Learn Hardcore Danish: Jeg glæder mig til fremtiden, hvis jeg består eksamen og finder et godt job. - I look forward to the future if I pass the exam and find a good job.

Jeg er glad = I am happy (now / in general).
Jeg glæder mig (til …) = I look forward (to …), I’m excited about (something in the future).

The verb at glæde sig is reflexive (takes mig/dig/sig/os/jer/sig) and expresses anticipation or excitement about something that hasn’t happened yet. So:

Jeg er glad i dag. – I’m happy today.
Jeg glæder mig til ferien. – I’m looking forward to the holiday.

In your sentence, the meaning is about anticipation of the future, so glæder mig til fremtiden is the natural choice.

What does glæder mig literally mean, and why do we need mig?

The infinitive is at glæde sig, literally “to gladden oneself” or “to make oneself happy”.

glæder = (I/you/he etc.) gladden / please
mig = myself

So jeg glæder mig is literally “I please myself”, but idiomatically it means “I am looking forward (to something)”.

This is a reflexive verb: the object refers back to the subject. You always need the reflexive pronoun:

Jeg glæder mig. – I’m looking forward to it.
Vi glæder os. – We’re looking forward to it.
Han glæder sig. – He’s looking forward to it.

Without the reflexive pronoun (sig/mig/os etc.), glæde usually means “to make someone happy / to please”:

Det glæder mig. – That pleases me / That makes me happy.

Why is the preposition til used in glæder mig til fremtiden?

With at glæde sig, Danish almost always uses til to introduce what you’re looking forward to:

Jeg glæder mig til jul. – I’m looking forward to Christmas.
Hun glæder sig til weekenden. – She’s looking forward to the weekend.

So at glæde sig til noget is a fixed pattern, much like “look forward to something” in English. You normally cannot replace til with for or over here.

Compare:

at glæde sig til noget – to look forward to something (future)
at glæde sig over noget – to be happy about something (already real / present or past)

Why is it fremtiden (with -en) and not just fremtid?

Fremtid is a common noun (future), and fremtiden is its definite form: the future.

Danish uses the definite form here because it often thinks of “the future” as a specific, shared concept, similar to English “the future” rather than just “future” in the abstract.

Both exist:

i fremtiden – in the future (very common)
ingen fremtid – no future

In this sentence, til fremtiden = for/to the future, but in natural English we say I’m looking forward to the future.

Why is there no article in består eksamen? Why not består en eksamen?

With school, university, and similar contexts, Danish often drops the article with eksamen when it’s clear you are talking about your exam or a specific scheduled one:

Jeg skal til eksamen. – I’m taking the exam.
Hun består eksamen. – She passes (the) exam.

It’s like a set phrase in educational context: tage eksamen, gå til eksamen, bestå eksamen.

You can use an article in other contexts, for example:

Han bestod en svær eksamen. – He passed a difficult exam (one of several).

But for “my upcoming exam” in a school/university sense, bestå eksamen without an article is standard.

What tense is glæder, består, and finder, and why are they in the present when we are talking about the future?

All three forms (glæder, består, finder) are present tense.

Danish, like English, often uses the present tense to talk about the future when it’s clear from context:

Jeg rejser i morgen. – I’m travelling tomorrow.
Vi ses næste uge. – See you next week.

In your sentence:

Jeg glæder mig til fremtiden – I’m (now) looking forward to the future.
hvis jeg består eksamen og finder et godt job – if I pass the exam and find a good job (in the future).

English also uses the present in “if I pass the exam and find a good job”, so the tense usage is actually very parallel.

Why is the word order hvis jeg består eksamen and not hvis består jeg eksamen?

In Danish, a main clause normally has the verb in second position (V2 rule):

Jeg består eksamen. – Subject (jeg) + verb (består).

But in a subordinate clause introduced by a conjunction like hvis, the word order is subject–verb and the verb is not in second place:

hvis jeg består eksamen – if I pass the exam
- hvis (subordinating conjunction)
- jeg (subject)
- består (verb)

So:

Main clause: Jeg består eksamen.
Subordinate clause: hvis jeg består eksamen.

