Det lykkes os at rykke fra startfeltet til målfeltet.

to

Breakdown of Det lykkes os at rykke fra startfeltet til målfeltet.

• fra: from
• os: us
• det lykkes ... at: to manage to

Questions & Answers about Det lykkes os at rykke fra startfeltet til målfeltet.

Why does the sentence begin with det when English would not use it here?

In this sentence, det is a formal/dummy subject. Danish often uses det with certain verbs, including lykkes.

So Det lykkes os at rykke ... literally looks like It succeeds for us to move ..., but natural English would be:

• We manage to move ...
• We succeed in moving ...

So det does not really mean a concrete it here; it is just part of the Danish sentence pattern.

Why is it os and not vi?

Because after lykkes, Danish uses the object form of the pronoun, not the subject form.

So you get:

• det lykkes mig
• det lykkes dig
• det lykkes os
• det lykkes dem

Not:

• det lykkes jeg
• det lykkes vi

A good way to think about it is that os means for us / to us in this structure.

Is lykkes a passive form because it ends in -s?