Word
I går var han i gang med at skifte tapetet.
Meaning
Yesterday he was in the middle of replacing the wallpaper.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of I går var han i gang med at skifte tapetet.
være
to be
han
he
at
to
med
with; by (bus, train) / of, to (the meaning or point of something)
Questions & Answers about I går var han i gang med at skifte tapetet.
How does the phrase i gang med at work in this sentence to show the past?
The phrase i gang med at shows that an action is ongoing, similar to saying someone is 'in the process of' doing something. Because the helping verb var (was) is in the past tense, it tells us the action was happening at a specific time in the past.
Why is the word order var han instead of han var?
This happens because of the V2 (verb-second) rule. In Danish, the main verb must be the second idea in the sentence. Since the time phrase I går takes up the first spot, the verb var must come next, pushing the subject han to the third spot.
Since the sentence is about yesterday, why isn't skifte in the past tense?
The word at (to) forces the verb that follows it into its base, dictionary form (the infinitive). The past tense is already shown by the word var earlier in the sentence, so skifte stays in its base form.
Why does the word tapet have an extra -et at the end here?
Tapet (wallpaper) is a neuter noun, or an 'et-word'. To say 'the wallpaper', Danish takes that et and attaches it to the end of the noun, creating tapetet.