Altså, hvad gør vi?

Here altså works like so, well, or then in English.

In Altså, hvad gør vi?, it helps set up the question and shows the speaker is reacting to the situation, often after some discussion or confusion. It can sound like:

• So, what do we do?
• Well, what do we do?
• So then, what do we do?

It does not change the basic meaning of the sentence very much, but it adds conversational tone.

Yes. You can simply say:

Hvad gør vi?

That is a perfectly natural question meaning What do we do?

Adding altså makes it sound a bit more like the speaker is thinking aloud, summing things up, or asking for a decision. So:

• Hvad gør vi? = neutral
• Altså, hvad gør vi? = So / well, what do we do?

Because this is a direct question.

In Danish direct wh-questions, the usual pattern is:

question word + verb + subject

So:

• hvad = what
• gør = do
• vi = we

That gives:

Hvad gør vi? = What do we do?

By contrast, hvad vi gør would be used inside a larger sentence, for example:

• Jeg ved ikke, hvad vi gør. = I don’t know what we do / what we’re going to do.

So the verb comes before the subject in the direct question.

Gør is the present tense of gøre, which often means to do or to make, depending on context.

Here it means do:

• gøre = to do
• gør = do / does

So:

• Hvad gør vi? = What do we do?

This is a very common verb in Danish, and like English do, it can be used in many broad situations.

Because Danish does not use do-support the way English does.

In English, we say:

• What do we do?

The do is partly there because English needs it to form this kind of question.

In Danish, you do not add an extra helper verb like that. You just use the main verb itself:

• Hvad gør vi?

So in a way, Danish is structurally simpler here than English.

Yes. Gør is present tense.

But just like in English, the present can be used for an immediate decision about what happens next. So Hvad gør vi? can mean:

• What do we do?
• What are we going to do?
• What should we do now?
  depending on context

So even though the form is present tense, the meaning often points to the next step.

Vi means we.

It is the subject of the sentence:

• hvad = what
• gør = do
• vi = we

So the whole sentence asks what we should do or are going to do.

Because altså is being used as a discourse marker at the beginning of the sentence.

It is a bit like writing:

• So, what do we do?
• Well, what do we do?

The comma shows a small pause before the main question. In informal writing, people are not always perfectly consistent with commas, but here the comma fits the spoken rhythm very naturally.

Usually altså is less important than the main question, so the main stress often falls on hvad or gør, depending on what the speaker wants to emphasize.

A natural rhythm is something like:

ALtså, hvad GØR vi?

or sometimes more lightly:

Altså, hvad gør VI?

If the speaker is frustrated, uncertain, or trying to get a decision, the stress may become stronger on gør or vi.

Gør is tricky for English speakers because the vowel does not match a common English vowel exactly.

A rough guide:

• the g is a normal hard g
• the vowel is a rounded front vowel, somewhat like the vowel in French peur or German hören
• the r affects the vowel and is not pronounced like a strong English r

So you should not pronounce it like English goer or gore.

A practical learner approximation is to aim for something like gurh, but with rounded lips. It will not be perfect, but it is a useful starting point.

Altså is usually pronounced roughly like AL-so, but not exactly like English also.

A simple learner-friendly guide:

• first syllable stressed: AL-
• second part sounds roughly like -so

Important point: even though it looks a little like English also, it is a different word and should not automatically be understood as meaning also. In this sentence it means more like so / well / then.

Yes, very natural.

Altså, hvad gør vi? sounds like something people would say in ordinary conversation when they need to decide what to do next, especially if the situation is unclear, awkward, or urgent.

It is short, idiomatic, and common in spoken Danish.