Jeg smider de gamle noter i papirkurven, før jeg går hjem.

In Danish, the present tense is often used for:

• habits or routines
• something happening right now
• something planned in the near future

So Jeg smider de gamle noter i papirkurven, før jeg går hjem can mean something like:

• I throw the old notes in the bin before I go home
• or more naturally in English, I’ll throw the old notes in the bin before I go home

Danish often does not need a special future form like English will.

Smider is the present tense of at smide, which means:

• to throw
• to toss
• sometimes to chuck

In this sentence, it means throw away / toss into the bin.

So Jeg smider de gamle noter i papirkurven is literally I throw the old notes into the wastepaper basket, but in natural English it often means I throw the old notes away.

Because jeg is the subject pronoun I.

In the sentence:

• Jeg smider ...
• før jeg går hjem

the speaker is the subject of both verbs:

• smider = throw
• går = go

So Danish uses jeg each time, just as English does:

• I throw ... before I go home

In Danish, when an adjective comes before a noun, the usual order is:

article + adjective + noun

So:

• de gamle noter = the old notes

Here:

• de = the
• gamle = old
• noter = notes

You cannot say noterne gamle to mean the old notes.

A useful comparison:

• de gamle noter = the old notes
• noterne er gamle = the notes are old

So if the adjective comes before the noun, it is de gamle noter. If it comes after, it is part of a different structure: noterne er gamle.

Because in Danish, when you have a definite article with an adjective before the noun, the noun usually does not take the definite ending as well.

So you say:

• de gamle noter = the old notes

not:

• de gamle noterne

Compare:

• noterne = the notes
• de gamle noter = the old notes

This is an important pattern in Danish:

• bogen = the book
• den gamle bog = the old book

The article den/det/de plus the adjective already makes the noun phrase definite.

Because adjectives usually take -e in definite forms and in plural noun phrases.

Here, de gamle noter is both:

• definite: the old notes
• plural: notes

So the adjective is gamle.

Compare:

• en gammel note = an old note
• gamle noter = old notes
• de gamle noter = the old notes

So gamle is the expected form here.

The preposition i means in / into, and it is the normal choice here because something is being thrown into the bin.

So:

• i papirkurven = into the wastepaper basket / in the bin

This is idiomatic Danish. English often says in the bin or into the bin, and Danish uses i for that idea.

Papirkurven is the definite form, meaning the wastepaper basket / the bin.

• en papirkurv = a wastepaper basket
• papirkurven = the wastepaper basket / the bin

In this sentence, the speaker means a specific bin, probably the one nearby or the one normally used in that context. That is why the definite form is natural.

Før means before.

It introduces the time clause:

• før jeg går hjem = before I go home

So the whole sentence means that the action of throwing away the notes happens earlier than going home.

Because after før, Danish uses normal subordinate-clause word order.

In this clause:

• jeg = subject
• går = verb
• hjem = adverb/direction

So:

• før jeg går hjem = before I go home

This is different from main clause word order in Danish, where the verb often comes second.

For example:

• Jeg går hjem nu. = I’m going home now.
• Nu går jeg hjem. = Now I’m going home.

But after før, you keep the subject before the verb:

• før jeg går hjem

Literally, går hjem is goes home.

But gå hjem does not necessarily mean walking on foot. Very often it simply means:

• go home
• head home
• leave for home

So even if the person is driving, cycling, or taking a bus, Danish can still say går hjem.

Because Danish commonly uses a comma before a subordinate clause.

Here, før jeg går hjem is a subordinate clause, so the comma is standard:

• Jeg smider de gamle noter i papirkurven, før jeg går hjem.

English comma use is often less strict in similar sentences, but in Danish this comma is very normal.

Yes, but it is slightly different.

• smide noget ud = throw something out / away
• smide noget i papirkurven = throw something in the wastepaper basket

So:

• Jeg smider de gamle noter ud focuses on getting rid of them.
• Jeg smider de gamle noter i papirkurven tells you exactly where they go.

You can even combine the ideas in some contexts, but the original sentence is more specific.

Here, hjem is an adverb of direction, meaning home.

In Danish, hjem is often used without a preposition:

• jeg går hjem = I go home
• hun kommer hjem = she comes home

English also does this with home, so this part matches English quite well.

Not always.

Noter can mean:

• notes on paper
• written notes
• school or study notes

But in other contexts, note can also mean:

• a musical note
• a banknote
• a formal written note/message

So the exact meaning depends on context. In this sentence, de gamle noter most naturally means the old notes as in papers or written notes.

Then Danish main-clause word order changes:

• Før jeg går hjem, smider jeg de gamle noter i papirkurven.

Notice the inversion in the main clause:

• smider jeg
• not jeg smider

That happens because Før jeg går hjem comes first, so the finite verb in the main clause takes second position. This is a very common Danish word order pattern.