Sudden Starts with "give sig til at"
To express that someone abruptly or unexpectedly starts an action, Danish uses give sig til at followed by an infinitive. It literally translates to "give oneself to [do something]," but functions like the English "suddenly start to" or "burst into."
| to suddenly start to | give sig til at |
| She suddenly started giggling. | Hun gav sig til at fnise. |
| The boy suddenly started singing loudly. | Drengen gav sig til at skråle. |
Unexpected Reactions and Outbursts
This construction is often used to describe sudden emotional reactions or noisy outbursts. Conjugate give to match the tense, most commonly using the present (giver) or past (gav).
| Afterwards, they suddenly started cheering. | Bagefter gav de sig til at juble. |
| The dog suddenly starts whining hysterically. | Hunden giver sig til at pive hysterisk. |
Questions and Word Order
Since give is the main verb, it follows standard V2 (verb-second) word order. In a question, invert the subject and verb.
| Why does he suddenly start scolding her? | Hvorfor giver han sig til at skælde hende ud? |
If you start a sentence with an adverb or time phrase, give also comes before the subject to maintain the V2 rule.
| Then she suddenly started pounding on the door. | Derefter gav hun sig til at hamre på døren. |
| By the way, the audience suddenly started clapping. | For resten gav publikummet sig til at klappe. |
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