"Vi kommer til at spise sent."

Translation: We will be eating late.

[Olweg]

Is there a rule to know if it's better to use "kommer til at spise" or just "spiser" when expressing future?

[duolingonaut]

The words "komme til" can be used in different ways, allow me to confuse you:

• To be forced by circumstances: "vi kommer til at spise sent... fordi elkomfuret er defekt" - "we're going to be eating late because the electric stove is broken".

• To do something by accident: "jeg kom til at ødelægge komfuret" - "I accidentally broke the stove"

• To gain access to something: "lad mig komme til komfuret!" - "let me at the stove!"

Sentences like "det kommer til at ske" - "that's going to happen", "han kommer til at fortryde det" - "he's going to regret it", are instances of the first, I would say.

If you just want to state fact, then you're better off using present tense like you suggest: "vi spiser sent" - "we're eating late", or using a modal verb "vi vil spise sent" - "we'll eat late", "vi skal spise sent" - "we're going to eat late", or "we have to eat late" or "we must eat late"; it's a bit tricky.

If you use the modal verb "må" you express almost the same thing as "kommer til", or indeed "bliver nødt til" - "vi må spise sent" - "we have to eat late", "vi bliver nødt til at spise sent" - "we'll have to eat late", "vi kommer til at spise sent".

However "vi må spise sent" can also mean "we're allowed to eat late". To stress that sentiment you can say "vi må gerne spise sent".

There are sort of overlaps in how the expressions work, it's down to the way you say the words, just like whether or not you stress must.

I suspect that this is a sentence from a section about continuous/progressive tense, which is never going to translate directly between Danish and English.

I'll stop rambling now.

[Olweg]

Wow, thanks a lot, actually it wasn't confusing at all (well, maybe just a bit at the end xD). But it seems logical, and I guess it's a bit like in french when we do something forced by circumstance ( "être amené à..." )
Thanks, here's a lingot ^^

[frankenwer]

Tusind tak skal du har for din godt forklæring!

[BkXwB]

It is not showing the correct answer when I make a mistake. How am I to learn this?

[solsticeFrench]

Correct English is 'We shall' not 'We will'

[prometheuswife]

"We will be eating late tonight, is far more common in English.

[DomEiben]

Is the kommer til expression needed here, or would it be valid to simply say "Vi vil spiser sent"? Is the kommer implying that people are going over to someone's place, and so it's like "we will be arriving late for dinner"... Very confused trying to reconcile the English to the Danish...