Breakdown of Undskyld, glemte spørgsmålstegnet.
glemme
to forget
undskyld
sorry; excuse me
spørgsmålstegnet
the question mark
Questions & Answers about Undskyld, glemte spørgsmålstegnet.
Why is there no word for "I" before glemte?
This is an example of "topic drop" (emnedrop), a common feature in casual spoken Danish and informal text messages. When a pronoun like jeg (I) or det (it) is the topic (the very first element of the main clause) and the context makes it perfectly obvious, you can just drop it. The full sentence would be: Undskyld, jeg glemte spørgsmålstegnet.
How is the word spørgsmålstegnet built?
It is a compound noun made of spørgsmål (question) and tegn (sign or mark), joined by a linking -s-. The -et at the end is the neuter definite article, meaning it translates to "the question mark".
Does the comma after Undskyld affect the V2 (verb-second) rule here?
No. The word Undskyld acts as an interjection (an exclamation) here, which sits completely outside the main clause structure. The main clause starts immediately after the comma. In a full sentence, jeg would be in position 1 and glemte in position 2. Because jeg is dropped, the verb glemte simply ends up at the start of the spoken clause.
Could I drop the "I" if I added a word like "completely" first?
No, you can only drop the topic if it is the very first structural element in the main clause. If you want to include an adverb, you cannot drop the subject. You would have to say Undskyld, jeg glemte helt spørgsmålstegnet.
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