A quick walk outside during a work break | Learn Danish in English

Sentence explanations

1. Rummet føles for varmt og stille.

   The room feels too warm and quiet.

   Rummet

   the room

   føles

   feels

   for

   too

   varmt

   warm

   stille

   quiet

   More detail

   Rummet means “the room” here. It is the definite singular form of et rum (“a room”): rum becomes rummet when referring to the room as a specific known place. The form is neuter, shown by the article et and the definite ending -et. Example: Et rum = “a room”; Rummet = “the room.” føles is the present-tense form of føle (“to feel”). With a subject such as rummet, it describes how something is experienced or seems, rather than an action performed on another object. Danish present-tense verbs generally do not change for person or number, so the same føles can be used with singular or plural subjects. Example: Det føles godt. = “It feels good.” for means “too” in this sentence: it marks an excessive degree. It is different from meget (“very”), which intensifies a description without necessarily saying that the degree is excessive. Example: Det er for koldt. = “It is too cold.” varmt means “warm” here. Its base form is varm; varmt is the form used with a neuter singular subject such as et rum in this predicative description. A useful comparison is varmere (“warmer”), while koldt means “cold.” Example: Vandet er varmt. = “The water is warm.” stille means “quiet” here. It is a descriptive adjective, and this form is also used in the neuter singular predicative phrase; unlike varm, it does not show a separate neuter ending in this form. Its comparative form is stillere (“quieter”). Example: Gaden er stille. = “The street is quiet.” Together, Rummet føles presents the room as giving a particular impression. for varmt says that its warmth is excessive, and og stille adds that it is quiet. The complete meaning is: “The room feels too warm and quiet.”

2. Vil du gå en kort tur udenfor?

   Do you want to take a quick walk outside?

   Vil du

   do you want to

   gå

   go; walk

   kort

   short; quick

   tur

   walk; trip

   udenfor

   outside

   More detail

   Vil du is a reusable Danish way to ask whether someone wants to do something. vil is the present form of ville (“want to” here), and du means “you.” After vil, Danish uses the infinitive for the proposed action: Vil du ...? = “Do you want to ...?” gå means “go” and, in this expression, contributes to the idea of taking a walk. It is the infinitive form, which follows vil. The same verb can describe going somewhere more generally; the noun tur specifies the walking outing here. kort means “short” here, describing the duration or extent of the walk, so “quick” is a natural translation in this context. It is the adjective whose base form is kort; in en kort tur, it has the common-gender singular form. For comparison, Danish uses kortere (“shorter”) and kortest (“shortest”). tur is a common-gender noun meaning an outing, trip, or walk, depending on context. In this utterance, en tur means a walk or short outing. Its plural is ture: Vi går ture means “We go for walks.” udenfor is an adverb meaning “outside.” It specifies where the proposed walk would take place. A related but distinct form is udenfor døren, “outside the door,” where the same word appears with a stated location. Together, vil + du asks about the listener’s willingness, gå introduces the action, en kort tur identifies it as a short walk, and udenfor places it outside. Thus the complete utterance means: “Do you want to take a quick walk outside?”

3. Frisk luft ville hjælpe.

   Fresh air would help.

   Frisk

   fresh

   luft

   air

   ville

   would

   hjælpe

   help

   More detail

   Frisk means “fresh” here and describes luft. It is the common form of the adjective; Danish adjectives can change with the noun’s grammatical gender and number, but this form is the one used with luft in this sentence. Example: frisk mad — “fresh food.” luft means “air.” It is a noun and is commonly used without an article when referring to air as a substance or general environment. Example: Der er frisk luft her. — “There is fresh air here.” ville expresses the hypothetical or conditional idea “would” in this sentence. It is the past-tense form of the modal verb vil (“will” or “want”), and with an infinitive it can express a possible result: ville hjælpe — “would help.” Do not treat ville as the English past tense “wanted” in this context; the fixed translation establishes the conditional meaning here. hjælpe means “help.” It is the infinitive form of the verb; after the modal ville, Danish uses the infinitive directly, without at. Compare: Det vil hjælpe. — “It will help.” Together, Frisk luft is the subject “fresh air,” and ville hjælpe says that it “would help.” The complete utterance therefore means “Fresh air would help.”

