Vi planlægger en ferie i bjergene næste sommer.

We are planning a vacation in the mountains next summer.

Breakdown of Vi planlægger en ferie i bjergene næste sommer.

• i: in
• en: a
• vi: we
• næste: next
• planlægge: to plan
• sommeren: the summer
• ferien: the vacation
• bjergene: the mountains

Questions & Answers about Vi planlægger en ferie i bjergene næste sommer.

Why is planlægger in the present tense when we’re talking about something in the future?

In Danish, the present tense is very often used for future events when the context clearly points to the future.

• Vi planlægger en ferie i bjergene næste sommer.
  = We are planning a holiday in the mountains next summer.

Because næste sommer (next summer) is included, it’s obvious that the planning concerns the future, so Danish doesn’t need a separate “future tense” form.

Some other examples:

• Jeg rejser til Danmark i morgen. – I’m going to Denmark tomorrow.
• Hun starter på universitetet efter sommerferien. – She starts university after the summer holiday.

So using planlægger in present tense here is completely normal and idiomatic Danish for a future plan.

What is the infinitive of planlægger, and how is this verb conjugated?

The verb is at planlægge (to plan).

Basic forms:

• Infinitive: at planlægge – to plan
• Present: planlægger – (I/you/we/they) plan / are planning
• Past: planlagde – planned
• Past participle: planlagt – planned

Example sentences:

• Vi planlægger en ferie. – We are planning a holiday.
• Vi planlagde en ferie sidste år. – We planned a holiday last year.
• Ferien er nøje planlagt. – The holiday is carefully planned.

Why is it en ferie and not et ferie? How do I know which article to use?

Danish has two grammatical genders:

• common gender (n-words) → en
• neuter gender (t-words) → et

The noun ferie is a common gender noun, so you say:

• en ferie – a holiday
• ferien – the holiday

Unfortunately, gender is mostly arbitrary and must be learned with the noun. There aren’t reliable rules that always tell you whether something is en or et, so it’s best to learn new words together with their article, e.g.:

• en ferie
• en rejse (a trip)
• et hotel (a hotel)
• et bjerg (a mountain)

Notice that ferie and rejse are en, but bjerg and hotel are et.

Can ferie be both “holiday” and “vacation”? And is it countable in Danish?

Yes, ferie is used for both “holiday” (BrE) and “vacation” (AmE). It can be used both as a countable noun and in more of a general sense.

Countable:

• Vi planlægger en ferie. – We are planning a holiday.
• Vi tager to ferier om året. – We take two holidays a year.

More general / uncountable-like:

• Jeg har ferie næste uge. – I’m on holiday / I have time off next week.
• Børnene har ferie i juli. – The children have school holidays in July.

There’s also a very common expression:

• at være på ferie – to be on holiday / vacation
  
  • Vi er på ferie i Italien. – We’re on holiday in Italy.

Is there a difference between en ferie and på ferie?

Yes, they’re used in different ways:

• en ferie – refers to the event/trip itself

  • Vi planlægger en ferie. – We’re planning a holiday.

• på ferie – refers to the state of being on holiday, not the planning

  • Vi er på ferie. – We’re on holiday.
  • Jeg tager på ferie næste uge. – I’m going on holiday next week.

You can combine them:

• Vi planlægger at tage på ferie i bjergene.
  – We’re planning to go on holiday in the mountains.

Why is it i bjergene and not i bjerg or i et bjerg?

Bjergene is the definite plural of et bjerg (a mountain):

• et bjerg – a mountain
• bjerget – the mountain
• bjerge – mountains
• bjergene – the mountains

In this sentence, i bjergene literally means “in the mountains” (as in a mountainous region), just like English:

• Vi planlægger en ferie i bjergene.
  – We are planning a holiday in the mountains.

Saying i et bjerg (in a mountain) would sound like you are inside one specific mountain, which is not what is meant.
Saying i bjerge (in mountains) sounds incomplete/odd in Danish in this context; the fixed natural expression is i bjergene.

Why do we use i with bjergene? Could it be på bjergene?

Here, i bjergene is the idiomatic choice and means “in the mountains” as a region or landscape.

