Learn Hardcore Danish: Det er i morgen, at vi endelig handler stort ind i supermarkedet til festen. - It is tomorrow that we finally do a big shop in the supermarket for the party.

Det er i morgen, at vi endelig handler stort ind i supermarkedet til festen.

It is tomorrow that we finally do a big shop in the supermarket for the party.

Breakdown of Det er i morgen, at vi endelig handler stort ind i supermarkedet til festen.

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Questions & Answers about Det er i morgen, at vi endelig handler stort ind i supermarkedet til festen.

Why does the sentence start with Det er i morgen, at … instead of just saying Vi handler stort ind i morgen?

This is a cleft sentence (in Danish often called a det‑konstruktion):

Det er i morgen, at vi endelig handler stort ind … = It is tomorrow that we will finally do a big shop …

The purpose is emphasis. Here, i morgen (tomorrow) is being highlighted as the important piece of information.

A more neutral version without special emphasis would be:

Vi handler endelig stort ind i supermarkedet til festen i morgen. = We’ll finally do a big shop at the supermarket for the party tomorrow.

So:

Det er X, at Y … = “It is X that Y …” and is used to put focus on X.
It is very common in Danish spoken and written language to emphasise time, person, place, etc. this way.

Is the word at after i morgen necessary? Can I say Det er i morgen, vi endelig handler stort ind …?

Both versions are possible:

Det er i morgen, at vi endelig handler stort ind …
Det er i morgen, vi endelig handler stort ind …

Difference:

With at: slightly more careful / explicit, very clear structure: Det er X, at Y.
Without at: very common in everyday Danish; many native speakers drop at in this kind of cleft sentence.

So for you as a learner:

You can safely use the version with at; it is always correct.
You will hear and see both patterns from native speakers.

Why is the verb handler in the present tense if this is about the future (tomorrow)?

Danish very often uses present tense to talk about future events, especially when there is a time expression in the sentence:

Vi handler stort ind i morgen.
= We are doing a big shop tomorrow.
Jeg tager afsted på mandag.
= I’m leaving on Monday.

The time phrase i morgen already makes it clear that the action is in the future, so you don’t need a special future tense. A construction with skal is also possible:

Vi skal handle stort ind i morgen.

…but it often adds a nuance of plan / intention / necessity, whereas a simple present with a time adverbial feels more neutral.

What exactly does handler stort ind mean? How is it different from just køber or handler?

The verb at handle means to shop / to trade. With the particle ind, it means to shop for supplies / to buy groceries and other necessities:

at handle ind = to go (grocery) shopping.

The phrase handle stort ind is an idiomatic expression:

handle stort ind = to do a big shop, to stock up, to buy a lot of things at once.

Compare:

Vi handler ind hver fredag.
We do our grocery shopping every Friday.
Vi handler stort ind til festen.
We’re doing a big shop for the party (buying lots of stuff).

Using just købe (to buy) is more general and often refers to specific items, not to the activity of doing a big grocery run:

Vi køber snacks til festen.
We (will) buy snacks for the party.

So handler stort ind focuses on the large, practical shopping trip, not on one or two purchases.

Why is it stort in handler stort ind and not store or something else?

In Danish, when an adjective is used adverbially (to describe how something is done, not to describe a noun), it usually appears in the neuter singular form.

Adjective (common gender): stor
Neuter singular: stort

In Vi handler stort ind, stort is not describing a noun; it describes the manner of the action handler ind = we shop big.

Other examples of adjectives used adverbially:

Hun synger smukt. – She sings beautifully. (smuk → smukt)
Han arbejder hårdt. – He works hard. (hård → hårdt)

So stort here is the regular adverbial form and is part of the fixed expression at handle stort ind.

What is the role of ind in handler stort ind? Can you leave it out?

Ind is a particle that combines with handle to make a specific phrasal verb:

at handle ind = to go shopping (generally for everyday needs, groceries, etc.).

If you remove ind, at handle on its own tends to mean more generally to trade / to deal, or it needs extra context:

De handler med aktier. – They trade in stocks.
Jeg handler i den butik. – I shop at that store.

But Vi handler stort on its own does not mean “We do a big shop.” You need ind:

Vi handler stort ind. ✅
Vi handler stort. ❌ (sounds wrong in this meaning)

So: keep ind; it is part of the verb phrase for grocery-type shopping.

Why is it i morgen and not something like på morgen or til morgen?

For days and larger time units, Danish generally uses i:

i dag – today
i morgen – tomorrow
i går – yesterday
i weekenden – at / in the weekend
i aften – this evening

På is used for some specific time expressions, mostly:

på mandag / på tirsdag … – on Monday / on Tuesday …
på fredag aften – on Friday evening

Til morgen would not be used for “tomorrow” in this sense. Til morgen is part of other expressions (e.g. til morgenmad – for breakfast).

