Drej til højre ved det næste lyskryds.

Because Drej is the imperative form of the verb at dreje (to turn).

In directions and instructions, Danish often uses the imperative, just like English:

• Drej til højre = Turn right
• Gå ligeud = Go straight ahead
• Stop her = Stop here

You do not need a subject like du here. Danish, like English, often leaves out you in commands.

Til højre means to the right or simply right in this context.

It is a fixed directional expression:

• til højre = to the right / right
• til venstre = to the left / left

So:

• Drej til højre = Turn right
• Drej til venstre = Turn left

Even though English often just says right, Danish normally uses til in this phrase.

Here, ved means something like at or by.

So:

• ved det næste lyskryds = at the next traffic light

It tells you the location where the action should happen.

Compare:

• Stå ved døren = Stand by the door
• Vi mødes ved stationen = We’ll meet at the station

In this sentence, it marks the point where you should turn.

Because lyskryds is a neuter noun in Danish.

Danish nouns are usually either:

• common gender: take en
• neuter gender: take et

Et lyskryds = a traffic light / intersection with traffic signals

Since it is neuter, the phrase becomes:

• det næste lyskryds = the next traffic light

The adjective also matches the gender:

• den næste for common gender nouns
• det næste for neuter nouns

For example:

• den næste bil = the next car
• det næste hus = the next house
• det næste lyskryds = the next traffic light

Yes, næste is an adjective, meaning next.

In det næste lyskryds, it is in the definite form, because it comes after det, which here works like the.

A useful pattern is:

• det næste + noun
• den næste + noun

Examples:

• den næste station = the next station
• det næste stop = the next stop

So næste is behaving like an adjective that agrees with the structure of the noun phrase.

Lyskryds literally combines ideas like light + crossing/intersection, and in real use it usually means a traffic-light-controlled intersection or traffic lights.

In a sentence like this, ved det næste lyskryds is best understood as:

• at the next traffic light
• or more precisely, at the next set of traffic lights / intersection with traffic lights

So it often refers not just to the lamp itself, but to the place in the road where the traffic lights are.

The sentence follows a very common instruction pattern:

• Drej = verb
• til højre = direction
• ved det næste lyskryds = place/location where the turn happens

So the structure is:

Verb + direction + location

That is very natural in Danish for route instructions.

You could compare:

• Drej til venstre ved banken = Turn left at the bank
• Kør ligeud til rundkørslen = Drive straight ahead to the roundabout

A rough learner-friendly pronunciation might be:

dry tile HOY-ruh veh deh NEST-uh LYS-krys

A few useful notes:

• Drej sounds roughly like dry
• højre has the Danish vowel øj, which can be tricky for English speakers
• det is often pronounced more lightly in normal speech, sometimes close to deh
• lyskryds has the Danish y, which does not sound like English y in yes. It is a front rounded vowel, which takes practice.

The exact pronunciation varies with speaking speed and accent, but those approximations can help you get started.

Yes, in some contexts you may hear ved næste lyskryds, especially in spoken directions or shorter instructional style.

However, ved det næste lyskryds is very standard and fully natural. It is a bit more explicit, like saying:

• at the next traffic light

Whereas ved næste lyskryds can feel a little more like:

• at next traffic light

So for learners, ved det næste lyskryds is a very good full model to use.

Yes, often you can.

Both drej and sving can be used in directions:

• Drej til højre
• Sving til højre

Both mean turn right.

A slight difference is that svinge can feel a bit more like make a turn, while dreje is a very straightforward general verb for turn. In route directions, both are common and natural.

You would only need to change højre to venstre:

Drej til venstre ved det næste lyskryds.

So the useful pattern is:

• Drej til højre ved ... = Turn right at ...
• Drej til venstre ved ... = Turn left at ...