Breakdown of Hvis strømmen går, bruger vi telefonen.
vi
we
telefonen
the phone
bruge
to use / to spend (money, time) / to need (together with the modal of obligation)
gå
to walk / to go / to go out, to fail (of power)
hvis
if
strømmen
the power (electricity)
Questions & Answers about Hvis strømmen går, bruger vi telefonen.
Why does it say bruger vi instead of vi bruger?
This is because of the V2 (verb-second) rule. The entire if-clause (Hvis strømmen går) acts as the first piece of information in the sentence. Therefore, the main verb (bruger) must take the second position, swapping places with the subject (vi).
Does går literally mean goes out here?
The verb går usually means walks or goes. In Danish, saying that the power goes (strømmen går) is the standard idiom for a power outage, which matches how we sometimes say the power went in English.
Why does the word strøm have -men added to it?
The word strøm means power or current. To say the power, we add the definite suffix. Because strøm is a common gender word, we add -en, but we also have to double the final consonant to keep the vowel sound short, resulting in strømmen.
Can we use a future tense verb instead of the present tense bruger?
You could technically use a future construction with vil, but Danish strongly prefers using the simple present tense (bruger) in hvis (if) sentences to describe conditional future events, which is very similar to how English handles it.
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