Hvis består jeg eksamen is ungrammatical in standard Danish.

Why is there a comma before hvis in this sentence?

Hvis jeg består eksamen og finder et godt job is a subordinate clause (a conditional clause).

In modern standard Danish comma rules (the most commonly taught/used system), you generally place a comma before a subordinate clause when it follows a main clause:

Jeg tager i byen, hvis jeg har tid.
Vi bliver hjemme, når det regner.

So in your sentence:

Main clause: Jeg glæder mig til fremtiden
Subordinate clause: hvis jeg består eksamen og finder et godt job

→ Comma between them: …, hvis …

There is also an “optional comma” tradition in Danish, but in most teaching materials you’ll see the comma used before hvis in this kind of structure.

Why is it et godt job and not en god job?

In Danish, job is a neuter noun (et‑word):

et job – a job
jobbet – the job

Adjectives agree with the gender/number of the noun, so with a neuter singular noun you use the -t form of the adjective:

et godt job – a good job
- god → godt (neuter singular form)

If it were a common-gender noun (en‑word), you would use the basic form of the adjective:

en god bog – a good book
et godt job – a good job

So en god job is incorrect because job must take et and the adjective must match: et godt job.

What is the difference between job and arbejde in Danish?

Both can translate to work in English, but they’re used differently:

et job
- A specific position / employment.
- Often countable: et job, to job.
- Similar to English a job:
  - Hun fik et nyt job. – She got a new job.
arbejde (usually used without article when it means work in general)
- The activity of working, work in general:
  - Jeg har meget arbejde. – I have a lot of work.
- Can also mean someone’s work or a specific piece of work:
  - et arbejde – a (piece of) work; a job in a more formal sense.

In your sentence, et godt job fits better because it’s about getting a specific job position after passing the exam.

What does hvis mean here, and how is it different from når?

Hvis introduces a condition: if. It suggests that it’s uncertain whether the condition will be fulfilled.

hvis jeg består eksamen – if I pass the exam (maybe I will, maybe I won’t)

Når usually means “when” (in the sense of “whenever/each time” or “when this happens (and we expect it to happen)”):

når jeg består eksamen – when I pass the exam (the speaker sounds more sure it will happen)
Når det regner, bliver jeg hjemme. – When it rains, I stay at home.

So:

hvis – if (conditional, uncertain)
når – when (expected / habitual / time-based)

Can I omit hvis and just say Jeg glæder mig til fremtiden, jeg består eksamen og finder et godt job?

That would sound wrong and confusing in Danish. You need hvis to show that består eksamen og finder et godt job is a condition, not just another thing you are simply stating.

Jeg glæder mig til fremtiden, hvis jeg består eksamen og finder et godt job.
– I look forward to the future, if I pass the exam and find a good job.

Without hvis, the second part looks like another independent statement:

Jeg glæder mig til fremtiden. Jeg består eksamen og finder et godt job.
– I look forward to the future. I pass the exam and find a good job. (sounds odd and overly confident)

So to express a conditional relationship, hvis (or når, depending on meaning) is necessary.

How do you pronounce tricky words like glæder, fremtiden, and job?

Very roughly in English-like sounds (this is approximate):

glæder ≈ GLAIR-ðah
- glæ- like “glare” (but shorter)
- -der has a very soft d, almost like the voiced th in “this”, and the final -er is like a weak “uh” sound.
- IPA: [ˈglɛːðɐ]
fremtiden ≈ FREM-tee-ðn
- frem like “frem” in German or “frem” with a short e.
- ti like “tee”.
- den again with a soft d; the last e is very reduced, almost not pronounced.
- IPA: [ˈfʁamtˌtiðn̩] (reduced to something like [ˈfʁamdɪn])
job ≈ YOB
- j is like English y.
- o closer to the vowel in “awe” or “o” in “off”.
- Final b is pronounced, but in fast speech it can sound a bit like p.
- IPA: [jʌb]

Listening to native audio and repeating will help much more than written descriptions, but these approximations should guide you.