Expressing regrets with gid
To express regret about a past situation, Danish uses gid ("if only" or "I wish") followed by the past perfect tense.
The past perfect is formed using an auxiliary verb (havde or var) and a past participle. Most verbs take havde, but verbs describing a change of state (like at synke, to sink) take var.
| If only the lookout had seen the iceberg in front of the ship! | Gid udkigsmanden havde set isbjerget foran skibet! |
| If only the captain had prevented the tragedy. | Gid kaptajnen havde forhindret tragedien. |
Negative wishes
Clauses starting with gid follow subordinate word order. This means that sentence adverbs like ikke (not) must be placed before the conjugated auxiliary verb.
| I wish he had not underestimated the iceberg. | Gid han ikke havde undervurderet isbjerget. |
| If only the ship had not sunk in the sea. | Gid skibet ikke var sunket i havet. |
| If only the man had not drowned in the cold water. | Gid manden ikke var druknet i det kolde vand. |
Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io
