Breakdown of Jeg hørte ham ikke, og det var pinligt.
jeg
I
være
to be
det
it (neuter)
og
and
ikke
not
høre
to hear / to listen to (music, radio, a podcast)
ham
him
pinlig
embarrassing
Questions & Answers about Jeg hørte ham ikke, og det var pinligt.
Why is the word order hørte ham ikke instead of hørte ikke ham?
This is the pronoun shift in action! Normally, a central adverb like ikke comes right after the first verb in a main clause (for example, Jeg hørte ikke manden). But when the object is an unstressed pronoun like ham, it jumps in front of ikke.
What if I really want to emphasize that I didn't hear him in particular?
If you put vocal stress on the pronoun ham to mean "I didn't hear HIM (but I heard someone else)", the pronoun shift does not happen. The word order goes back to normal: Jeg hørte ikke ham. In our sentence, ham is just unstressed, everyday information.
Why does pinligt end in a -t?
The base adjective is pinlig (embarrassing). We add the -t here to make it neuter because it is describing the pronoun det. In this sentence, det is a neuter placeholder referring back to the entire situation of not hearing him.
Could I use lyttede instead of hørte here?
No, because at lytte means "to listen" (an active choice), whereas at høre means "to hear" (a physical sense). You didn't intentionally avoid listening to him; you just didn't catch the sound of his voice. Also, lytte requires the preposition til, so it would have to be lyttede ikke til ham.
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