Breakdown of Hvis han havde stolet på sin intuition, ville han ikke give skæbnen skylden nu.
han
he
nu
now
have
to have
ikke
not
sin
his/her/its own (common)
stole på
to trust
ville
want to / will
hvis
if
give
to give
skylden
the blame / the guilt
intuitionen
the intuition
skæbnen
the fate
Questions & Answers about Hvis han havde stolet på sin intuition, ville han ikke give skæbnen skylden nu.
Why does the first clause use the past perfect (havde stolet) while the second uses the present conditional (ville give)?
This is a classic mixed conditional. The first part talks about an unreal past condition (he didn't trust his intuition back then), so it uses the past perfect. The second part describes the imaginary result happening right now (indicated by nu), so it shifts to the present conditional.
Why does the sentence use sin instead of hans for 'his'?
Because sin reflects back to the subject of the clause. Since he is the subject and it is his own intuition, we must use sin. Using hans here would mean he trusted a different male person's intuition.
Why is the word order ville han ikke instead of han ville ikke in the second clause?
This is due to the Danish V2 (verb-second) rule. The entire 'if' clause counts as the first position in the sentence. Therefore, the finite verb of the main clause (ville) must take the second position, putting the subject (han) right after it.
How exactly does the phrase give skæbnen skylden work grammatically?
Literally, it means 'to give the fate the blame'. In Danish, 'to blame' is often expressed with the verb give followed by the receiver and then skylden (the blame). Notice that both skæbne (fate) and skyld (blame) use the definite -en ending here.
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