Questions & Answers about Kan du sige det én gang til?
Kan du literally means can you.
In Danish, this is a very common way to make a polite request, just like in English:
- Kan du hjælpe mig? = Can you help me?
- Kan du sige det igen? = Can you say that again?
So although it looks like a question about ability, it usually functions as a polite request.
Sige is the infinitive form of the verb to say.
After kan, Danish uses the infinitive without at:
- kan sige = can say
So:
- Kan du sige det ...? = Can you say it ...?
A learner may notice that English also uses the bare infinitive after can, so this part works quite similarly.
Det means it/that here.
Danish has two common words for it/that: den and det. Which one you use often depends on the grammatical gender of the noun being referred to.
But in everyday speech, det is very common when referring to:
- a whole statement
- something someone just said
- something not named directly
In Kan du sige det én gang til?, det usually means what you just said.
So even if you do not know the exact noun, det is the normal choice here.