"The girl is wishing for a horse."

Translation: Pigen ønsker sig en hest.

[PatPetersen127]

I almost chose "Pigen ønsker sig en bjørn" because I'm used to everything being about the Danish bears.

[DrewTkd]

Why "ønsker" here is accompanied by "sig", Is it possible to write it without it? Does it change the meaning?

[evantigger]

As I understand it sig refer back to the girl, so it would look more like "The girl is wishing for a horse for herself" if translated word for word

[Rich524475]

Why is "for" inappropriate either as "ønsker sig for" or "ønsker for " wthout the "sig"?

[weisztheodore]

How can I tell when to use "sig," "for" or "efter?"

[CountessOfOle]

I'm gonna continue the line of unanswered questions, by asking if the "sig" is necessary? Is "at ønske" a reflexive verb, or is the "sig" there to clarify that she wants the horse for herself? If the latter, seeing as the English sentence does not explicitly specify who she wants the horse for, can the Danish sentence be written without it?

[Person8216]

One of my options was "sandwich ønsker sig en hest", which means "sandwich wants to see a horse!"
I think that animals and inanimate objects must be a lot smarter in Denmark...

[KathyKarch]

If you removed SIG from this sentence, would the implied meaning shift from "She wishes for a horse (for herself)" to "She wishes for a horse (for someone else)?" Tak for svaret.

[bryantchambers]

That is because this is a reflexive verb. Some verbs are reflexive meaning that they must refer back to the subject. I believe you just have to learn the cases in which this is required. If you are really trying to learn the language - check out some children's comics from denmark (ie Rasmus Klump) You'll see a lot of simple sentence structure that helps you learn when and where to use reflexives