Word
Hvis jeg kunne, ville jeg hjælpe dig.
Meaning
If I could, I would help you.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Hvis jeg kunne, ville jeg hjælpe dig.
jeg
I
hjælpe
to help
dig
you (singular object)
kunne
to be able to / can
Questions & Answers about Hvis jeg kunne, ville jeg hjælpe dig.
Why is the second half of the sentence ville jeg instead of jeg ville?
This is due to the V2 (verb-second) rule in Danish. The entire conditional clause (Hvis jeg kunne) counts as the first piece of information in the sentence. Therefore, the main verb (ville) must take the second position, pushing the subject (jeg) right after the verb.
Why are the verbs in the past tense (kunne, ville) if this isn't an event that happened in the past?
Just like in English, Danish uses the past tense of modal verbs to talk about a hypothetical or imaginary situation in the present or future. Kunne translates directly to "could", and ville translates to "would".
Doesn't ville usually mean "wanted to"?
It can! Ville is the past tense of at ville (to want to). However, when it is used as a helper verb to describe a hypothetical outcome like in this sentence, it functions exactly like the English word "would".
Why is hjælpe not in the past tense to match the other verbs?
Because it directly follows a modal verb. Modal verbs like kunne and ville always force the next verb into its infinitive (dictionary) form, without the word at. Here, ville carries the time/condition, and hjælpe just stays in its basic form.