Learn Hardcore Danish: Jeg er næsten færdig med opgaven.

Jeg er blevet færdig med opgaven. – I have become/come to be finished with the assignment.
Jeg har lavet/klaret/gjort opgaven. – I have done the assignment.

But in everyday Danish, Jeg er (næsten) færdig (med opgaven) is the most natural way to say I’m (almost) done with the assignment.

What exactly does næsten mean, and why is it placed after er?

Næsten means almost / nearly.

In main clauses, Danish normally has:

Subject in first position (here: jeg)
Conjugated verb in second position (er)
Then adverbs like ikke, altid, ofte, næsten, etc.

So the neutral word order is:

Jeg er næsten færdig … (subject – verb – adverb – rest)

Other positions you might wonder about:

Jeg næsten er færdig … – not normal in standard Danish.
Jeg er færdig næsten. – sounds odd; næsten belongs before færdig.
Næsten er jeg færdig … – possible only with special emphasis, e.g. in poetic or very marked speech.

So the “default” slot for næsten here is exactly where it appears: right after the conjugated verb er and right before the adjective færdig.

What does færdig (med) mean, and is it different from just færdig?

Færdig on its own is an adjective meaning finished / done / ready.

Jeg er færdig. – I’m finished / I’m done.

When you want to say finished with something, you use:

færdig med + [noun / activity]

For example:

Jeg er færdig med opgaven. – I’m finished with the assignment.
Er du færdig med maden? – Are you finished with the food?
Vi er færdige med arbejdet. – We’re finished with the work.

So:

Jeg er næsten færdig. – I’m almost finished (it’s clear from context what).
Jeg er næsten færdig med opgaven. – I’m almost finished with the assignment (you state it explicitly).

Why do you say færdig med opgaven and not just færdig opgaven?

In Danish, you can’t attach the object directly to færdig the way English attaches it to finished.

English:

finished the assignment

Danish uses a fixed pattern:

færdig med + [something]

So:

✗ Jeg er næsten færdig opgaven. – incorrect
✓ Jeg er næsten færdig med opgaven. – correct

Other examples:

Han er færdig med sin uddannelse. – He is finished with his education.
Vi er færdige med projektet. – We’re finished with the project.

Think of færdig med as a chunk that means finished with.

Is færdig an adjective? Does it change form?

Yes, færdig is an adjective.

Its basic forms:

færdig – common gender singular and plural (most common form)
færdigt – neuter singular
færdige – plural / definite

Examples:

En opgave er færdig. – A task is finished.
Et projekt er færdigt. – A project is finished.
Opgaverne er færdige. – The tasks are finished.
Den færdige opgave – the finished assignment.

In Jeg er næsten færdig med opgaven, færdig describes the state of jeg, so the base form færdig is used.

Why is it opgaven and not opgave? What does the ending -en do?

Danish usually marks definiteness with an ending on the noun, not with a separate word like the.

The noun here is:

en opgave – an assignment / a task (indefinite)
opgaven – the assignment / the task (definite)

So -en is the definite singular ending for common-gender nouns like opgave.

Compare:

Jeg er næsten færdig med en opgave. – I’m almost finished with an assignment.
Jeg er næsten færdig med opgaven. – I’m almost finished with the assignment.

In your sentence, opgaven suggests a specific assignment, which the speaker and listener both know about.

Why is the preposition med used here? Could you say færdig af opgaven or something else?

For the meaning finished with something, Danish uses:

færdig med + [noun]

This is a fixed combination; you don’t normally replace med with another preposition.

So:

Jeg er færdig med opgaven. – I’m finished with the assignment.
Hun er færdig med sin kaffe. – She’s finished with her coffee.

Something like færdig af opgaven does not mean finished with the assignment. It is either wrong or would be interpreted differently (e.g., maybe exhausted by in some dialect, but not standard).

So for this meaning, stick to færdig med.

Is Jeg er næsten færdig med opgaven closer to I’m almost done with the assignment or I’ve almost finished the assignment in English?

In feel and structure, it’s closest to:

I’m almost done with the assignment.

It describes your current state: you are (right now) almost in a finished state.

But in many contexts, English could also say:

I’ve almost finished the assignment.

Danish doesn’t need a perfect tense to express that here; the adjective færdig plus er already covers it. So either English sentence is a reasonable translation, but the be + done pattern matches the Danish grammar more directly.

How would you pronounce Jeg er næsten færdig med opgaven?

Approximate standard Danish pronunciation (in IPA):

Jeg – [jɑj] or [jaj] (often very short, sometimes almost just [j])
er – [ɐ] (the r is often not clearly pronounced as a separate sound)
næsten – [ˈnɛsdn̩] (the t can be weak; the final -en is reduced)
færdig – [ˈfæɐ̯di] (soft d, somewhat like an English th that’s been weakened)
med – [mɛð] or [me] (soft d, often very light)
opgaven – [ˈʌpɡɑwən] (the -en is a light -en ending)

Spoken quickly, the sentence can flow together something like:

[jɑj ɐ ˈnɛsdn̩ ˈfæɐ̯di mɛð ˈʌpɡɑwən]

Don’t worry about getting every detail perfect; the most important things are:

Reduce jeg er a bit (not JEH ER, but smoother).
Make d in færdig and med soft / light, not a hard English d.
Keep the main stress on næsten and færdig and opgaven.

Can I change the word order, for example to start the sentence with nu or med opgaven?

Yes, but you must keep verb in second position (the V2 rule).

Some examples:

Nu er jeg næsten færdig med opgaven.
– Now I am almost finished with the assignment.
(Fronted Nu, verb er still in second position.)
Med opgaven er jeg næsten færdig.
– With the assignment, I am almost finished.
(This is more marked/emphatic, but grammatically correct.)

In all these variants, er must stay in the second slot of the sentence:

First slot: something (subject or another element)
Second slot: er
Then adverbs like næsten, then the rest.

What you can’t do in a normal main clause is:

✗ Nu jeg er næsten færdig med opgaven. – wrong, because the verb is not in second place.