Left Dislocation

Level 4

Left Dislocation (venstrestilling) is a common spoken Danish technique where you 'announce' your topic first, then use a pronoun to refer back to it in the main sentence. Example: 'Min søster, hun bor i Aarhus.'

How It Works

In Danish, left dislocation involves placing a phrase at the very beginning of the sentence, followed by a comma, and then a resumptive word that acts as the actual grammatical placeholder.

Key Rules:

  • Choosing the pronoun: Den/det normally follows grammatical gender for things, and de resumes a plural. With people, han/hun can follow the person referred to: Lægen, hun kommer snart (the doctor, she is coming soon). Læge is common gender regardless of the doctor’s gender. Barnet can be resumed by det, or by a personal pronoun when referring to a known child; grammatical neuter does not force every reference to use det.
  • Object Resumption: If the dislocated noun is the object, use the object form (e.g., ham, hende, dem, den, det).
  • V2 Rule: In main clauses, the resumptive word occupies the first position. If it is an object, it triggers subject-verb inversion to satisfy the V2 rule.
  • Beyond Nouns: While nouns are most common, you can also dislocate adverbs or prepositional phrases. These often use der (for place) or da or så (for time) as the resumptive element (e.g., I går, da skete det).
  • Subordinate Clauses: In informal speech, Danish also allows this in subordinate clauses, where the pronoun simply precedes the verb and any sentence adverbs like ikke.
  • Register: This is common in spoken Danish for organizing topics. Embedded repetition, as in om bussen den er kørt, is especially conversational; edited formal prose usually uses om bussen er kørt.

Examples (6)

  1. Min søster, hun bor i København.

    My sister, she lives in Copenhagen.

    Word by Word: My sister, she lives in Copenhagen.

    A classic subject dislocation. 'Min søster' is the topic, and 'hun' is the resumptive pronoun matching the natural gender of the person.

  2. Den der kage, den smager altså godt!

    That cake there, it really tastes good!

    Word by Word: That cake there, it tastes really good!

    Here, 'kage' (common gender) is resumed by 'den'.

  3. Huset, det er alt for dyrt.

    The house, it is way too expensive.

    Word by Word: The house, it is all for expensive.

    A neuter noun 'huset' requires the pronoun 'det'.

  4. Den film, den har jeg allerede set.

    That movie, I have already seen it.

    Word by Word: That movie, it have I already seen.

    This shows object dislocation. Because the object pronoun 'den' is in the first position, the subject 'jeg' moves after the verb to satisfy the V2 rule.

  5. Ham der, ham kender jeg ikke.

    That guy there, I don't know him.

    Word by Word: Him there, him know I not.

    When a person is the object of the sentence, the objective case pronoun 'ham' (him) is used as the resumptive pronoun.

  6. Ved du, om bussen den er kørt?

    Do you know if the bus has left?

    Word by Word: Know you, if bus-the it is driven?

    In this subordinate clause, the resumptive pronoun 'den' acts as the subject, followed by the verb 'er'.

Common Mistakes

  • Repeating the pronoun when no contrast or restart is intended.

    Different MeaningHan, han er sød.
    Han er sød.

    Han, han er sød can occur in spoken discourse with a pause, contrast or restart. Ordinary Han er sød is enough without that effect; repeating the pronoun is not inherently ungrammatical.

  • Violating the V2 rule after the dislocated element.

    Min far, i går han kom hjem.
    Min far, han kom hjem i går.

    The resumptive pronoun (han) occupies the first position of the clause. The verb (kom) must follow it immediately.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Left DislocationLevel 4

Learn This First

To understand left dislocation, you need to be comfortable with Danish word order (V2) and how pronouns (like 'han', 'den', or 'det') are used to replace or refer back to nouns, as this pattern involves stating a topic and then immediately 'picking it up' with a corresponding pronoun.