4. Vi kan blive i nærheden af bygningen og snart komme tilbage.

   We can stay near the building and come back soon.

   Vi kan

   we can

   blive

   stay; remain

   i nærheden af

   near

   bygningen

   the building

   snart

   soon

   komme tilbage

   come back

   More detail

   Vi kan means “we can.” vi is the first-person plural pronoun “we,” and kan is the present-tense form of kunne (“can; be able to”). In Danish, kan is followed by an infinitive without at: Vi kan blive = “We can stay.” blive is the infinitive of blive, meaning “stay” or “remain” here. The same verb can also mean “become” in other contexts, so the surrounding location phrase gives it the “stay” meaning here. Example: Jeg bliver her. — “I’m staying here.” i nærheden af is a reusable location pattern meaning “near” or “in the vicinity of.” The preposition af belongs to this expression; it is followed by the place or thing used as the reference point. bygningen means “the building.” It is the definite singular form of bygning (“building”): bygning = “a building” or “building” in an indefinite use, while bygningen = “the building.” The ending -en marks common-gender definite singular in this noun. snart means “soon.” It is an adverb and does not change form for the person or number of the subject. Example: Hun kommer snart. — “She is coming soon.” komme tilbage means “come back” here. komme is the infinitive of komme (“come”), and tilbage adds the meaning of returning to a previous place or situation. Example: Vi kommer tilbage i morgen. — “We are coming back tomorrow.” Together, Vi kan blive i nærheden af bygningen says “We can stay near the building.” The same modal verb kan also governs komme: og snart komme tilbage means “and come back soon.” Thus the complete utterance is: “We can stay near the building and come back soon.”

5. Der er stadig lidt dagslys.

   There's still some daylight.

   Der er

   there is/are

   stadig

   still

   lidt

   some; a little

   dagslys

   daylight

   More detail

   Der er is the Danish present-time existence pattern, literally expressing that something is present or available. er is the present form of være (“to be”); der functions here as the introductory “there” in “there is/are,” rather than identifying a place. The same pattern is reusable with different nouns: Der er kaffe. — “There is coffee.” stadig means “still”: the daylight remains present at this time. It normally comes before the amount or noun phrase it modifies in a sentence like this. For example, Hun arbejder stadig. means “She is still working.” lidt means “some” or “a little” when referring to a limited, non-counted amount. Here it describes an amount of daylight; it does not state an exact quantity. Compare lidt with mange (“many”), which is used with countable plural things. Lidt vand means “a little water.” dagslys means “daylight.” It is a compound noun built from dag (“day”) and lys (“light”). In this utterance it refers to the natural light that remains during the day, not to a particular lamp or light source. Together, Der er stadig lidt dagslys says that some daylight is still present: “There’s still some daylight.” The following context about leaving before it gets dark is compatible with this temporal meaning, but the sentence itself simply states the continued presence of some daylight.

6. Så lad os gå, før det bliver mørkt.

   Then let's go before it gets dark.

   Så

   then

   lad os

   let’s

   gå

   go

   før

   before

   bliver

   gets; becomes

   mørkt

   dark

   More detail

   Så means “then” here, linking the proposal to what has just been established. In other contexts it can also mean “so”, but this sentence uses the sequential meaning. lad os is the reusable Danish pattern for “let’s …”. lad is the imperative of lade (“let” or “allow”), and os means “us”. Together they introduce an action proposed for the speaker and the other people included in “us”. The following verb is in the infinitive: Lad os spise. — “Let’s eat.” gå means “go” and is the infinitive used after lad os. The same form can also occur after at, as in at gå (“to go”). før introduces a time clause meaning “before …”. Here it starts før det bliver mørkt, which sets darkness as the later time boundary for going. bliver is the present-tense form of blive, “become” or “get”. Danish present-tense verbs do not change form for person or number, so bliver has the same form with different subjects. Example: Det bliver varmt. — “It gets warm.” mørkt means “dark” here. Its base form is the adjective mørk; mørkt is the neuter singular form, required in det bliver mørkt because the adjective describes the neuter subject det. Compare en mørk aften (“a dark evening”) with et mørkt rum (“a dark room”). The whole sentence combines the proposal lad os gå (“let’s go”) with the time clause før det bliver mørkt (“before it gets dark”). Thus Så lad os gå, før det bliver mørkt. means “Then let’s go before it gets dark.”

