Word
Taler du ikke dansk? — Jo, det gør jeg.
Meaning
Do you not speak Danish? — Yes, I do.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Taler du ikke dansk? — Jo, det gør jeg.
Why do we use Jo here instead of Ja to mean yes?
Because the question is negative (it contains ikke). In Danish, when someone asks a negative question like 'Do you not...', you must use jo instead of ja to contradict the negative and say 'yes, I actually do'.
Why does the answer say det gør jeg instead of just translating 'I do'?
When giving a short answer for an action verb like taler, Danish requires a placeholder object. You literally say 'that do I' (det gør jeg) rather than just 'I do'. The word det stands in for the action of speaking Danish.
Why are the words flipped in gør jeg rather than saying jeg gør?
This is because of the Danish verb-second (V2) rule. Since the reply starts with the object det, the verb gør must immediately follow to stay in the second position. This forces the subject jeg to swap places and come after the verb.
Shouldn't the language dansk be capitalized?
No, unlike in English, Danish does not capitalize the names of languages or nationalities.