Breakdown of Hvis du dumper, kan du tage prøven igen.
du
you
tage
to take / to make (a decision)
kunne
to be able to / can
hvis
if
prøven
the test
igen
again
dumpe
to fail (an exam)
Questions & Answers about Hvis du dumper, kan du tage prøven igen.
Why is the word order kan du instead of du kan in the second half of the sentence?
This is because of the Danish V2 (verb-second) rule. The whole subordinate clause (Hvis du dumper) counts as the first block of information. The main verb (kan) must come exactly in the second position, so it jumps in front of the subject (du).
Is dumper a false friend here?
Yes, it is! While it looks like the English word dump, at dumpe is commonly used in Danish to mean failing an exam or a driving test. If you want to talk about dumping a romantic partner, you would typically use at droppe instead.
Why is there no at (to) in front of tage?
Because tage follows kan, which is a modal verb. Modal verbs like kan, skal, vil, and må are always followed directly by the bare infinitive of the main verb, completely dropping the at.
How does prøven translate to "the test"?
The base noun is en prøve (a test). In Danish, to make a noun definite (saying the instead of a), you attach the article to the end of the noun. Since the word already ends in an e, you just add an -n to the end to get prøven.
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