Vi skal aftale en kontroltid.

Because skal is a modal verb, and in Danish modal verbs are followed by the bare infinitive.

So you say:

• Vi skal aftale ...
• not Vi skal at aftale ...

This is similar to English:

• We must arrange ...
• not We must to arrange ...

Common Danish modal verbs that work this way include skal, vil, kan, må, and bør.

Skal often expresses necessity, obligation, or something that is supposed to happen.

In this sentence, it usually means something like:

• have to
• need to
• are supposed to

So skal does not always mean a simple future like English will. It often carries the idea that this is something that needs to be done.

Here, aftale is a verb.

That can be confusing because aftale can also be a noun in Danish.

• at aftale = to arrange / to agree on
• en aftale = an agreement / an arrangement / an appointment, depending on context

In Vi skal aftale en kontroltid, it is clearly a verb because it comes after the modal verb skal.

Kontroltid is a compound noun, which is very common in Danish.

It is made from:

• kontrol = check / examination / follow-up
• tid = time

Together, kontroltid means a check-up appointment time or follow-up appointment.

Danish often combines nouns into one word where English might use two or more words.

Because tid is a common gender noun in Danish, so it takes en.

• en tid
• therefore en kontroltid

In Danish, nouns are either:

• common gender → en
• neuter gender → et

In compound nouns, the gender usually comes from the last part of the compound. Since tid is an en-word, kontroltid is also an en-word.

The sentence follows normal Danish main-clause word order:

• Vi = subject
• skal = finite verb
• aftale = infinitive/main verb
• en kontroltid = object

So the pattern is:

subject + finite verb + infinitive + object

This is very similar to English in a sentence like:

We must arrange an appointment.

Yes. Aftale often means to agree on or to arrange, depending on context.

For example:

• Vi skal aftale en dag. = We need to agree on a day.
• Vi skal aftale en tid. = We need to arrange a time / make an appointment.

In your sentence, it has the sense of arranging / setting up the appointment.

Yes, very often.

There is a small difference in feeling:

• aftale en tid = arrange / agree on a time
• bestille en tid = book an appointment

In many real-life situations, especially with doctors, dentists, or similar services, bestille en tid is extremely common.

But aftale en kontroltid sounds natural when the emphasis is on setting up or agreeing on the follow-up appointment.

A rough English-friendly approximation is:

vee skel af-tay-luh en kon-TROHL-teeth

A few notes:

• Vi sounds roughly like vee
• skal is often closer to skel than a clear English skal
• aftale has three syllables: af-ta-le, though in natural speech the ending is softer
• kontroltid has the stress mainly on -trol-

Danish pronunciation changes a lot in connected speech, so what you hear may sound more reduced than what you see in writing.

Not normally.

Lave means make/do, and although English often uses make in flexible ways, Danish is usually more specific here.

For appointments, Danish typically uses verbs like:

• aftale
• bestille
• booke (informal/modern, from English)

So Vi skal aftale en kontroltid sounds natural, while lave en kontroltid would usually sound odd.

Grammatically, yes, vi means we.

But in real usage, it can sometimes be used a bit more broadly or politely, especially in professional settings. For example, a receptionist or doctor might say Vi skal aftale en kontroltid even if only one person is actually doing the scheduling. In that kind of context, vi can sound cooperative, like let’s arrange a follow-up appointment.

So it can be both:

• a literal we
• a more inclusive, polite we

depending on the situation.