Breakdown of At han kan opføre sig så uforskammet!
han
he
kunne
to be able to / can
at
that
så
then, so
opføre sig
to behave
uforskammet
rude
Questions & Answers about At han kan opføre sig så uforskammet!
Why does this sentence start with At when it isn't connecting two clauses together?
This is a standalone exclamatory at-clause! By dropping the main clause (like "I can't believe..." or "It's shocking..."), the speaker emphasizes strong emotion—in this case, outrage or disbelief. It works perfectly for the pragmatic stance of showing shock, similar to the English exclamation, "That he would do such a thing!"
Why is sig used here after opføre?
The verb at opføre sig (to behave) is always reflexive in Danish, unlike in English. Because the subject is han, the matching third-person reflexive pronoun is sig. If the sentence were about yourself, it would be: At jeg kan opføre mig så uforskammet!
If I wanted to add an adverb like ikke to this exclamation, where would it go?
It would go right after the subject: At han ikke kan opføre sig... Even though it stands alone, this exclamation is grammatically a subordinate clause. This means it still strictly follows subordinate word order, where central adverbs like ikke or altid must come before the first verb.
Why doesn't uforskammet get an extra -t ending to turn it into an adverb here?
Normally, you do add a -t to an adjective to use it as an adverb describing an action. However, the base dictionary form of uforskammet already ends in a -t, so it doesn't take an extra one. It acts as both the adjective (rude) and the adverb (rudely) without changing its spelling.
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