Word
Der kommer en cyklist.
Meaning
A cyclist is coming.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Der kommer en cyklist.
der
there
en
a / an (common)
komme
to come
cyklisten
the cyclist (everyday, general)
Questions & Answers about Der kommer en cyklist.
Why does the sentence start with Der instead of just saying En cyklist kommer?
While En cyklist kommer is understood, Danish strongly prefers using the presentational der (there) when introducing a new, indefinite person or thing into a scene. With verbs of motion like kommer, it is much more natural to say Der kommer en cyklist (literally: There comes a cyclist) than starting with an indefinite subject.
Could I talk about a specific cyclist, like cyklisten, using this structure?
No, presentational der is only used with indefinite subjects (a cyclist, some cyclists). If you wanted to say "The cyclist is coming", you must drop the der and use normal word order: Cyklisten kommer.
Does the real subject (en cyklist) always come after the verb here?
Yes. In this construction, der acts as the grammatical subject in the first position. Because of the Danish V2 rule (the main verb must be the second element), the verb kommer comes next, which pushes the actual meaningful subject (en cyklist) to the other side of the verb.
Why does this work with kommer but not with an active verb like køber (buys)?
This specific der structure is used with intransitive verbs—which just means verbs that do not take a direct object. It is extremely common with verbs of motion or existence like kommer (comes), står (stands), or sidder (sits), but it does not work with verbs that require a direct object.