Breakdown of Havde vi hørt meddelelsen i terminalen, var vi gået til gaten.
være
to be
vi
we
i
in
have
to have
Questions & Answers about Havde vi hørt meddelelsen i terminalen, var vi gået til gaten.
Why does the sentence start with havde vi hørt instead of using hvis (if)?
Just like in English, you can drop the word for 'if' (hvis) in Danish by swapping the subject and the verb. This inversion automatically creates a conditional meaning. Havde vi hørt... translates directly to 'Had we heard...'.
Where is the 'would have' in the second part of the sentence (var vi gået)?
In Danish past unreal conditionals, you don't always need to explicitly say 'would have' (ville have or ville være). It is extremely common to just use the past perfect tense in the main clause. So while var vi gået literally means 'had we gone', in this conditional structure it translates to 'we would have gone'.
Why does the second part use var instead of havde for the past perfect tense?
The verb at gå (to walk/go) is a verb of motion. In Danish, verbs that show a change of location or state use være (to be) as their helping verb in perfect tenses, rather than have. Therefore, 'had gone' is constructed as var gået (literally 'was gone').
Why is the word order var vi gået instead of vi var gået in the main clause?