Vi skylder advokaten penge.

Skylder is the present tense of at skylde = to owe.

So:

• at skylde = to owe
• skylder = owe / am owing / are owing

In this sentence, Vi skylder ... means We owe ...

A useful thing to remember: Danish verbs do not change according to the subject the way English verbs sometimes do. So you get:

• jeg skylder
• du skylder
• vi skylder
• de skylder

The verb form stays the same.

Because advokaten means the lawyer, while advokat on its own means lawyer in a more dictionary-like or non-inflected sense.

In Danish, the definite article is often added as an ending:

• en advokat = a lawyer
• advokaten = the lawyer

So the -en ending is the definite article here.

Because Danish often uses skylde with two objects directly, just like English can:

• We owe the lawyer money
• Vi skylder advokaten penge

So advokaten is not introduced by a preposition here. It works like someone in the pattern:

• skylde nogen noget = owe someone something

That is a very common Danish structure.

It is the person we owe something to.

In Vi skylder advokaten penge:

• Vi = subject
• skylder = verb
• advokaten = the person owed
• penge = the thing owed

So the structure is:

subject + owe + person + thing

This is very similar to English owe someone something.

Because penge means money, and in Danish it is usually used without an article when speaking in a general sense.

Compare:

• Vi skylder advokaten penge = We owe the lawyer money
• Vi skylder advokaten nogle penge = We owe the lawyer some money
• Vi skylder advokaten pengene = We owe the lawyer the money

Also, penge is grammatically a plural-only noun in Danish, even though English money is usually treated as singular/uncountable.

So learners should remember:

• penge = money
• pengene = the money
• nogle penge = some money

Because Vi is the subject of the sentence.

In a normal Danish main clause, the subject and the finite verb show who is doing the action. Here:

• Vi skylder ... = We owe ...

If you wanted to say The lawyer owes us money, you would say:

• Advokaten skylder os penge

So the first noun/pronoun before the verb in this ordinary statement is what tells you who owes.

Yes, that is also possible.

Both of these are understandable and natural:

• Vi skylder advokaten penge
• Vi skylder penge til advokaten

The version with two objects—advokaten penge—is very direct and common.

The version with til is also used, especially when the focus is more on penge first:

• Vi skylder penge til banken
• Han skylder mange penge til sine forældre

So both patterns exist, but skylde nogen noget is a very important one to learn.

In a neutral sentence like this, that is the most natural order:

• Vi skylder advokaten penge

That follows the common pattern:

• skylde nogen noget

But Danish word order can change for emphasis, especially because main clauses follow the V2 rule. For example, you can move another element to the front:

• Penge skylder vi advokaten
• Advokaten skylder vi penge

These are possible, but they are more marked and usually need a special context or emphasis. For a learner, the safest default is:

• Vi skylder advokaten penge

You can replace penge with a more specific expression.

Examples:

• Vi skylder advokaten nogle penge = We owe the lawyer some money
• Vi skylder advokaten 5.000 kroner = We owe the lawyer 5,000 kroner
• Vi skylder advokaten mange penge = We owe the lawyer a lot of money

So the pattern stays the same:

Vi skylder + person + amount/thing

That makes this sentence a very useful model for building others.