So i morgen is simply the standard, fixed expression for tomorrow.

Why is it i supermarkedet and not i et supermarked or just i supermarked?

Danish usually marks definiteness with a suffix article on the noun:

et supermarked – a supermarket
supermarkedet – the supermarket

In this sentence, i supermarkedet suggests:

a specific / known supermarket (for example, the one you usually go to), or
“the supermarket” as a typical place, in a generic but still definite way.

Compare:

Vi handler stort ind i supermarkedet.
We’re doing a big shop in the supermarket.
(Feels like: in the usual supermarket.)
Vi handler stort ind i et supermarked.
We’re doing a big shop in a supermarket (some supermarket, unspecified).
This is grammatically fine but sounds a bit unusual unless you really mean “just some random supermarket”.

Also, you cannot normally say i supermarked (without article) in standard Danish; countable nouns almost always need either definite or indefinite marking.

Why is the preposition til used in til festen? Could it be for festen or til fest instead?

Til is the normal preposition when something is intended for an event or occasion:

Vi køber mad til festen. – We’re buying food for the party.
gaver til brylluppet – presents for the wedding.
tøj til vinteren – clothes for the winter.

So til festen here means for the party (the shopping is for use at that party).

Alternatives:

for festen – sounds odd in this context. For is used more with meanings like because of / for the sake of:
- Jeg gjorde det for dig. – I did it for you.
til fest (without article) often means to a party / partying, for partying in general:
- Han har skjorte på til fest. – He wears a shirt when he goes partying / to parties.

Here, we are talking about a specific party that we already know about, so til festen (the definite form) is the natural choice.

Why is the adverb endelig placed before handler? Could I say vi handler endelig stort ind instead?

The adverb endelig means finally / at last and usually sits in the central adverb position in the clause, which is after the subject but before the main verb, in main clauses:

Vi endelig handler stort ind … ❌ (this is not the normal order)
Vi handler endelig stort ind … ✅
I morgen handler vi endelig stort ind … ✅

In the given sentence, we are inside a subordinate clause introduced by at, and the word order is slightly different:

… at vi endelig handler stort ind …

In Danish subordinate clauses, the normal order is:

[conjunction] + subject + (adverb) + verb + …

So:

at (conjunction)
vi (subject)
endelig (adverb)
handler (verb)

In a main clause, correct neutral order would be:

Vi handler endelig stort ind i supermarkedet til festen i morgen.

So yes, vi handler endelig stort ind is correct and natural; the sentence you were given uses a cleft structure, which changes the word order a bit.

How is the word order inside at vi endelig handler stort ind i supermarkedet til festen determined?

Inside this subordinate clause (at vi endelig handler stort ind i supermarkedet til festen), Danish follows a standard pattern:

Conjunction: at
Subject: vi
Adverb(s) (central position): endelig
Finite verb: handler
Verb particles / objects / other complements:
- stort ind (verb + particle + adverb)
- i supermarkedet (place)
- til festen (purpose)

So the structure is:

at
- vi
  - endelig
    - handler stort ind
      - i supermarkedet
        til festen

In main clauses, the finite verb typically comes second (V2 word order). In subordinate clauses with at, the verb does not move to second position; it stays after the subject and any central adverbs.

Why is there a comma after i morgen? Is it mandatory?

The comma before at in:

Det er i morgen, at vi endelig handler stort ind …

marks the beginning of a subordinate clause (at vi endelig handler stort ind …).

According to Danish comma rules, you have two systems in practice:

With start comma (startkomma):
You put a comma before all subordinate clauses, so the comma here is required.
Without start comma (nyt komma / optional system):
You can omit the comma before subordinate clauses like this, so you could write:
Det er i morgen at vi endelig handler stort ind …

In real life:

Most Danes still do write the comma here.
As a learner, it is safest and most accepted to include the comma before at in cases like this.

Could I say this sentence in a simpler, more neutral way without the cleft structure?

Yes. Several natural alternatives without the Det er … at … cleft:

Fronting the time:
- I morgen handler vi endelig stort ind i supermarkedet til festen.
Keeping i morgen at the end:
- Vi handler endelig stort ind i supermarkedet til festen i morgen.
Using skal for more explicit “plan”:
- I morgen skal vi endelig handle stort ind i supermarkedet til festen.

All of these mean essentially the same thing. The original cleft version just puts extra emphasis on i morgen (“It’s tomorrow that we finally do it”).