Word
Stormen kommer snart, og det frygter jeg faktisk.
Meaning
The storm is coming soon, and I actually fear that.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Stormen kommer snart, og det frygter jeg faktisk.
What does det refer to in the second half of the sentence?
It represents the entire first clause, Stormen kommer snart. Instead of spelling out that you fear the storm coming soon, Danish simply uses det to stand in for the whole idea. This is how clausal object substitution works.
Why is the word order frygter jeg instead of jeg frygter?
This happens because of the V2 rule (the verb-second rule). The object det is pulled to the front of the clause to strongly link back to the first idea. Because det takes up position one, the verb frygter must take position two, pushing the subject jeg into position three.
Why does this translate to 'is coming' when there is no '-ing' word in Danish?
Danish does not have a present continuous tense like English does. The simple present tense word kommer covers both 'comes' and 'is coming'. The context of snart (soon) makes it clear that it is happening in the near future.
Where does the adverb faktisk go in an inverted sentence like this?
In a main clause, sentence adverbs like faktisk (actually) typically go right after the verb and the subject. Since the word order here is reversed into det frygter jeg, the adverb follows them and naturally lands at the very end of the sentence.