Jeg skulle aflevere opgaven til læreren i dag.

I was supposed to hand in the assignment to the teacher today.

Breakdown of Jeg skulle aflevere opgaven til læreren i dag.

• jeg: I
• til: to
• i dag: today
• læreren: the teacher
• aflevere: to hand in
• opgaven: the assignment
• skulle: to need to

Questions & Answers about Jeg skulle aflevere opgaven til læreren i dag.

What does skulle mean here?

Here skulle is the past tense of skal, but its meaning is not always a simple past version of English shall.

In this sentence, jeg skulle aflevere opgaven usually means something like:

• I was supposed to hand in the assignment
• I had to hand in the assignment

So skulle often expresses an obligation, plan, or expectation that existed at that time.

A very common learner mistake is to connect skulle directly with English should. Sometimes there is overlap, but here skulle is much closer to was supposed to or had to.

Why is it skulle and not skal?

The difference is mainly viewpoint.

• Jeg skal aflevere opgaven til læreren i dag
  = I have to / am supposed to hand in the assignment today

• Jeg skulle aflevere opgaven til læreren i dag
  = I was supposed to / had to hand in the assignment today

So skal is the normal choice for a present or future obligation.
Skulle looks at that obligation from a past point of view.

Because the sentence also has i dag, the speaker is often talking later in the day, or after the plan was relevant. For example, in the evening you might say this about what was supposed to happen earlier.

Why is there no at before aflevere?

Because skulle is a modal verb, and modal verbs in Danish normally take a bare infinitive.

So you say:

• jeg skal aflevere
• jeg skulle aflevere
• jeg kan aflevere
• jeg vil aflevere

not:

• jeg skulle at aflevere

This is similar to English, where you say I can go and I must leave, not I can to go.

What exactly does aflevere mean?

Aflevere is a very common verb meaning hand in, submit, deliver, or give over, depending on context.

In a school context, aflevere opgaven is the natural way to say hand in the assignment or submit the assignment.

A few useful comparisons:

• aflevere en opgave = hand in an assignment
• aflevere en pakke = deliver a package
• aflevere noget tilbage = return something

So the core idea is giving something to the person or place that is supposed to receive it.

Why is it opgaven and not just opgave?

Because opgaven is the definite form: the assignment.

Danish usually marks definiteness by adding an ending to the noun:

• en opgave = an assignment
• opgaven = the assignment

This is different from English, which uses a separate word, the.

The sentence uses opgaven because it refers to a specific assignment that speaker and listener already know about.

Why is it læreren and not en lærer?

For the same reason as opgaven: læreren is the definite form, meaning the teacher.

• en lærer = a teacher
• læreren = the teacher

So til læreren means to the teacher.

Again, Danish usually puts definiteness on the noun itself instead of using a separate word like English the.

One useful extra point: if there is an adjective, Danish often uses a separate definite word too:

• læreren = the teacher
• den nye lærer = the new teacher

Why is the preposition til used here?

Til marks the recipient, so here it means to:

• til læreren = to the teacher

That is the natural choice with a person who receives something.

A native English speaker may wonder about for, but for in Danish usually does not mean the same thing here. Til is the normal preposition for the destination or recipient of what is being handed over.

So:

• aflevere opgaven til læreren = hand the assignment in to the teacher

Why is i dag at the end? Can it go somewhere else?

Yes, it can move. Putting i dag at the end is a very neutral and common word order.

So this is completely normal:

• Jeg skulle aflevere opgaven til læreren i dag.

But you can also front it for emphasis:

• I dag skulle jeg aflevere opgaven til læreren.

That version puts more focus on today.

Both are grammatical. The end position is just the more neutral one in many contexts.

What is the basic word order in this sentence?

This sentence follows the normal Danish pattern for a main clause:

• Jeg = subject
• skulle = finite verb
• aflevere = infinitive
• opgaven = object
• til læreren = prepositional phrase
• i dag = time expression

A very important rule in Danish is the V2 rule: in main clauses, the finite verb usually comes in the second position.

That is why:

• Jeg skulle aflevere opgaven til læreren i dag.

And if you move another element to the front, the verb still stays second:

• I dag skulle jeg aflevere opgaven til læreren.

Notice that when i dag comes first, jeg moves after skulle. That inversion is very typical in Danish main clauses.

Could this sentence mean I should hand in the assignment today?

Not usually.

A learner may see skulle and think of English should, but in this sentence the meaning is more like:

• was supposed to
• had to

If you really want the sense of English should as advice, Danish would more naturally use burde:

• Jeg burde aflevere opgaven til læreren i dag.
  = I should hand in the assignment to the teacher today

So skulle and burde are not the same, even though English can sometimes blur them.