Kan du sige mig, hvorfor toget er forsinket?

Yes. Kan du literally means can you.

In Danish, kan du + infinitive is very commonly used to make a polite request, just like English Can you ...?

So:

• Kan du sige mig ...? = Can you tell me ...?
• Literally: Can you say to me ...?

Even though sige usually means say, in this kind of sentence it can function like tell.

Mig means me, and it is the object of sige.

So:

• sige = say / tell
• mig = me

Together, sige mig means tell me.

Word-for-word, the structure is:

• Kan du = can you
• sige mig = tell me
• hvorfor toget er forsinket = why the train is delayed

So the sentence is built very similarly to English, except for some Danish word-order rules later in the sentence.

This is one of the most important grammar points in the sentence.

In Danish, direct questions and embedded questions have different word order.

Direct question

• Hvorfor er toget forsinket?
• Why is the train delayed?

Here, it is a standalone question, so the verb er comes before the subject toget.

Embedded question

• Kan du sige mig, hvorfor toget er forsinket?
• Can you tell me why the train is delayed?

Now the why-question is inside a larger sentence. In Danish embedded questions, the word order becomes more like a statement:

• hvorfor toget er forsinket
• not hvorfor er toget forsinket

This is very similar to English:

• Why is the train delayed?
  but
• Can you tell me why the train is delayed?

So Danish and English work the same way here.

Toget means the train.

The basic noun is:

• et tog = a train

Danish often adds the definite article to the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

So:

• tog = train
• toget = the train

This is a very common Danish pattern:

• et hus = a house
• huset = the house

Because tog is a neuter noun (et noun), its definite ending is -et.

Forsinket means delayed.

Grammatically, it is the past participle of the verb forsinke = delay.

In this sentence, it works like an adjective after er:

• toget er forsinket = the train is delayed

So you can think of it as:

• a verb form historically
• but functioning here like an adjective/predicate word

This is very common in Danish, just as in English:

• Døren er lukket = The door is closed
• Toget er forsinket = The train is delayed

It is understandable and grammatical, but many speakers would more naturally say:

• Kan du fortælle mig, hvorfor toget er forsinket? = Can you tell me why the train is delayed?
• Ved du, hvorfor toget er forsinket? = Do you know why the train is delayed?
• Kan du sige, hvorfor toget er forsinket? can also occur, but fortælle mig often sounds more natural for tell me

So sige mig is not wrong, but fortælle mig is often the more idiomatic choice when the meaning is tell me rather than say.

Yes, you can, but the nuance changes slightly.

• Kan du sige mig, hvorfor toget er forsinket? = Can you tell me why the train is delayed?
• Kan du sige, hvorfor toget er forsinket? = Can you say/explain why the train is delayed?

With mig, the listener is explicitly the person being told. Without mig, the sentence can sound a bit less personal and slightly more abstract.

In many everyday situations, Danish speakers might prefer:

• Kan du fortælle mig ...
• Ved du ...

Because hvorfor toget er forsinket is a subordinate clause.

Danish writing often uses commas to separate clauses, and a clause introduced by hvorfor in this kind of sentence is treated as a subordinate clause.

So:

• Kan du sige mig, hvorfor toget er forsinket?

The comma helps show that the sentence moves from the main clause:

• Kan du sige mig

to the embedded clause:

• hvorfor toget er forsinket

The main clause is:

• Kan du sige mig ...?

This follows normal Danish verb-second word order for questions:

1. Kan = finite verb
2. du = subject
3. sige = infinitive
4. mig = object

So the structure is:

• Kan / du / sige / mig

In a yes-no question, Danish typically puts the finite verb first:

• Kan du komme? = Can you come?
• Har du tid? = Do you have time?

If you want only the why question by itself, you would say:

• Hvorfor er toget forsinket?
• Why is the train delayed?

Notice the word order change:

Direct question

• Hvorfor er toget forsinket?

Embedded question

• ... hvorfor toget er forsinket

That contrast is very important in Danish.

Not usually. In everyday spoken Danish, mig often sounds more like mai than a clear, fully pronounced mig.

So learners are often surprised because the spelling and pronunciation do not match very closely.

Also, sige is often pronounced more like si-e than the spelling might suggest.

Danish pronunciation is often much softer and more reduced than the written form, so it is very normal if these words sound different from what an English speaker expects.

Yes. This sentence pattern works with many question words.

For example:

• Kan du sige mig, hvornår toget kommer? = Can you tell me when the train arrives?
• Kan du sige mig, hvor toget er? = Can you tell me where the train is?
• Kan du sige mig, hvordan det skete? = Can you tell me how it happened?

The same rule applies: in an embedded question, Danish normally uses statement word order after the question word.

So:

• hvornår toget kommer
• hvor toget er
• hvordan det skete

not the direct-question word order.

A close breakdown is:

• Kan = can
• du = you
• sige = say / tell
• mig = me
• hvorfor = why
• toget = the train
• er = is
• forsinket = delayed

So the sentence is literally:

• Can you tell me why the train is delayed?

The biggest thing to notice is that Danish uses embedded-question word order in hvorfor toget er forsinket, just as English does in why the train is delayed.