Jeg orker ikke at lave mere mad i dag, så vi nøjes med rugbrød og te.

Orker is the present tense of at orke.

In this sentence, jeg orker ikke ... means something like:

• I don’t have the energy to ...
• I can’t face ...
• I’m not up to ...

So it is not mainly about physical ability in the sense of can/can’t. It is more about energy, stamina, or mental willingness.

Compare:

• Jeg kan ikke lave mad. = I can’t cook / I’m unable to cook.
• Jeg vil ikke lave mad. = I don’t want to cook.
• Jeg orker ikke at lave mad. = I don’t have the energy to cook / I can’t face cooking.

In a normal main clause, Danish usually places ikke after the finite verb.

So:

• Jeg orker ikke ...

follows the usual pattern:

• subject + finite verb + ikke
  • rest

That is why you get:

• Jeg orker ikke at lave mere mad i dag

and not:

• Jeg ikke orker ... in a normal main clause.

A very useful basic pattern is:

• Jeg spiser ikke kød.
• Han kommer ikke i morgen.
• Vi orker ikke at lave mad.

Because orke is followed by an infinitive, and in standard Danish that infinitive is commonly introduced by at.

So:

• at orke at lave noget = to have the energy to do/make something

That gives:

• Jeg orker ikke at lave mere mad.

English often drops to in some constructions, but Danish has its own patterns. After some verbs, the infinitive comes with at, and after others it does not.

For example:

• Jeg vil lave mad. = no at after vil
• Jeg prøver at lave mad. = at is used
• Jeg orker ikke at lave mad. = at is used

Here mere means more, but in English we would often naturally translate it as any more in a negative sentence.

So:

• Jeg orker ikke at lave mere mad i dag

can feel like:

• I can’t face making any more food today
• I don’t have the energy to cook more food today

A useful point:

• mere is used with uncountable nouns or in general comparisons
• flere is used with countable plural nouns

Examples:

• mere mad = more food
• mere kaffe = more coffee
• flere kartofler = more potatoes
• flere bøger = more books

Because mad is treated as an uncountable noun here.

So Danish uses:

• mere mad = more food

not:

• flere mad

Use flere only with countable plural nouns:

• flere æbler = more apples
• flere sandwich = more sandwiches

But:

• mere vand = more water
• mere arbejde = more work
• mere mad = more food

Yes, lave mad is a very common everyday expression meaning:

• cook
• make food
• prepare a meal

So even though lave literally often means make, the whole phrase lave mad is the normal idiomatic way to say cook in many contexts.

Examples:

• Jeg laver mad. = I’m cooking.
• Hun kan godt lide at lave mad. = She likes cooking.
• Vi skal lave mad senere. = We’re going to cook later.

Here så means so or therefore.

It connects the two parts of the sentence:

• Jeg orker ikke at lave mere mad i dag
• så vi nøjes med rugbrød og te

So the logic is:

• I don’t have the energy to make more food today, so we’ll just have rye bread and tea.

In this use, så links two main clauses.

Because så here is functioning as a coordinating conjunction meaning so.

After a coordinating conjunction, Danish normally keeps regular main-clause word order:

• så vi nøjes ...

not inversion.

Compare:

• Jeg er træt, så jeg går hjem.
• Han er sulten, så han laver mad.

If så were being used differently as an adverb placed first in a clause, then you could get inversion:

• Så går jeg hjem. = Then/so I’m going home.

So in your sentence, så vi nøjes ... is the natural structure.

At nøjes med means:

• to make do with
• to settle for
• to content oneself with just

So:

• vi nøjes med rugbrød og te

means:

• we’ll make do with rye bread and tea
• we’ll just settle for rye bread and tea

This expression is very common in Danish.

More examples:

• Jeg nøjes med en kop kaffe. = I’ll just have a cup of coffee.
• Vi nøjes med det billige hotel. = We’ll settle for the cheap hotel.
• Hun nøjes ikke med én portion. = She doesn’t settle for one portion.

Because the dictionary form is at nøjes. This is one of those Danish verbs that naturally has an -s form.

It may look passive if you already know that Danish can form passives with -s, but here it is just the normal verb itself, not a passive meaning.

So:

• at nøjes med noget = to make do with something

Present tense:

• jeg nøjes
• du nøjes
• vi nøjes

Past tense:

• nøjedes

So in this sentence, nøjes is simply the present tense form.

Because Danish often uses bare nouns after med when talking about food or drink in a general, indefinite way.

So:

• med rugbrød og te

means:

• with rye bread and tea

not necessarily:

• with the rye bread and the tea

It is similar to English when we say:

• We had coffee and cake
• She drinks tea
• They ate bread and cheese

If you wanted something more specific, you could add articles or other determiners:

• med et rugbrød = with a rye loaf
• med teen = with the tea
• med noget rugbrød og lidt te = with some rye bread and a little tea

Because Danish often uses the present tense for near-future decisions or plans, just like English often can.

So:

• vi nøjes med rugbrød og te

literally looks present, but in context it means:

• we’ll just have rye bread and tea
• we’re just going to make do with rye bread and tea

This is very normal in Danish.

Examples:

• Jeg tager toget i morgen. = I’m taking the train tomorrow.
• Vi spiser hjemme i aften. = We’re eating at home tonight.
• Så nøjes vi med rugbrød. = So we’ll just have rye bread.

Yes, but the meaning changes slightly.

• Jeg orker ikke ... focuses on lacking energy, strength, or mental capacity.
• Jeg gider ikke ... focuses more on not feeling like it, not wanting to bother, or not being in the mood.

So:

• Jeg orker ikke at lave mere mad i dag
  = I don’t have the energy to make more food today.

• Jeg gider ikke at lave mere mad i dag
  = I can’t be bothered to make more food today / I don’t feel like making more food today.

Sometimes they overlap, but orke sounds more about exhaustion, while gide sounds more about motivation or willingness.

Yes. Danish adverbials like i dag are fairly movable, but the word order changes according to normal Danish rules.

Your sentence has:

• Jeg orker ikke at lave mere mad i dag.

You could also say:

• I dag orker jeg ikke at lave mere mad.

Notice that when i dag is moved to the front, Danish still follows the verb-second rule:

• I dag
  • orker
    • jeg ...

So not:

• I dag jeg orker ikke ...

Because the sentence contains two coordinated main clauses:

1. Jeg orker ikke at lave mere mad i dag
2. så vi nøjes med rugbrød og te

In standard Danish writing, a comma is often placed between such clauses.

So the comma helps show the structure:

• first idea: I don’t have the energy to cook more today
• second idea: so we’ll just have rye bread and tea

Literally, rugbrød is rye bread, but culturally it often refers to the dense, dark Danish rye bread that is a very common everyday food in Denmark.

So when Danes say:

• vi nøjes med rugbrød og te

it can sound very natural and ordinary, like saying:

• we’ll just have something simple

Depending on context, rugbrød may suggest plain slices of rye bread, perhaps with simple toppings, rather than a full cooked meal.