Breakdown of Gid vi vandt i lotteriet og fik en million!
og
and
en
a / an (common)
vi
we
i
in
få
to get, to receive / to have (children)
vinde
to win
gid
if only / I wish
lotteriet
the lottery
millionen
the million
Questions & Answers about Gid vi vandt i lotteriet og fik en million!
Why are the verbs vandt and fik in the past tense if the wish is about the present or future?
The word gid (if only) sets up an imaginary or unreal situation. Just like in English when you say 'If only we won,' Danish uses the past tense to show that this is a wish and not current reality.
Does gid cause the verb to jump to the second position (V2 word order)?
No, gid is a special word that does not trigger the standard V2 rule (inversion). Even though it comes at the start of the sentence, you keep the normal subject-verb order right after it. This is why we say Gid vi vandt and not Gid vandt vi.
Why do we use the preposition i in the phrase i lotteriet?
Prepositions rarely match up perfectly between English and Danish. While in English you might win 'the' lottery or win 'on' the lottery, in Danish you always win 'in' it. The fixed expression is at vinde i lotteriet.
I know fik means 'got', but why use it here instead of a word like blev?
Fik is the past tense of at få, which means to get or receive a physical thing, like a million kroner. You only use the past tense of at blive (blev) when 'got' means 'became', such as getting tired or getting angry.
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