Breakdown of Toget var forsinket, og dermed nåede vi ikke mødet.
være
to be
og
and
vi
we
ikke
not
mødet
the meeting
toget
the train
forsinket
delayed
nå
to reach, to make it (in time)
dermed
thus, with that
Questions & Answers about Toget var forsinket, og dermed nåede vi ikke mødet.
Why is the word order nåede vi instead of vi nåede in the second half of the sentence?
In Danish, og is a coordinating conjunction that counts as position zero. The word dermed (thus/thereby) takes the first position of the new clause. Because Danish follows the V2 rule (the verb must be the second idea in a main clause), the verb nåede must come next, pushing the subject vi after it.
Could I use derfor instead of dermed here?
Yes, you could say og derfor nåede vi ikke mødet, and the general meaning would be identical. Dermed literally means 'with that' and sounds slightly more formal. It emphasizes that the delay was the direct condition that caused you to miss the meeting.
The verb nåede comes from at nå, which usually means 'to reach'. Why is it translated as 'make' here?
While at nå does mean 'to reach' physically, it is also the standard Danish way to say 'to make it somewhere in time' or 'to have enough time for something'. In this context, nåede vi ikke mødet naturally translates to 'we didn't make the meeting'.
Why does ikke come after the subject vi, rather than before it?
In a main clause, the negation word ikke comes after the finite verb and the subject. Because the V2 rule forced the verb and subject to invert into nåede vi, the word ikke simply takes its normal spot right after them.
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