De skal hente affaldet.

It can be either, depending on context.

At the start of a sentence, De is always capitalized anyway, so spelling alone does not tell you much here. The possibilities are:

• de = they
• De = formal you

So De skal hente affaldet can mean either They are to collect the garbage or You are to collect the garbage in a formal/polite style.

In modern everyday Danish, formal De is much less common than it used to be.

You would normally say:

• Du skal hente affaldet = speaking to one person
• I skal hente affaldet = speaking to more than one person

So De is not the normal everyday plural you. The usual plural you is I.

Skal is the present tense of skulle.

In sentences like this, it usually expresses:

• obligation: must / have to
• arrangement or instruction: are to
• sometimes near future, especially when something is planned

So it is often stronger than a simple future meaning. It is not just a neutral will. It suggests duty, instruction, or a set plan.

Because it comes after the modal verb skal.

In Danish, after modal verbs such as:

• skal
• kan
• vil
• må
• bør

the next verb stays in the infinitive, and there is no at before it.

So:

• De skal hente affaldet

not:

• De skal at hente affaldet

This works much like English must fetch, not must to fetch.

Hente basically means fetch, go and get, pick up, or collect, depending on context.

With affaldet, English often prefers collect the garbage or pick up the trash, even though the Danish verb is still hente.

So the Danish verb is broader than one single English equivalent.

Because Danish usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun.

So:

• affald = garbage / waste
• affaldet = the garbage / the waste

The ending -et is the definite singular ending for a neuter noun, and affald is neuter.

This is a very common Danish pattern:

• hus = house
• huset = the house

It is usually a mass noun, like English garbage, trash, or waste.

That means affaldet usually refers to the garbage/waste in a general but specific situation, not necessarily one single item.

So in practice, affaldet can mean things like:

• the garbage
• the trash
• the waste

depending on the context and the kind of English you speak.

Because Danish main clauses follow the verb-second rule.

Here the first element is the subject De, so the finite verb skal comes second:

• De
  • skal
    • hente affaldet

If you move another element to the front, the verb still stays in second position:

• I morgen skal de hente affaldet = Tomorrow they are to collect the garbage

So the position of skal is determined by Danish sentence structure, not by English word order.

Yes. A learner should be careful not to pronounce everything exactly as it looks.

Roughly:

• De sounds like dee
• skal often sounds closer to sgal than a clear English skal
• hente is roughly HEN-də
• affaldet is harder than it looks; the ending is reduced in normal speech

A useful thing to know is that the d in endings like -det is often a soft Danish d, not a strong English d. It can sound a bit like a very soft th in this, though not exactly the same.

So this is a sentence where listening to native audio is especially helpful.