Breakdown of I dag går drengen tidligt hjem.
drengen
the boy
gå
to walk / to go / to go out, to fail (of power)
hjem
home
tidligt
early
Questions & Answers about I dag går drengen tidligt hjem.
Why do we use hjem here instead of hjemme?
The word hjem is directional, meaning it shows movement towards a place. Because the boy is actively moving there (går), we use hjem. If he were already at his house, we would use the locational form, hjemme (at home).
Why does the verb går come before the subject drengen?
Danish follows the V2 rule, meaning the main verb must be the second idea in a sentence. Because this sentence starts with the time phrase I dag (today), the verb går has to come next to stay in the second position, pushing the subject drengen (the boy) to the third spot.
Why is it tidligt with a -t at the end?
The basic adjective for "early" is tidlig. When you use it to describe how an action is done (making it an adverb), you add a -t to the end. Here, tidligt describes how the boy is going home.
The English translation says "is going", but isn't går just "goes"?
Danish does not have a separate continuous tense like English does with "is going" or "are doing". The present tense verb går translates to both "goes" and "is going", depending on what makes the most natural sense in the English translation.