Breakdown of Hvis jeg drikker kaffe om aftenen, kommer jeg sent i seng.
jeg
I
drikke
to drink
aftenen
the evening
om
in
Questions & Answers about Hvis jeg drikker kaffe om aftenen, kommer jeg sent i seng.
Why does the sentence start with hvis? Is it exactly the same as English if?
Yes. Hvis is the normal Danish word for if in a condition.
In this sentence, Hvis jeg drikker kaffe om aftenen ... sets up the condition: under that condition, the result is that I go to bed late.
A useful comparison:
- hvis = if
- når = when
Danish learners often mix these up. In a sentence like this, hvis is natural because the speaker means in the case that I drink coffee in the evening.
Why is drikker in the present tense? Shouldn’t it be something more like will drink or would drink?
Danish often uses the present tense in both parts of a sentence like this when talking about:
- habits
- general truths
- things that regularly happen
So Hvis jeg drikker kaffe om aftenen, kommer jeg sent i seng means something like:
- If I drink coffee in the evening, I go to bed late
- or more naturally in English, If I drink coffee in the evening, I end up going to bed late
This is a general pattern in Danish. You do not need a special future form here.
Why is it kommer jeg and not jeg kommer after the comma?