Hvis rækkefølgen af ordene bliver forkert, kan en formel besked hurtigt lyde uformel.

Because Danish main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb must come in the second position.

Here, the Hvis-clause comes first:

Hvis rækkefølgen af ordene bliver forkert, ...

That whole clause takes the first position, so the finite verb of the main clause must come next:

... kan en formel besked hurtigt lyde uformel.

If you wrote the main clause by itself, you would normally say:

En formel besked kan hurtigt lyde uformel.

So the word order changes because the sentence starts with a subordinate clause.

Unlike German, Danish does not send the finite verb to the end of the subordinate clause.

So you get:

Hvis rækkefølgen af ordene bliver forkert

with normal subject + verb order inside the clause.

A useful thing to notice is that subordinate clauses in Danish often show their special status more clearly through the position of words like ikke:

• Main clause: Rækkefølgen bliver ikke forkert
• Subordinate clause: hvis rækkefølgen ikke bliver forkert

So Danish subordinate clauses are different from main clauses, but not in the same way as German.

Hvis means if and introduces a condition.

So it sets up the condition under which the main clause is true.

A common learner point: Danish hvis is used for if, while om is often used for whether:

• Jeg ved ikke, om det er rigtigt = I don’t know whether it is correct
• Hvis det er rigtigt, ... = If it is correct, ...

Yes. Rækkefølgen af ordene is understandable and correct, and it literally means the order of the words.

But Danish often likes compounds and other tighter noun structures, so you may also meet:

• ordrækkefølgen = the word order
• ordenes rækkefølge = the order of the words

So all of these are possible, but ordrækkefølgen is especially common when talking about grammar.

Because it refers to a specific set of words: the words in the message or sentence being discussed.

• ord = words in general
• ordene = the words, a specific group of words

So rækkefølgen af ordene means the order of the words involved, not just word order in a general abstract sense.

Bliver often suggests becomes, ends up, or turns out.

So bliver forkert gives the idea that the word order ends up being wrong.

By contrast, er forkert is a more static description:

• Rækkefølgen er forkert = the order is wrong
• Rækkefølgen bliver forkert = the order becomes / ends up wrong

In many contexts, the English translation may still simply be is wrong, but Danish is adding a slight sense of change or result.

Because forkert here is a predicative adjective after bliver, and it agrees with the subject rækkefølgen, which is singular and common gender.

For predicative adjectives:

• common gender singular: usually basic form
• neuter singular: often -t
• plural: often -e

So:

• rækkefølgen bliver forkert
• et svar bliver forkert
• svarene bliver forkerte

Since rækkefølgen is singular common gender, forkert is the right form.

Both formel and uformel are adjectives, but they are used in two different ways.

en formel besked
Here the adjective comes before the noun, so it is attributive.

lyde uformel
Here the adjective comes after the verb lyde, so it is predicative.

In both cases, the noun involved is besked, which is a common gender singular noun, so the adjective stays in its basic form:

• en formel besked
• beskeden lyder uformel

If the noun were neuter, you would see -t:

• et formelt svar
• svaret lyder formelt

Because here hurtigt is functioning as an adverb, not as an adjective.

It modifies the verb phrase lyde uformel, telling you how easily/quickly that can happen.

Compare:

• en hurtig besked = a quick message
  Here hurtig is an adjective describing a noun.

• kan hurtigt lyde uformel = can quickly sound informal
  Here hurtigt is an adverb modifying the verb.

A very common pattern in Danish is that adverbs are formed from adjectives with -t.

Not only literally. Lyde can mean sound in the physical sense, but very often it means come across as or seem when heard/read.

So in this sentence, lyde uformel means something like:

• sound informal
• come across as informal
• seem informal in tone

This is very common in Danish:

• Det lyder godt = That sounds good
• Det lyder mærkeligt = That sounds strange
• Beskeden lyder for formel = The message sounds too formal

Because kan is a modal verb, and in Danish modal verbs are followed by the infinitive without at.

So:

• kan lyde
• vil gå
• skal skrive
• må vente

Not:

• kan at lyde

You do use at in many other infinitive constructions, for example:

Det er vigtigt at lyde formel.

In the neutral version of this sentence, hurtigt sits after the subject and before the infinitive:

kan en formel besked hurtigt lyde uformel

That is a very normal placement.

If the sentence stood alone without the Hvis-clause, you would get:

En formel besked kan hurtigt lyde uformel.

You can sometimes move adverbs for emphasis, but the version in the sentence is the most natural standard order for ordinary speech and writing.

Because the sentence begins with a subordinate clause, and then the main clause starts after it.

So the comma marks the boundary:

Hvis rækkefølgen af ordene bliver forkert, kan en formel besked hurtigt lyde uformel.

This is very common in Danish when a sentence starts with a clause introduced by words like:

• hvis
• når
• fordi
• selvom

The comma helps show where the introductory clause ends and the main clause begins.