• i bjergene – in the mountains (the mountainous area)

You would not normally say på bjergene in this meaning. The preposition på is more common with:

• på stranden – at/on the beach
• på landet – in the countryside
• på øen – on the island

With bjergene, Danish follows the same pattern as English in the mountains, so use i.

Why is it bjergene (definite plural) when English can say just “in mountains”?

In practice, English also usually says “in the mountains” for a mountain region, and Danish lines up with that.

Danish tends to use the definite plural for many types of landscapes or geographical areas when you mean “in that sort of area” in general:

• i bjergene – in the mountains
• i skovene – in the forests (as a region)
• i alperne – in the Alps
• i fjeldene – in the fells

So bjergene isn’t referring to some specific known set of mountains in the discourse; it’s more like “the mountains” as a type of environment, and that’s simply how Danish normally expresses it.

Can I move næste sommer to the beginning: Næste sommer planlægger vi en ferie i bjergene?

Yes, that is perfectly correct, and very natural Danish:

• Vi planlægger en ferie i bjergene næste sommer.
• Næste sommer planlægger vi en ferie i bjergene.

Both mean the same. The difference is just focus and style:

• Starting with Næste sommer puts extra emphasis on the time frame.
• Leaving næste sommer at the end is more neutral.

Word order is still correct in the second version because Danish main clauses keep the verb in second position:

• Næste sommer (1st element)
• planlægger (finite verb – 2nd position)
• vi (subject)
• en ferie i bjergene (rest of the sentence)

Why is it just næste sommer and not den næste sommer?

When you talk about “next [time expression]” in a general, forward-looking sense, Danish normally does not use a definite article:

• næste sommer – next summer
• næste uge – next week
• næste år – next year

Adding den can sound more specific or contrastive (often in contexts where several possible “next summers” are being distinguished), but that’s not the normal everyday way to say it.

So in this sentence, næste sommer is the natural, default form.

Why do we use vi and not os here?

Vi and os are both forms of “we”, but they have different grammatical roles:

• vi – subject form (we)
• os – object form (us)

In the sentence Vi planlægger en ferie i bjergene næste sommer, vi is the subject (the ones doing the planning), so you must use vi.

Examples:

• Vi planlægger en ferie. – We are planning a holiday.
• De hjælper os. – They are helping us.
• Vi spørger dem, om de vil med os. – We ask them if they want to come with us.

So: subject = vi, object = os.

Why is there no at after planlægger, like planlægger at?

In Danish, planlægge can take either:

1. A direct object (a thing):

   • Vi planlægger en ferie.
     – We are planning a holiday.

2. An infinitive clause with at when you plan to do something:

   • Vi planlægger at rejse til Norge.
     – We are planning to travel to Norway.

In your sentence, en ferie is the direct object, so no at is needed or possible:

• ✅ Vi planlægger en ferie i bjergene.
• ❌ Vi planlægger at en ferie i bjergene. (incorrect)

If you want to express “We are planning to go on holiday in the mountains”, you can say:

• Vi planlægger at tage på ferie i bjergene næste sommer.

Could I say Vi planlægger en rejse i bjergene næste sommer instead of en ferie?

Yes, but there is a nuance:

• en ferie – a holiday; emphasizes time off / vacation
• en rejse – a trip/journey; emphasizes the travel itself

Both can be used, but ferie is closer to the idea of “vacation”, while rejse focuses more on the journey or trip as such.

So:

• Vi planlægger en ferie i bjergene næste sommer.
  – We are planning a holiday in the mountains next summer (time off, relaxation).

• Vi planlægger en rejse i bjergene næste sommer.
  – We are planning a trip into the mountains next summer (more about the journey/route).

How do you pronounce the tricky words planlægger, ferie, and bjergene?

A rough guide using English-like hints (not perfect phonetics):

• planlægger

  • Roughly: “PLAN-leh-ur”
  • The g in -lægger is soft; the last syllable often sounds like a reduced -er.

• ferie

  • Roughly: “FAY-ree-eh” or in more natural speech closer to “FEH-rye” (with a glide).
  • Very often reduced to something like two syllables in fast speech.

• bjergene

  • Roughly: “BYAIR-en-eh” (with a soft j and a diphthong like “byair”).
  • bj- merges into a single sound; -ene is like a quick “uh-neh”.

For accurate pronunciation, listening to native audio is best, but these hints should help you recognize the words when you hear them.