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After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Describe family relations
• Use prepositions: "i, på, til and fra"
• Say how a hovedsætning (main clause) differs from a bisætning (subclause)

The majority of Danish families have two incomes, as both the husband and the wife usually work. The time when the homemaker took care of the family and the house while the man was the provider disappeared almost entirely in the 70s and 80s. Therefore, one usually expects the husband and wife to have equally good jobs and equal ambitions.

At the same time, it is perfectly normal for mom and dad to help each other care for and raise children and that both have parental leave. Precisely because both parents work, childcare is very organized in Denmark. A child will typically enter a day nursery before it is 1 year old, and then kindergarten and primary school until the age of 16-17. After that, most people go on to high school, business school or technical school.

If you are married, you are either mand or kone:

If you are asked about your marital status you can say:

If you live with someone you can say:

If you want to ask for someone's marital status you can ask:

Sister works the same way as brother with "store" og "lille."

"Søster" or "bror" is put after "tvilling-" to indicate gender: tvillingebror, tvillingesøster.

If siblings only share either mother or father, then they are called halvsøskende: 

When talking about grandparents, i.e. parents' parents, Danish distinguishes between mother's and father's side:

When talking about one's children's children, one does not distinguish between mother's and father's side:

In Danish, no distinction is made between great-grandparents on father's or mother's side. They are just called great-grandparents:

The next levels are then "tip-oldefar" and  "tip-tip-oldefar" etc.

In Denmark, more than 40% of all marriages end in divorce and having a stepparent is therefore quite normal.

Son and daughter-in-law / sons and daughters-in-law are called "sviger" + søn, datter, sønner, døtre.

Parents' siblings have more specific names from the child's point of view:

In Danish, you distinguish whether your siblings' children are male or female in their cousin relation to your own child. Male is fætter, female is kusine:

Note the plural forms fætre and kusiner.

Subordinate clauses in Danish have a different syntax from main clauses. There are two important differences:

1. Placement of the central adverb, and
2. The bindeled (conjunction) that ties the subordinate and main clause together. 

In main clauses the central adverb is always placed after the verb:

• "Han kommer altid for sent."

In a subordinate clause the role is reversed, the central adverb coming before the verb:

• "...at han altid kommer for sent." 
  

Examples of bisætninger/ledsætninger (subordinate clauses) with the conjunction "at."

Examples of subordinate clauses with når as conjunction:

Examples of subordinate clauses with "da" as the conjunction. Da is most often used if things happen only once:

Examples of subordinate clauses with the conjunction "fordi."