7. Lad os komme tilbage, når vi føler os friske igen.

   Let's come back once we feel refreshed.

   Lad os

   let's

   komme

   come

   tilbage

   back

   når

   when; once

   føler os

   feel

   friske

   refreshed; fresh

   igen

   again

   More detail

   Lad os is the fixed expression for making a suggestion to a group that includes the speaker: “let’s …”. Lad is the imperative of lade (“let”); with os (“us”), it introduces the action the group should take. For example: Lad os gå. — “Let’s go.” komme is the infinitive of komme, “to come” or “to get to a place.” After Lad os, Danish uses the infinitive: Lad os vente. — “Let’s wait.” Here, komme combines with tilbage to mean “come back,” rather than merely “come.” tilbage means “back” and specifies return to an earlier place or situation. The reusable pattern is komme tilbage: Vi kommer tilbage i morgen. — “We’re coming back tomorrow.” når introduces the time condition “when” or “once.” Danish commonly uses the present form in a når clause even when the condition concerns the future: Jeg ringer, når jeg er hjemme. — “I’ll call when I’m home.” føler os means “feel ourselves” here, in the sense of experiencing a state. føler is the present form of føle (“to feel”), and os is the reflexive object pronoun referring back to the subject vi (“we”). The reflexive pattern changes with the subject: jeg føler mig (“I feel”), du føler dig (“you feel”), vi føler os (“we feel”). friske is the plural form of the adjective frisk, meaning “fresh” or, here, “refreshed.” It describes the group represented by vi; the plural form agrees with that subject. The adjective does not mean that a particular noun is fresh here: it describes how the speakers feel. For example: Vi føler os friske. — “We feel refreshed.” igen means “again” and shows that the state or action has occurred before or is being restored. In this sentence, it modifies the feeling of being refreshed: the speakers expect to feel refreshed again. Together, Lad os komme tilbage proposes that the group return. når vi føler os friske igen gives the condition for that return: it should happen once the speakers feel refreshed again. The whole utterance therefore means “Let’s come back once we feel refreshed.”

8. Så er vi klar til at fokusere igen.

   Then we'll be ready to focus again.

   Så

   then

   er vi

   we are

   klar

   ready

   til at

   to

   fokusere

   focus

   igen

   again

   More detail

   Så means “then” here and links this statement to what came before. In other contexts it can also mean “so.” Example: Så går vi. — “Then we’ll go.” er vi means “we are”: er is the present-tense form of være (“be”), and vi means “we.” In Så er vi ..., Så occupies the first position and the finite verb comes next, before the subject. This is a common Danish main-clause word-order pattern. The English future meaning “we’ll be” is supplied by the context; Danish uses the present form here rather than a separate future inflection. klar means “ready” here. It is the adjective used in the expression være klar til at ..., “be ready to ...”. Danish adjective forms can vary with the noun or subject in other contexts; related forms include klart and klare. The fixed utterance contains the form klar, which should be learned as part of this observed expression rather than silently replaced. Example: Jeg er klar til at gå. — “I am ready to leave.” til at introduces the action that someone is ready for. Together with klar, the pattern klar til at means “ready to” followed by a verb. Example: Hun er klar til at begynde. — “She is ready to begin.” fokusere is the infinitive form of the verb fokusere, meaning “to focus.” After the infinitive marker at, this form appears in at fokusere. Example: Vi prøver at fokusere. — “We are trying to focus.” igen means “again.” It is an adverb and does not change for the subject. Example: Hun læser igen. — “She reads again.” Together, Så er vi means “Then we are,” klar til at fokusere means “ready to focus,” and igen adds “again.” The complete utterance means “Then we’ll be ready to focus again.”