the speaker says. støjen gjorde, at presents the noise as the cause of a result, and vi ikke kunne sove states that the group was unable to sleep. The complete intended meaning is: “I’ll say the noise kept us from sleeping.”

6. Tilføj, at vi ved, at aftener kan blive travle.

   Add that we know evenings can get busy.

   Tilføj

   add

   at

   that

   vi

   we

   ved

   know

   aftener

   evenings

   kan

   can

   blive

   become; get

   travle

   busy

   More detail

   Tilføj is the imperative of tilføje, “to add.” It tells the addressed person to add something. The comma is followed by at, which introduces the content to be added: Tilføj, at ... = “Add that ...”. The first at is a clause-linking word, not the English preposition “at.” The same linking word appears again in vi ved, at aftener ..., introducing what “we know.” Thus the sentence has the reusable pattern Tilføj, at [clause] and inside it vi ved, at [clause]. vi means “we.” It is the first-person plural subject form; its exact members are not specified by this sentence. ved is the present-tense form of vide, “to know”: vide → ved. Here it states knowledge, not an act of finding out. vi ved, at ... is therefore “we know that ...”. aftener is the plural of aften, “evening”: en aften → aftener. It is the subject of the inner clause. The plural subject helps explain the form travle later in the clause. kan is the present-tense modal form of kunne, “can” or “be able to.” It expresses possibility here: the evenings can become busy. After a modal such as kan, the next verb stays in the infinitive, so kan blive means “can become” or, naturally here, “can get.” blive means “become” or “get” and is the infinitive after kan. It presents a change of state, rather than simply describing a permanent condition. For example, Det kan blive svært means “It can become difficult.” travle is the plural form of the adjective travl, “busy.” Danish uses travl with a singular common-gender noun, travlt with a singular neuter noun, and travle with a plural noun or in certain definite contexts. Here travle agrees with plural aftener; it is not an inflection of aften. Taken together, vi ved, at aftener kan blive travle means “we know that evenings can get busy”: aftener are the subject, kan marks possibility, and blive travle describes their possible change into a busy state. The outer imperative adds this whole clause as information: “Add that we know evenings can get busy.”

7. Det gør beskeden mildere og tydeligere.

   That keeps the message softer and clearer.

   Det

   that

   gør

   makes

   beskeden

   the message

   mildere

   softer

   tydeligere

   clearer

   More detail

   Det is the subject here and means “that,” pointing to an already established action or situation. In this sentence it is singular neuter. Danish det can also be used as “it” in other contexts, but “that” is the intended meaning here. gør is the present-tense form of gøre, “to do” or “to make.” In the pattern X gør Y + adjective, it means that X causes Y to have the stated quality: Det gør ... = “That makes ...” / “That keeps ...” in the fixed translation. The present form is the same for different subjects: jeg gør, du gør, and det gør. beskeden means “the message.” Its base form is besked, and the ending -en marks the definite singular form. The word is the object affected by gør. mildere is the comparative form of mild, meaning “softer” here. The comparison is expressed by -ere: mild = “mild/soft,” mildere = “milder/softer.” In this sentence it describes the resulting quality of beskeden, not the quality of det. tydeligere is the comparative form of tydelig, “clear.” Thus tydelig means “clear,” while tydeligere means “clearer.” It is coordinated with mildere, so the message is presented as having both qualities in the comparison. Together, Det gør beskeden mildere og tydeligere follows the reusable pattern Det gør [thing] [comparative quality] og [comparative quality]: “That makes/keeps [thing] softer and clearer.” Here, beskeden is the thing affected, and mildere og tydeligere gives its two resulting qualities.

8. Vi kan lægge den ved deres dør senere.

   We can put it near their door later.

   Vi kan

   we can

   lægge

   put; place

   den

   it

   ved

   near; by

   deres

   their

   dør

   door

   senere

   later

   More detail

   Vi kan means “we can.” Vi is the first-person plural subject, and kan is the present form of kunne, expressing ability or possibility here. After kan, Danish uses the infinitive without at: Vi kan lægge means “we can put/place.” Compare Jeg kan lægge ... (“I can put ...”) and Vi kunne lægge ... (“We could put ...”). lægge means “to put” or “to place” something. It is the infinitive form used after kan. Danish distinguishes lægge (“put/place,” an action) from ligge (“lie/be located,” a state): Jeg lægger bogen her means “I put the book here,” while Bogen ligger her means “The book is here.” den means “it” here as a singular common-gender object pronoun. Its specific referent is not identified in this sentence. The form den also functions as a determiner before a common-gender noun, but that is a different use from the object pronoun in this utterance. ved means “near” or “by” in this location phrase. It introduces the place associated with the object: lægge den ved ... means “put it near ...” A short example is Koppen står ved døren. — “The cup is by the door.” deres means “their.” It is a possessive determiner, and it does not change according to the gender or number of the possessed noun: deres dør (“their door”) and deres huse (“their houses”). In English, “their” can refer to one possessor or more than one; the form deres itself does not establish the possessor’s number. The possessed noun may be singular or plural. dør means “door.” The plural is døre: en dør (“a door”), to døre (“two doors”). Here, dør is singular and follows the possessive determiner deres. senere means “later.” It places the putting at a time after the relevant present or reference time. For example, Vi kommer senere. means “We are coming later.” Together, Vi kan lægge den ved deres dør senere means “We can put it near their door later.” The subject is “we,” kan lægge expresses the ability or possibility to put something, den is the object, ved deres dør gives its location, and senere gives the time.