Jeg turde ikke spørge min chef om hjælp i går.

Turde means to dare or to have the courage to.

So Jeg turde ikke spørge min chef om hjælp i går means that the speaker did not dare ask their boss for help yesterday.

In this sentence, turde expresses hesitation, fear, or lack of courage, not physical ability.

Compare:

• Jeg kunne ikke spørge min chef = I couldn’t ask my boss
• Jeg turde ikke spørge min chef = I didn’t dare ask my boss

That difference is very important.

Because this sentence is in the past.

The forms are commonly:

• at turde = to dare
• jeg tør = I dare / I dare to
• jeg turde = I dared

So:

• Jeg tør ikke spørge = I don’t dare ask
• Jeg turde ikke spørge = I didn’t dare ask

The time expression i går also helps show that the sentence is about the past.

Because turde behaves like a modal verb in this kind of sentence.

After modal verbs in Danish, the next verb normally comes in the infinitive without at.

So you get:

• Jeg vil spørge = I want to ask
• Jeg kan spørge = I can ask
• Jeg må spørge = I may / must ask
• Jeg tør spørge = I dare ask

That is why it is:

• Jeg turde ikke spørge

not:

• Jeg turde ikke at spørge

In a normal main clause in Danish, the finite verb usually comes in second position, and ikke often comes after that verb.

Here the finite verb is turde, so the order is:

• Jeg = subject
• turde = finite verb
• ikke = not
• spørge min chef om hjælp i går = rest of the sentence

So:

• Jeg turde ikke spørge ...

This is standard Danish word order.

Compare:

• Jeg spiser ikke kød
• Han kommer ikke i dag
• Vi kunne ikke finde den

Because Danish uses the pattern:

spørge nogen om noget

which means:

ask someone for something or ask someone about something, depending on context.

So here:

• spørge = ask
• min chef = my boss
• om hjælp = for help

Together:

• spørge min chef om hjælp = ask my boss for help

This is a very useful structure to remember:

• Jeg spurgte ham om penge = I asked him for money
• Hun spurgte læreren om råd = She asked the teacher for advice

Here om hjælp means for help.

Even though om often means about, with spørge it is often used in the pattern ask someone for something.

So:

• spørge om hjælp = ask for help
• spørge om lov = ask for permission
• spørge om råd = ask for advice

So in this sentence, om hjælp does not mean the speaker is asking about help in a general topic sense. It means they wanted to get help.

Because in Danish, when you use a possessive like min, din, hans, vores, etc., you normally do not also use the definite ending.

So:

• min chef = my boss
• chefen = the boss

But not:

• min chefen

The same pattern applies to many nouns:

• min bil = my car
• bilen = the car
• vores hus = our house
• huset = the house

Yes, in Danish chef usually means boss, manager, or head of something.

This is a common false friend for English speakers.

Examples:

• min chef = my boss
• afdelingschef = department manager
• chefen kommer snart = the boss is coming soon

A cook/chef in the English sense is more often:

• kok = cook
• sometimes chefkok = head chef

So in this sentence, min chef definitely means my boss, not my cook.

Yes, i går means yesterday, and it is very natural at the end of the sentence.

So this works well:

• Jeg turde ikke spørge min chef om hjælp i går.

But Danish often allows time expressions to move, especially for emphasis. For example:

• I går turde jeg ikke spørge min chef om hjælp.

This version emphasizes yesterday more strongly. Notice that when I går moves to the front, the verb must still stay in second position:

• I går
  • turde
    • jeg

That is classic Danish V2 word order.

No, that word order is incorrect in standard Danish.

If you put I går first, the finite verb must come immediately after it:

• I går turde jeg ikke spørge min chef om hjælp.

Not:

• I går jeg turde ikke ...

This happens because Danish main clauses follow the verb-second rule.

Yes, it is somewhat irregular and a bit tricky.

Common forms are:

• at turde = to dare
• tør = dare / dares
• turde = dared

You may also meet perfect forms, though usage can vary in real Danish:

• Jeg har ikke turdet spørge ham = I have not dared ask him

So this is a verb worth memorizing separately rather than trying to build all forms by a simple pattern.

A few words here are especially tricky for English speakers:

• jeg: often sounds more like yai or y depending on speech style
• turde: the d is soft; it is not pronounced like a strong English d
• ikke: often sounds roughly like eguh or ikkə, depending on accent and speech
• spørge: the ø vowel is difficult for English speakers; it is a rounded front vowel
• hjælp: the hj combination is also tricky, and the word is shorter and tighter than an English learner may expect
• i går: often sounds more connected in normal speech than learners expect

A good strategy is to learn the whole sentence as a sound chunk rather than word by word.

Not always directly, but very often.

In this sentence, spørge clearly means ask.

But like ask in English, its exact translation depends on the structure:

• spørge nogen = ask someone
• spørge om noget = ask for something / ask about something
• spørge, om ... = ask whether / if ...
• spørge, hvad ... = ask what ...

So here:

• spørge min chef om hjælp = ask my boss for help

That is the natural translation.

The structure is:

• Jeg = subject
• turde = finite verb, past tense
• ikke = negation
• spørge = infinitive main verb
• min chef = object of spørge
• om hjælp = prepositional phrase connected to spørge
• i går = time expression

So the sentence pattern is roughly:

Subject + finite verb + negation + infinitive + object + prepositional phrase + time

That makes it a very useful model sentence for Danish word order.