Basic states and preparation | Learn Danish in English

Sentence explanations

1. Jeg har det bedre.

   I am feeling better.

   Jeg

   I

   har det

   feel / am doing

   bedre

   better

   More detail

   Jeg means “I” and is the first-person singular subject form. It is used for the person speaking. For example: Jeg er træt. — “I am tired.” har det is a common Danish construction meaning “am feeling” or “am doing” in a particular state. har is the present-tense form of have (“to have”); det is a fixed pronoun in this expression rather than a specific person or object identified by the sentence. Compare Jeg har meget travlt. — “I am very busy.” bedre means “better” here. It is the comparative form related to god/godt (“good”), with bedst meaning “best.” In har det bedre, it describes an improvement in the speaker’s condition or well-being. For example: Hun har det bedre nu. — “She is feeling better now.” Together, Jeg har det bedre literally uses the pattern “I have it better,” but its natural meaning is “I am feeling better.” The utterance presents the speaker’s current state as improved, without specifying what caused the improvement.

2. Jeg har meget travlt.

   I am very busy.

   Jeg

   I

   har

   have

   meget

   very; much

   travlt

   busy

   More detail

   Jeg means “I” here, the first-person singular subject. It is the subject form used when the speaker refers to themself; for comparison, du means “you” singular. har is the present-tense form of have, “to have.” With jeg, har means “have”: Jeg har tid. — “I have time.” In this utterance, it is part of the reusable expression have travlt, rather than describing possession. meget means “very” here because it intensifies the following adjective. It can also mean “much” or “a lot” in other structures, but that quantity meaning is not intended here. For example, Jeg arbejder meget. means “I work a lot.” travlt is the form of the adjective travl, “busy,” used in the expression have travlt. Danish adjective forms include travl in common-gender singular, travlt in neuter singular, and travle in definite or plural contexts; the form in this utterance is travlt. The useful pattern is have travlt — “be busy.” For example, Hun har travlt. means “She is busy.” Together, Jeg har travlt is the Danish expression for “I am busy”: literally, it is structured with have, but its established meaning is equivalent to English “be busy.” Adding meget before travlt intensifies it, so Jeg har meget travlt. means “I am very busy.”

3. Jeg er klar nu.

   I am ready now.

   Jeg er

   I am

   klar

   ready

   nu

   now

   More detail

   Jeg er combines the first-person singular pronoun jeg (“I”) with er, the present-tense form of være (“to be”). This is a reusable way to describe the speaker’s state: Jeg er træt. — “I am tired.” klar means “ready” here. It is an adjective describing the speaker’s state. In Danish, adjectives can change form for grammatical number and gender in some contexts: klar is the singular common-gender form, klart is the singular neuter form, and klare is the plural form. The pronoun jeg itself does not show grammatical gender, and klar here does not identify the speaker’s gender. Example: Vi er klare. — “We are ready.” nu is the time adverb “now.” It places the state in the present moment. Together, Jeg er + klar states the speaker’s current state, and nu specifies when it applies: “I am ready now.”

4. Jeg er ikke klar.

   I am not ready.

   Jeg

   I

   er

   am / is / are

   ikke

   not

   klar

   ready

   More detail

   Jeg means “I” here: it is the Danish first-person singular subject pronoun. It identifies the speaker as the subject. For example, Jeg læser. means “I am reading.” er is the present-tense form of være, “to be.” Danish uses er with all persons in the present tense: jeg er, du er, and de er all contain er; the verb does not change for person or number here. For example, Hun er klar. means “She is ready.” ikke is the ordinary Danish negation word “not.” In this sentence it negates the statement that follows the subject and verb: Jeg er ikke ... means “I am not ...”. For example, Jeg er ikke træt. means “I am not tired.” klar means “ready” in this utterance. It is an adjective, and its form here is the ordinary form used in Jeg er klar. Danish also uses klart in some neuter singular contexts and klare for plural contexts; those forms are not present here. Klar can also mean “clear” in other contexts, but “ready” is the sense fixed by the translation. For example, Maden er klar. means “The food is ready.” Together, Jeg er klar means “I am ready.” Placing ikke between er and klar negates that statement, so Jeg er ikke klar. means “I am not ready.”

5. Jeg har brug for mere tid.

   I need more time.

   Jeg

   I

   har brug for

   need

   mere

   more

   tid

   time

   More detail

   Jeg means “I” here, the first-person singular subject pronoun. It does not change for the speaker’s gender. As an object, the corresponding form is mig: Hun ser mig. — “She sees me.” har brug for is the Danish construction for “need” when followed by what is needed. The form har is the present tense of at have (“to have”), but the complete expression has the established meaning “need”; it should not normally be translated word by word as “have use for” in ordinary English. For example: Jeg har brug for hjælp. — “I need help.” mere means “more” and is the comparative form related to meget (“much” or “a lot”). It is used here before tid, a mass or uncounted amount. With plural countable items, Danish commonly uses flere instead: Jeg har brug for flere bøger. — “I need more books.” tid means “time.” In this sentence it refers to an amount or period of time, not to a particular point on a clock. For example: Vi har tid. — “We have time.” Together, Jeg har brug for (“I need”) + mere tid (“more time”) gives the complete meaning: “I need more time.”

6. Har du tid?

   Do you have time?

   Har du

   do you have

   tid

   time

   More detail

   Har du combines the present-tense form har of have with du, the second-person singular pronoun “you.” In a Danish yes–no question, the finite verb comes before the subject: Har du ...? This is a reusable pattern meaning “Do you have ...?” or, depending on the noun, asking whether something is available to you. Example: Har du en bil? — “Do you have a car?” tid means “time.” It is a noun; its common indefinite form is tid, while the definite form is tiden (“the time”). In this utterance, tid is used without an article to ask generally about having time available. Example: Jeg har tid. — “I have time.” Together, Har du tid? uses the question pattern Har du + noun? to ask whether the addressee has time available. The fixed meaning is therefore “Do you have time?”