Breakdown of Jeg går i seng tidligt, når jeg er meget træt.
Questions & Answers about Jeg går i seng tidligt, når jeg er meget træt.
In Danish, gå i seng literally means go to bed and is the normal way to express the action of going to bed (the transition into bed), not the act of sleeping.
- Jeg går i seng = I go to bed (I lie down / get into bed)
If you mean sleeping, you’d use sove: - Jeg sover tidligt would sound like “I sleep early” (odd in English and Danish unless you mean you start sleeping early).
This is an idiomatic prepositional phrase:
- i seng = in bed / to bed (as a fixed expression with gå)
- på sengen = on the bed (physically on top of the bed, not necessarily in it)
- til seng exists but is less common and more old-fashioned or stylistic; gå i seng is the standard everyday choice.
Tidligt modifies går i seng (the action of going to bed). So the sentence means that the speaker goes to bed early when they are very tired.
Word order helps: Jeg går i seng tidligt is a unit, then the time/condition clause follows.
Når is used for something that happens whenever / when a condition occurs (general, repeated, expected).
- … når jeg er meget træt = when(ever) I’m very tired (a typical situation)
Hvis is more “if” in the sense of a hypothetical or uncertain condition:
- … hvis jeg er meget træt = if I happen to be very tired (more conditional, less like a routine)
Because når introduces a subordinate clause. In Danish subordinate clauses, the basic order is:
- conjunction (når) + subject (jeg) + verb (er) + rest (meget træt)
So: når jeg er meget træt is correct.
Når er jeg meget træt? would be a question meaning “When am I very tired?”
Danish uses commas to separate a main clause from a subordinate clause:
- Jeg går i seng tidligt, når jeg er meget træt.
This is standard Danish punctuation. (Comma rules can be more detailed, but separating main clause + subordinate clause is the key point here.)
Yes. If you start with the subordinate clause, the main clause gets inversion (verb comes before subject), because the first position in the main clause is taken by the clause:
- Når jeg er meget træt, går jeg i seng tidligt.
Notice går comes before jeg in the main clause: gør jeg / går jeg / ser jeg, etc.
Træt is an adjective meaning tired. Danish commonly uses:
- være + adjective = er træt (am tired)
Meget is an adverb meaning very, used to intensify adjectives:
- meget træt = very tired
Trætter is a verb form meaning tires (someone), e.g. Det trætter mig = It tires me.
Yes—both are possible and natural.
- Jeg går i seng tidligt (common)
- Jeg går tidligt i seng (also common; slightly different rhythm)
Danish word order is fairly flexible with adverbs like tidligt, as long as it doesn’t create ambiguity.
In standard Danish, you normally keep the subject and verb:
- … når jeg er meget træt (normal)
Omitting them like English (“when very tired”) is not typical in neutral Danish. You might see shortened styles in headlines or notes, but for learners the full clause is the right model.
With når, it most naturally reads as a habit/general truth: whenever the speaker is very tired, they go to bed early.
To point more strongly to a specific occasion, Danish might use da (for a past, specific “when”) or context/time markers:
- Jeg gik i seng tidligt, da jeg var meget træt. = I went to bed early when I was very tired (that time).
Present tense in Danish can express:
1) Habit/general present: “I go to bed early…” (most likely here)
2) Near-future / planned (with context): Jeg går i seng nu = I’m going to bed now / I’m going to bed
Without nu or other context, the sentence is generally understood as a routine statement.
Other verbs are possible depending on the nuance:
- gå i seng = go to bed (neutral, common)
- lægge sig i seng = lie down in bed (more physical/explicit action)
- komme i seng = get to bed (often implies “manage to get to bed”, sometimes later than intended)
So gå i seng is the everyday default, but alternatives exist.