Der er færre biler på vejen i dag, så det tager kortere tid at komme hjem.

Der er is the standard Danish way to say there is / there are.

So:

• Der er en bil = There is a car
• Der er biler = There are cars

Here:

• Der er færre biler = There are fewer cars

The der here does not mean there in the sense of a physical place. It is a grammatical dummy subject, just like English there in there are fewer cars.

Because færre is used for countable things, and biler (cars) are countable.

Compare:

• færre biler = fewer cars
• mindre trafik = less traffic

So the rule is roughly:

• færre = fewer + plural count nouns
• mindre = less + uncountable nouns

Since you can count cars one by one, færre biler is correct.

Færre is the comparative form of få in the sense of few.

The pattern is:

• få biler = few cars
• færre biler = fewer cars
• færrest biler = fewest cars

So in this sentence, Danish is comparing today with some other situation, for example a normal day.

Because the sentence is talking about cars in general, not about specific cars.

• biler = cars, in a general sense
• de biler = the cars, specific ones
• nogle biler = some cars

So:

• Der er færre biler på vejen i dag = There are fewer cars on the road today

This is a general observation, so the bare plural biler is natural.

På vejen means on the road.

Breakdown:

• på = on
• vejen = the road

The word vej means road or way. Here it becomes vejen because Danish adds the definite article to the end of the noun:

• en vej = a road
• vejen = the road

So på vejen literally means on the road.

Because Danish usually puts the at the end of the noun.

For common-gender nouns like vej, the definite singular ending is usually -en:

• en vej = a road
• vejen = the road

This is very common in Danish:

• en bil → bilen
• en dag → dagen
• en vej → vejen

So på vejen is literally on-the-road.

I dag means today.

In this sentence it comes after på vejen:

• Der er færre biler på vejen i dag

That word order is perfectly natural in Danish. Danish often places time expressions like i dag later in the clause.

You could move it for emphasis:

• I dag er der færre biler på vejen

That also works, but then the word order changes because Danish is a V2 language: the verb usually stays in second position in main clauses.

Here så means so in the sense of therefore / as a result.

So the structure is:

• Der er færre biler på vejen i dag = There are fewer cars on the road today
• så = so
• det tager kortere tid at komme hjem = it takes less/shorter time to get home

It connects two main clauses:

There are fewer cars on the road today, so it takes less time to get home.

In det tager kortere tid at komme hjem, the det is another grammatical dummy subject.

Danish often uses det the same way English uses it in expressions like:

• It takes time
• It is raining
• It is important

So:

• Det tager tid = It takes time
• Det tager kortere tid = It takes less / shorter time

The real idea being talked about is the infinitive phrase at komme hjem (to get home), but Danish still uses det as the formal subject.

Good question. Kortere tid literally means shorter time, and in this sentence it is very natural Danish.

• kort = short
• kortere = shorter

So:

• det tager kortere tid = it takes a shorter amount of time

You may also hear det tager mindre tid, and that can be understandable too. But kortere tid is especially natural when comparing duration.

So even though English usually says less time, Danish often prefers kortere tid in this type of sentence.

Kortere is the comparative form of kort (short).

Pattern:

• kort = short
• kortere = shorter
• kortest = shortest

So the sentence is making a comparison:

• because there are fewer cars,
• the time needed is shorter.

Because at komme hjem is an infinitive phrase, meaning to get home / to come home.

• komme = come / get
• at komme = to come / to get
• hjem = home

After expressions like det tager tid, Danish often uses an infinitive to say what takes time:

• Det tager tid at lære dansk = It takes time to learn Danish
• Det tager kortere tid at komme hjem = It takes less time to get home

So at here works like English to before an infinitive.

Komme hjem means to get home / to come home, and it is very common when focusing on arriving home.

Possible alternatives have different nuances:

• komme hjem = get home, come home
• gå hjem = go home, often literally on foot or just leave for home
• tage hjem = go home, often focusing on the decision to leave

In a sentence about how long the journey takes, komme hjem is very natural because the important idea is reaching home.

Because så here is acting as a coordinating conjunction meaning so, joining two main clauses.

That means the second clause keeps normal main-clause word order:

• så det tager kortere tid ...

with the verb in second position after the subject det.

Danish inversion happens when something other than the subject comes first in a main clause, for example:

• I dag tager det kortere tid at komme hjem

Here i dag is first, so the verb tager comes before det.

But after coordinating så, you simply start a new main clause normally.

A learner often wonders about this because the spelling can look misleading.

Vejen is roughly pronounced like VY-en or VAI-en, depending on how simplified the explanation is for English speakers. The exact Danish pronunciation is more subtle than English spelling suggests.

Important things to notice:

• the j helps create a glide sound
• the final -en is usually quite light
• the word is not pronounced exactly as it looks in English spelling

If you are learning pronunciation, it is best to listen to native audio for vej and vejen several times, because Danish vowels are hard to predict from spelling alone.

Yes. A few natural alternatives are:

• I dag er der færre biler på vejen, så det tager kortere tid at komme hjem.
• Der er mindre trafik i dag, så det tager kortere tid at komme hjem.

These mean almost the same thing, but there is a slight difference:

• færre biler focuses on the number of cars
• mindre trafik focuses on traffic as a whole

Both are very natural Danish.