Hvis du bøjer armen for hurtigt, gør det mere ondt.

Hvis means if and introduces a subordinate clause.

So:

• Hvis du bøjer armen for hurtigt = If you bend your arm too quickly

In Danish, clauses introduced by words like hvis are subordinate clauses, and they are often followed by a comma when the main clause comes after them.

That is why the sentence is written:

• Hvis du bøjer armen for hurtigt, gør det mere ondt.

The comma separates the if-clause from the main clause.

Bøjer is the present tense form of the verb at bøje (to bend).

Here the subject is du (you), and the sentence is stating a general fact, so Danish uses the present tense:

• du bøjer = you bend / you are bending

The infinitive is:

• at bøje = to bend

So:

• Hvis du bøjer ... = If you bend ...

not

• Hvis du bøje ... ❌

Armen means the arm.

In Danish, the definite article is often attached to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word.

So:

• en arm = an arm
• armen = the arm

That is why Danish says:

• bøjer armen = bend the arm

rather than using a separate word for the.

Because hurtigt is being used as an adverb, meaning quickly.

The adjective is:

• hurtig = quick

When Danish often turns an adjective into an adverb, it adds -t:

• hurtig = quick
• hurtigt = quickly

So:

• for hurtigt = too quickly

This is similar to English using quick vs quickly, although Danish does it differently.

No. In this sentence, for means too, not the English preposition for.

So:

• for hurtigt = too quickly
• for stor = too big
• for dyr = too expensive

This is a very common Danish use of for.

This is because of word order.

In a normal main clause, Danish usually has:

• Det gør mere ondt. = It hurts more.

But when a subordinate clause comes first, Danish follows the V2 rule in the main clause: the finite verb comes before the subject.

So:

• Hvis du bøjer armen for hurtigt, gør det mere ondt.

Here, the first position is already taken by the whole if-clause, so the main clause begins with the verb:

• gør = verb
• det = subject

This word order is very typical in Danish.

In det gør ondt, det often works like a kind of dummy subject, similar to English it in it hurts.

So:

• det gør ondt = it hurts

It does not always point to one specific thing in a concrete way. It is just part of the standard Danish expression.

You can also sometimes name the thing that hurts:

• Armen gør ondt. = The arm hurts.

But in this sentence, det gør mere ondt is a natural way to say it hurts more.

This is because ondt appears in the fixed expression gøre ondt, which means to hurt / to be painful.

Related forms are:

• ond = bad, evil, painful (common form)
• ondt = the form used in expressions like det gør ondt

So you should learn gøre ondt as a set phrase:

• Det gør ondt. = It hurts.
• Det gør mere ondt. = It hurts more.

Even if the form looks a little unusual at first, it is completely standard Danish.

Mere means more.

So:

• det gør mere ondt = it hurts more

The comparison is understood from the context. Danish does not need to say than before unless you want to be more explicit.

Examples:

• Det gør ondt. = It hurts.
• Det gør mere ondt. = It hurts more.
• Det gør meget ondt. = It hurts a lot.

Be careful not to confuse:

• mere = more
• meget = much / very

No, that would not sound natural here.

In Danish, mere usually comes before the word it modifies in this kind of sentence:

• Det gør mere ondt. ✅

not

• Det gør ondt mere. ❌

So the natural order is:

• gør mere ondt = hurts more

It sounds like a general rule or a general observation:

• Hvis du bøjer armen for hurtigt, gør det mere ondt.

This is like saying:

• If you bend your arm too quickly, it hurts more.

Using the present tense in both parts makes it sound general and factual, not tied to one single moment.

If you wanted to talk about a specific past situation, Danish would use past forms instead.

Then the word order would change back to normal main-clause order:

• Det gør mere ondt, hvis du bøjer armen for hurtigt.

This means the same thing as the original sentence.

Compare:

• Hvis du bøjer armen for hurtigt, gør det mere ondt.
• Det gør mere ondt, hvis du bøjer armen for hurtigt.

Both are correct. The first one emphasizes the condition a bit more because it comes first.