Breakdown of Jeg genkendte ham ikke, og det var min undskyldning.
jeg
I
være
to be
og
and
ikke
not
min
my
ham
him
det
that (demonstrative, neuter)
genkende
to recognize
undskyldningen
the excuse
Questions & Answers about Jeg genkendte ham ikke, og det var min undskyldning.
Why is ham placed before ikke in the first half of the sentence?
This is the 'pronoun shift' (pronominalskift) you are learning in this lesson! Usually, an object comes after a central adverb like ikke. For example, if the object was a noun, you would say Jeg genkendte ikke manden (I didn't recognize the man). However, when the object is an unstressed pronoun like ham, it shifts to just before the central adverb in a main clause.
What happens to the word order if I want to strongly emphasize that it was him I didn't recognize?
If you put stress on the pronoun ham, the pronoun shift does not happen. The sentence goes back to the standard word order where the object follows the adverb: Jeg genkendte ikke ham (I didn't recognize him, specifically).
The verb genkendte looks a lot like kendte. Are they related?
Yes, genkende (to recognize) is just the verb kende (to know a person or thing) with the prefix gen- (re- / again) attached. Because of this, it follows the exact same conjugation pattern: genkender in the present, genkendte in the past, and genkendt in the perfect tense.
Does undskyldning mean 'excuse' or 'apology'?
It actually means both! It is a noun formed from undskyld (sorry / excuse me). The exact translation depends entirely on the context. Here, saying 'that was my excuse' makes the most logical sense, but in other situations, en undskyldning is a formal apology.
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