Learn Hardcore Danish: Jeg bliver altid nervøs, når jeg skal tale dansk til et vigtigt møde. - I always get nervous when I have to speak Danish at an important meeting.

Jeg bliver altid nervøs = I always *get nervous (I become nervous each time)*
→ Focus on the change of state, from “not nervous” to “nervous” every time this situation happens.
Jeg er altid nervøs = I am always nervous (all the time)
→ This would mean you are basically nervous all the time in life, not just in that situation.

So bliver is used because the nervousness appears in that situation, not as a permanent state of your personality.

Why is altid placed after bliver? Could I say jeg altid bliver nervøs or jeg bliver nervøs altid?

The word order rule in main Danish clauses is: Subject – finite verb – (sentence adverb like “altid”) – other elements.

So the normal order is:

Jeg (subject)
bliver (finite verb)
altid (sentence adverb)
nervøs (adjective/complement)

✅ Jeg bliver altid nervøs – correct, natural Danish.

❌ Jeg altid bliver nervøs – wrong, because the finite verb must come in second position (V2 rule).

❌ Jeg bliver nervøs altid – understandable, but sounds foreign/marked. Native speakers almost always place altid in the “middle field” as in the original sentence.

So altid wants to sit in that middle position after the conjugated verb in a normal main clause.

Why is there a comma before når in …, når jeg skal tale dansk …?

Danish uses commas to mark subordinate clauses much more systematically than modern English.

Når jeg skal tale dansk til et vigtigt møde is a subordinate clause (it begins with the subordinating conjunction når).
Danish comma rules: you normally put a comma before most subordinate clauses.

So:

Jeg bliver altid nervøs, når jeg skal tale dansk til et vigtigt møde.

In English, we normally skip this comma:
I always get nervous when I have to speak Danish at an important meeting.
But in Danish, the comma is standard in writing (especially in more formal or careful text).

Why is it når and not da for “when” here?

Both når and da can mean “when”, but they are used differently:

når = when(ever), for:
- repeated / habitual events
- general truths
- future events
da = when, for:
- one specific event in the past

In your sentence, the meaning is habitual: every time I have to speak Danish at an important meeting, I get nervous.
That’s a repeated situation → you must use når.

Examples:

Jeg bliver altid nervøs, når jeg skal tale dansk.
I always get nervous when I have to speak Danish. (repeated)
Jeg blev nervøs, da jeg skulle tale dansk i går.
I got nervous when I had to speak Danish yesterday. (one specific past event)

What exactly does skal mean in når jeg skal tale dansk? Is it “must”, “have to” or “am going to”?

Skal is quite flexible. It can mean:

obligation: have to / must
planned or arranged future: am going to / will
expectation: am supposed to

In når jeg skal tale dansk, the natural English is:

when I *have to speak Danish*
or
when I *am going to speak Danish* (in the sense of planned situation)

The context here is “important meeting”, so the idea is usually “when I have to speak Danish”.

So skal here shows both:

that speaking Danish is required in that situation, and
that this is the time you are talking about (the meeting situation).

Why is there no at before tale? Why jeg skal tale and not jeg skal at tale?

In Danish, after modal verbs, you normally do not use at before the next verb.

Common modal verbs: kan, vil, skal, må, bør etc.

So the pattern is:

jeg skal tale – I have to speak
jeg kan tale – I can speak
jeg vil tale – I want to / will speak
jeg må tale – I am allowed to / must speak

You only use at with non-modal verbs:

jeg begynder at tale – I begin to speak
jeg forsøger at tale – I try to speak

So jeg skal tale is the correct form; jeg skal at tale is incorrect in standard Danish.

Why is it tale dansk and not snakke dansk or snakker dansk?

Both tale and snakke can mean “to speak / to talk”, but they differ in style:

tale:
- a bit more formal and neutral
- often used for languages: tale dansk, tale engelsk
- used in contexts like speeches, presentations, meetings
snakke:
- more informal: “chat, talk”
- often about casual conversation: snakke med vennerne – talk with my friends

In an important meeting, tale dansk sounds more appropriate and neutral.
You could say snakke dansk in casual speech, but tale dansk is the standard collocation for “speak Danish” in more formal or neutral contexts.

Why is it til et vigtigt møde? Could I say ved et vigtigt møde or i et vigtigt møde?

Prepositions are tricky because they rarely translate 1:1 across languages.

In this context, til is the normal choice:

tale dansk til et vigtigt møde
≈ speak Danish *at an important meeting*

Here til expresses “in connection with / at (an event)”. Danish very often uses til with events and occasions:

til møde – at a meeting
til fest – at a party
til koncert – at a concert
til eksamen – in an exam

Alternatives:

ved et møde – more like “in a meeting situation / at a meeting (in general)”; possible in some contexts, but til møde is the most natural for “at a meeting” as an event.
i et møde is unusual and would typically mean physically inside the meeting (not idiomatic for this use).

So: stick with til et vigtigt møde for “at an important meeting”.

Why is it et vigtigt møde and not en vigtig møde? How do et and -t on vigtigt work?

Danish has two grammatical genders:

common gender (en-words)
neuter gender (et-words)

The noun møde (meeting) is neuter, so its article is et:

et møde – a meeting
mødet – the meeting

Adjectives agree with the noun’s gender in the indefinite singular:

en vigtig bog (common gender) – an important book
et vigtigt møde (neuter gender) – an important meeting

Notice the -t added to vigtig for neuter: vigtigt.

So:

Article: et – because møde is neuter
Adjective ending: vigtigt – adjective in neuter form
Noun: møde

→ et vigtigt møde.

Why is dansk written with a lowercase d? In English, “Danish” is capitalized.

In Danish, names of languages and nationalities are written with a lowercase initial letter:

dansk – Danish (language or nationality)
engelsk – English
tysk – German
fransk – French

You only capitalize proper nouns, like country names:

Danmark – Denmark
Tyskland – Germany
Frankrig – France

So:

Jeg skal tale dansk. – I have to speak Danish.
(lowercase dansk)

This is simply a spelling convention; grammatically, dansk here functions as a noun meaning “the Danish language”.

Could I start the sentence with the når-clause? How would the word order and comma change?

Yes, you can put the subordinate clause first. Then Danish applies inversion in the main clause (the finite verb comes before the subject).

Original:

Jeg bliver altid nervøs, når jeg skal tale dansk til et vigtigt møde.

With the når-clause first:

Når jeg skal tale dansk til et vigtigt møde, bliver jeg altid nervøs.

Notice:

The comma is now after the subordinate clause.
In the main clause, we use inversion: bliver jeg (verb before subject), not jeg bliver.

Both versions mean the same; the second one simply puts extra emphasis on the situation (“When I have to speak Danish at an important meeting, …”).