Jeg vil aflæse elmåleren.

Because vil is a modal verb, and in Danish, modal verbs are followed directly by the infinitive.

So:

• jeg vil aflæse
• not jeg vil at aflæse

This works like English I want to read only in structure it is closer to I will/can/must read, where English also drops to after modal verbs:

• I can read
• I will read

Other common Danish modal verbs that work the same way are:

• kan = can
• skal = shall / must / am going to
• må = may / be allowed to
• bør = ought to

Aflæse means to read off, to take a reading from, or to read a measurement from an instrument.

It is not the normal general verb for reading a book or text. For that, Danish usually uses læse.

So:

• læse en bog = read a book
• aflæse måleren = read the meter / take the meter reading

The prefix af- often gives the idea of taking something off, reading off, or extracting information from a display or device.

Because elmåleren is the definite form: the electricity meter.

In Danish, definiteness is often added as an ending, not with a separate word like English the.

• en elmåler = an electricity meter
• elmåleren = the electricity meter

This is very common in Danish:

• en bil = a car
• bilen = the car

So the -en ending here means the.

It is a compound noun:

• el = electricity / electric
• måler = meter, gauge, measuring device
• elmåler = electricity meter
• elmåleren = the electricity meter

Danish forms compounds very freely, much like German. English often writes these as two words, but Danish commonly writes them as one word.

So a learner should get used to long compound nouns being completely normal.

This is standard main-clause word order in Danish:

• Jeg = subject
• vil = finite verb
• aflæse = infinitive
• elmåleren = object

In Danish main clauses, the finite verb normally comes in the second position. Here the subject is first, so the verb comes right after it:

• Jeg vil ...

This is one of the most important Danish word-order rules.

Yes, but it means something slightly different.

• Jeg vil aflæse elmåleren often means I want to read the electricity meter or I will read the electricity meter
• Jeg skal aflæse elmåleren often means I have to / am supposed to / am going to read the electricity meter

So:

• vil can express willingness, intention, or future
• skal usually sounds more like obligation, plan, or requirement

In real life, the best choice depends on context.

Jeg is pronounced much shorter and softer than an English speaker might expect.

In standard modern Danish, it is often close to yai or yigh, depending on the speaker and context. The final g is not pronounced like a hard English g.

Important points:

• the j sounds like English y
• the eg part is reduced and does not sound like English egg

In natural speech, jeg is often quite weak and unstressed.

They are two separate Danish vowels:

• æ in aflæse is somewhat like the vowel in English cat, but not exactly
• å in måleren is somewhat like the vowel in British English law or more, but again not exactly

Very roughly:

• aflæse ≈ ahf-leh-se
• måleren ≈ maw-le-ren

These are only approximations. Danish vowels are tricky, and listening to native audio is the best way to learn them.

No, not in the way English phrasal verbs are. Aflæse is a single verb written as one word.

So you say:

• Jeg vil aflæse elmåleren

You do not split it into something like læse ... af in this meaning.

That is important because English speakers often expect the prefix to behave like an English particle, but here it belongs to the verb itself.

Yes. That is one reason Danish vil can be tricky for English speakers.

Depending on context, vil can express:

• desire: want to
• intention: intend to
• future: will

So Jeg vil aflæse elmåleren could be understood as:

• I want to read the electricity meter
• I’m going to read the electricity meter
• I will read the electricity meter

Usually the situation makes the meaning clear.

Because Danish usually marks definiteness by attaching it to the noun.

Instead of a separate article before the noun, Danish often uses a suffix:

• en måler = a meter
• måleren = the meter

The same thing happens in elmåleren.

A separate definite word such as den is used in some other structures, especially when there is an adjective:

• elmåleren = the electricity meter
• den nye elmåler = the new electricity meter

So the missing separate the is completely normal Danish grammar.