Word
Vi skulle organisere udflugten, men vi bestemte os for at droppe den.
Meaning
We were supposed to organize the outing, but we decided to drop it.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Vi skulle organisere udflugten, men vi bestemte os for at droppe den.
den
it (common)
vi
we
at
to
skulle
to have to / must / to be going to
Questions & Answers about Vi skulle organisere udflugten, men vi bestemte os for at droppe den.
Why do we use skulle here instead of just the past tense of organize?
skulle is the past tense of skal. When combined with the infinitive organisere, it creates the 'future in the past'. This shows that organizing the outing was a past plan or obligation, matching the English 'were supposed to' or 'were going to'.
Why is there an os right after bestemte?
The verb for 'to decide' is at bestemme sig, which is a reflexive verb. Since the subject is vi (we), you must use the matching reflexive pronoun os (ourselves). Literally, this phrases it as 'we decided ourselves'.
Why do we need the word for before at droppe den?
When you use at bestemme sig (to decide) followed by a new action, Danish requires the preposition for to connect them. The fixed pattern is at bestemme sig for at do something.
How do we know whether to use den or det at the end of the sentence?
The pronoun at the end means 'it' and refers back to udflugten (the outing). Because en udflugt is a common-gender noun (an en-word), it is replaced by den. If it had referred to a neuter noun (an et-word), you would use det instead.