Breakdown of Lad være med at arbejde så sent, hvis du allerede er træt.
Questions & Answers about Lad være med at arbejde så sent, hvis du allerede er træt.
Lad være med at … is a very common Danish way to tell someone not to do something.
Literally it’s something like “Let (it) be with to …”, but idiomatically it means “Don’t … / Stop … / Refrain from …”.
So Lad være med at arbejde = “Don’t work / Stop working.”
It’s often a bit more natural than using a direct negative imperative like Arbejd ikke in many everyday contexts.
Yes. Lad is the imperative form of lade (to let). Danish imperatives often don’t show an explicit subject, but the understood subject is you (singular or plural depending on context).
So the sentence is addressing du (which appears later in the hvis-clause): “(You,) don’t work so late …”
In standard Danish, med is part of the fixed expression lade være med at + infinitive. You generally shouldn’t omit it.
You may sometimes hear shortened variants in speech, but for learners it’s best to treat Lad være med at … as one chunk.
Here at is the infinitive marker, like to in English.
In Lad være med at + verb, Danish normally uses at:
- Lad være med at arbejde = Don’t work / Stop working
So arbejde is in the infinitive because it depends on the construction.
Because after at you use the infinitive, not a conjugated present tense.
- jeg arbejder = I work (present tense)
- at arbejde = to work (infinitive)
In the sentence, the verb is inside the at-infinitive phrase: med at arbejde.
så here means “so” in the sense of degree: “so late”.
It modifies the adverb sent (late).
- sent = late
- så sent = so late / that late
It’s describing how late the working happens.
hvis introduces a conditional clause (if-clause). Inside that clause Danish keeps normal main-clause order: subject before verb.
So you get:
- hvis du allerede er træt
- du (subject) + er (verb)
Compare that with clauses introduced by at (or some relative clauses), where Danish often has verb later—but hvis-clauses typically keep the straightforward S + V order.
Yes, you can front the hvis-clause. Then Danish uses V2 word order in the main clause (the finite verb comes second), meaning the imperative Lad still stays very early:
- Hvis du allerede er træt, så lad være med at arbejde så sent.
Often people add så after the if-clause (Hvis …, så …) to make the structure extra clear, though it’s not strictly required.
allerede means already. It typically appears around the verb phrase, often before the finite verb or after it depending on emphasis and style.
In your sentence:
- hvis du allerede er træt = if you are already tired
Other common placements you may also see:
- hvis du er allerede træt (possible but often sounds less natural than the given version)
The given placement (du allerede er) is very typical.
Yes. Danish uses være (to be) with adjectives just like English:
- jeg er træt = I am tired
- du er træt = you are tired
So træt is an adjective describing du, and er is the present tense of være.
It’s usually neutral-to-firm, depending on tone and context. It can sound like friendly advice, a warning, or a mild command.
If you want it softer, you can add hedging:
- Lad være med at arbejde så sent, hvis du allerede er træt, okay?
- Du burde nok ikke arbejde så sent, hvis du allerede er træt. (You probably shouldn’t…)
If you want it more direct, you could use:
- Arbejd ikke så sent … (Don’t work so late…) which can feel more blunt.
Usually no, not without changing the meaning.
- hvis = if (condition, not guaranteed)
- når = when (often implies it’s expected to happen or happens repeatedly)
So:
- … hvis du allerede er træt = … if you’re already tired (maybe you are, maybe not)
- … når du allerede er træt = closer to … when you’re already tired (as a recurring situation or assumed case), which is a different nuance.