I dag har jeg svømmet i havet, og det var en fantastisk oplevelse.

Today I have swum in the sea, and it was a fantastic experience.

Breakdown of I dag har jeg svømmet i havet, og det var en fantastisk oplevelse.

• og: and
• i: in
• en: a
• være: to be
• have: to have
• det: it
• i dag: today
• svømme: to swim
• havet: the sea
• fantastisk: fantastic
• oplevelsen: the experience

Questions & Answers about I dag har jeg svømmet i havet, og det var en fantastisk oplevelse.

Why do we use har svømmet instead of the simple past form svømmede?

Danish uses the present perfect tense (har svømmet) to emphasize the link between the past action and the present moment. If you said jeg svømmede, it would place the action firmly in the past without that present relevance. In many everyday contexts, Danes prefer har svømmet rather than svømmede, especially when talking about today’s events or an action that has just finished.

Why does the sentence start with I dag?

Danish word order commonly allows adverbials like i dag (today) to come first to set the time context. This helps the listener or reader know immediately when the action took place. It’s also perfectly acceptable to place i dag later in the sentence (for example: Jeg har i dag svømmet i havet), but starting with I dag can sound more natural and fluent in everyday speech.

Why do we say i havet (in the sea) rather than på havet (on the sea)?

In Danish, i usually indicates being physically inside or within something, such as water or an enclosed space. På havet (literally, on the sea) can suggest being on a boat or on the ocean’s surface rather than actually swimming in the water. Because this sentence describes swimming, i havet is the appropriate choice.

Is it normal to use det var in og det var en fantastisk oplevelse instead of det er?

When talking about a thing that happened in the past (the swimming experience), Danish speakers use the simple past form var (was). If you wanted to describe something that is still currently fantastic (more general statement), you might say det er en fantastisk oplevelse. But since this sentence refers to an event that already happened, var is the correct form.

Why is there an en before fantastisk oplevelse?

In Danish, en is the indefinite article used with common-gender nouns. Oplevelse (experience) is a common-gender noun, so it takes en. In English, we similarly say a fantastic experience. You would only leave out the article if you used a different structure—like referring generically to the concept of experiencing something—but here, you’re talking about one specific experience, so en is needed.