Word
Ved du om jeg kan indsætte kontanter her?
Meaning
Do you know if I can deposit cash here?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Questions & Answers about Ved du om jeg kan indsætte kontanter her?
Why is it om and not hvis when the English translation says 'if'?
In Danish, om means 'whether' and introduces indirect questions or options. Hvis is strictly for conditional 'if' (like 'if it rains'). Since you could replace 'if' with 'whether' in this English sentence, you must use om in Danish.
Could I say sætte kontanter ind instead of indsætte kontanter?
Yes! At sætte ind is the phrasal verb equivalent of the compound verb at indsætte. In everyday spoken Danish, you will often hear sætte penge ind, while indsætte sounds a bit more formal or official, fitting for banking terminology.
In English, 'cash' is singular and uncountable. Why is kontanter in the plural?
Unlike English, Danish treats physical cash as a plural countable noun: kontanter. The singular noun form is rarely used. However, if you want to say you are paying 'in cash', you use the adjective form instead and say at betale kontant.
Why isn't the word order inverted to om kan jeg since it is a question?
The first part of the sentence (Ved du) is the actual question and uses inverted verb-subject word order. The second part is a dependent clause introduced by om. In Danish dependent clauses, you never invert the subject and verb, so it must remain om jeg kan.