Learn Danish: Vi legede meget på gaden dengang. - We played a lot in the street back then.

While da is a conjunction meaning "when" used to connect sentences about the past, dengang is an adverb that simply means "back then" or "at that time". They are very closely related, and you will even hear Danes combine them into dengang da (back when).

Why does the sentence use legede for "played" instead of spillede?

Danish has two different words for "to play". You use at lege (past tense: legede) for free play, like children playing outside or make-believe. You use at spille when playing something with set rules, like sports, board games, or musical instruments.

If I move dengang to the front of the sentence, what happens to the word order?

Moving dengang to the beginning triggers the V2 rule, which means the verb must stay in the second position. The subject (vi) and the verb (legede) would swap places, making the sentence: Dengang legede vi meget på gaden.

Why do we use the preposition på here instead of i for "in the street"?

Prepositions rarely translate perfectly word-for-word. In Danish, you generally use på (on) with gaden when talking about an activity happening out on the physical street surface. It translates literally to "on the street".