Word
Manden siger at myten skulle være sand selvom den lyder overnaturlig.
Meaning
The man says that the myth is supposed to be true even though it sounds supernatural.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Manden siger at myten skulle være sand selvom den lyder overnaturlig.
være
to be
manden
the man
den
it (common)
sige
to say
Questions & Answers about Manden siger at myten skulle være sand selvom den lyder overnaturlig.
Why do we use the past tense skulle when the main verb siger is in the present tense?
This is a special, very common use of skulle. Even though it is the past tense of skal, it doesn't refer to the past here. Instead, it expresses hearsay or unconfirmed information, meaning "is said to" or "is supposed to." By saying at myten skulle være sand, the speaker is distancing themselves slightly, indicating that this is just what people say.
Why are the adjectives sand and overnaturlig written without a -t at the end?
Adjectives in Danish must agree with the gender of the noun they describe. Because myten (the myth) is a common-gender noun (an en-word), both adjectives take their basic form. If the noun were a neuter et-word, they would be written as sandt and overnaturligt.
Why is the word for "it" den in the second half of the sentence, rather than det?
The pronoun den refers back to myten. Because myte is an en-word, you must use den (it) to replace it. You only use det for et-words.
If I wanted to say "...even though it does NOT sound supernatural," where would I put the word ikke?
It would go right before the verb: selvom den ikke lyder overnaturlig. Because selvom starts a subordinate (dependent) clause, Danish word order rules require sentence adverbs like ikke to be placed before the verb.