Telling events in order
When you tell a story, these adverbs put the events in order:
| Danish | English |
|---|---|
| først | first |
| derefter | after that, then |
| bagefter | afterwards |
| til slut | in the end, finally |
They usually open the sentence, and then the verb comes second, before the subject:
| First we ate. After that we went for a walk. | Først spiste vi. Derefter gik vi en tur. |
| Afterwards everyone was very tired. | Bagefter var alle meget trætte. |
| Finally he said thank you to everyone. | Til slut sagde han tak til alle. |
Bagefter can also stand at the end: Vi spiser bagefter.
The day before, two years later
To place an event relative to another one in the past, put a time noun in front of før, efter, senere or tidligere. Without a number the noun takes the definite ending (dagen før, ugen efter); with a number it does not (to dage før, tre år senere):
| relative time | meaning |
|---|---|
| dagen før | the day before |
| ugen efter | the week after |
| to år senere | two years later |
| tre år tidligere | three years earlier |
| The day before, it had rained a lot. | Dagen før havde det regnet meget. |
| Two years later they got married. | To år senere blev de gift. |
These are adverbials too, so at the front they invert the subject and the verb. With an event that came before another one in the past, the verb is often in the past perfect (havde regnet).
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