Breakdown of Vi går ligeud og drejer til venstre ved det næste lyskryds.
Questions & Answers about Vi går ligeud og drejer til venstre ved det næste lyskryds.
Does går literally mean walk, and can it also mean go here?
Yes. Går is the present tense of gå, which usually means walk.
So in this sentence, Vi går ligeud most naturally suggests that we are on foot. In English, go straight can be used for walking, driving, cycling, and so on, but Danish often chooses a more specific verb:
- gå = walk
- køre = drive / go by vehicle
- cykle = cycle
So if you were driving, Vi kører ligeud og drejer til venstre... would sound more natural.
What tense are går and drejer, and why is present tense used here?
Both går and drejer are in the present tense.
Danish often uses the present tense to describe a route, a planned sequence, or what happens next in a set of directions. So this sentence is structurally just We go straight ahead and turn left...
If you were giving a direct instruction, Danish would often use the imperative instead:
- Gå ligeud og drej til venstre...
Why is there no vi before drejer?
Because the subject vi applies to both verbs.
In Danish, when two verbs are joined by og and have the same subject, you usually do not repeat the subject unless you want extra emphasis.
So:
- Vi går ligeud og drejer til venstre...
is the natural way to say it.
You could say:
- Vi går ligeud, og vi drejer til venstre...
but that sounds heavier and more repetitive.
What exactly does ligeud mean, and why is it written like that?
Ligeud means straight ahead or straight on.
In route directions, you will very often see ligeud written as one word, as in this sentence. It functions as an adverb telling you which direction to continue in.
So:
- gå ligeud = go/walk straight ahead
Why do you say til venstre instead of just venstre?
Because Danish uses the fixed expression til venstre after verbs like dreje.
So:
- dreje til venstre = turn left
- dreje til højre = turn right
Literally, it is like saying turn to the left. In English we usually drop to the, but Danish keeps it.
Just venstre by itself would not sound right here.
What does ved mean in this sentence?
Here ved means at or by.
So:
- ved det næste lyskryds = at the next traffic-light intersection / at the next traffic lights
It marks the place where the turning happens.
Be careful: ved can mean different things in other contexts. For example, ved can also be the present tense of vide, meaning know. But here it is clearly the preposition ved.
Why is it det næste and not den næste?
Because lyskryds is a neuter noun.
The basic form is:
- et lyskryds = a traffic-light intersection
Since it is an et-word, the definite article in this kind of phrase is det:
- det næste lyskryds
A useful rule:
- en noun -> den
- et noun -> det
Why is it det næste lyskryds and not det næste lyskrydset?
Because when Danish uses den/det/de + adjective + noun, the noun normally stays in its basic form.
So:
- lyskrydset = the traffic-light intersection
- det næste lyskryds = the next traffic-light intersection
This is a very common pattern:
- huset = the house
- det store hus = the big house
So once you have det and an adjective like næste, you do not add the definite ending -et to the noun.
What exactly is lyskryds?
Lyskryds is a compound noun made from:
- lys = light
- kryds = crossing / intersection
It usually means an intersection controlled by traffic lights. In natural English, it may be translated as:
- the traffic lights
- the next traffic-light intersection
depending on context.
If you mean the traffic lights themselves as objects, Danish often uses trafiklys.
How would this sentence change if I were giving the direction directly to one person?
Then Danish would usually use the imperative:
- Gå ligeud og drej til venstre ved det næste lyskryds.
That means Go straight ahead and turn left at the next traffic lights/intersection.
If the person is driving, a more natural version would be:
- Kør ligeud og drej til venstre ved det næste lyskryds.
How are drejer and lyskryds pronounced?
Very roughly:
- drejer sounds something like DRY-er or DRAI-er
- lyskryds has a Danish y sound that English does not really have; very roughly, you might think of something like lüs-krys
But these are only rough approximations. Danish pronunciation can be quite different from the spelling, so listening to native audio is the best way to learn these words.
More from this lesson
Sign up free — start using our AI language tutor
Start learning DanishMaster Danish — from Vi går ligeud og drejer til venstre ved det næste lyskryds to fluency
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods.
- ✓ Infinitely deep — unlimited vocabulary and grammar
- ✓ Fast-paced — build complex sentences from the start
- ✓ Unforgettable — efficient spaced repetition system
- ✓ AI tutor to answer your grammar questions