Danish word for no

Previously, we’ve seen 21 different ways of saying thank you in Danish. If you’re keen to learn and speak Danish, be sure to go through today’s language lesson. Back to the topic – how do you express yes and no in Danish? Ja (yes) and nej (no) are one of the common words used in Danish to declare yes and no. If Denmark is included in your wishlist, it’s always great to have a few Danish words up your sleeve. So, let’s find out what are the other basic vocabulary for yes and no in Danish.

How To Say ‘Yes’ In Danish

In previous blogs, we’ve seen how there are many ways available to state yes and no in Malay and French. Today, let’s learn what are the unique ways to convey yes in this Nordic language.

1) Ja – The Typical Yes

This is the typical word everyone in Denmark uses to state yes. Just like oui in French, it’s the typical word for yes in the Danish language. The pronunciation is just a quick, sharp ‘ya‘. Feel free to use this word anywhere, with either strangers or friends because it’s the universal yes.

2) Ja-da – Yeah

If you want to try something else other than the traditional ja, try pronouncing ja-da. This Danish word translates to yeah – a casual tone in addressing your agreement.

3) Klart – For Sure

Klart is another way of affirming a person’s statement in the Danish language. Rather than saying yes or I agree, you can translate it into for sure (klart).

4) Jeps – Yep

If you’re looking for a quick word to address your agreement, jeps is the one. Jeps literally means yep when translated to English. It’s casual and most suitable to be used with your friends and family.

5) Ja tak – Yes, Thank You

Being polite is of course, always a great virtue to practice. So, whenever other people offer to do something for you (like making a cup of coffee), you can respond by uttering ja tak. These words translate to yes, thank you in English. These two Danish words can really help you to leave a good impression on the locals.

6) Helt sikkertDefinitely/For Sure

You can always add emphasis to your agreement. In English, we use adverbs like certainly, undeniably, and absolutely to emphasize and accentuate our point. In this particular language, the related phrase is help sikkert, which means definitely.

Det her er helt sikkert han værelse = This is definitely his room

Det var helt sikkert Toms skyld = It was definitely Tom’s fault

7) Selvfølgelig Of Course

Sometimes, stating yes alone isn’t enough, especially when it comes to the moment where you want to pitch your biggest idea or coax your sulky partner. A bit of a tip you can try is by saying of course to further stress and foreground your point. The word you need in Danish is Selvfølgelig.

Selvfølgelig husker jeg dig = Of course I remember you.

Du har ret selvfølgelig = You’re right, of course.

8) Hvorfor ikke? – Why Not?

If you’re looking for an indirect way of saying yes, you can utter why not? (hvorfor ikke). You can respond to an invitation or request by saying ja hvorfor ikke; yes, why not?

9) Det er en aftale – It’s A Deal

Making arrangements with your Danish friend? Give him a sign that you’re free and want to join by saying it’s a deal.

Okay? Det er en aftale = Okay? It’s a deal.

Det er en aftale Christine = It’s a deal Christine.

10) Så lad gå da Very well

Another option you can use to signal your agreement is by saying så lad gå da, which translates very well in English.

How To Say ‘No’ In Danish

Knowing how to say ‘yes’ would be incomplete if we don’t know its counterpart, which is ‘no’. Let’s learn what are the words for ‘no’.

1) Nej – The Traditional No

Nej is the traditional, most common way of conveying your disagreement. You’ll hear this one being typically used by the local Danes. So if you don’t quite remember some other words that portray disagreement, just stay nej, which means no.

2)  – Nah

Want a casual way of stating your disagreement or contradiction? You can just utter nah – which is nae in Danish.

3) Nej tak – No, Thank You 

Do you want to learn how to decline and turn down an offer or invitation politely? You can add thank you at the end. Try saying nej tak; no, thank you.

4) Niks – Nope

Want to quickly dismiss someone or something? You can state nope for an answer. In Danish, it’s niks.

5) Ellers tak – Thank You, But No Thank You

Another way to politely state your ‘no’ is by trying out this phrase – ellers tak. It’s an expression of thanks but no thanks.

6) Det tror jeg ikke – I Don’t Think So

Want to beat around the bush for a bit? You can try this expression. Det tror jeg ikke means I don’t think so, which is an indirect manner of conveying your rejection and disagreement towards something.

7) Ikke i dag – Not today

If a friend asked you to join them for an activity together but you had to decline, you can try to reschedule. A good way to decline would be by using the phrase “not today”.

Ikke i dag. Beklager, men jeg er trøtt = Not today. I’m sorry, but I’m tired.

8) Glem det – Forget It

A more direct way to convey your disagreement to someone is by saying forget it. It’s a phrase you normally state out of anger, annoyance, or displeasure.

Glem det Roland, du hadde sjansen din, og du mistet den = Forget it, Roland. You had your shot and you blew it.

How To Say ‘Maybe’ In Danish 

Don’t know what to decide between a ‘yes’ or ‘no’? Well, that’s why ‘maybe’ exists! You could always state maybe in times of uncertainty. Here are a few ways for you to utter the word maybe in Danish:

 Måske = Maybe

 Muligvis = Perhaps

These are some of the most typical words you can use to mean ‘maybe’.

Det er muligvis sandt = Maybe it’s true.

Learn Danish Language Today

So, how do you like this language? It’s definitely an interesting one – you can never go wrong with Danish. Just so you know, it is one of the easiest North Germanic languages to learn. Learn and speak Danish through Ling App for free – it teaches you basically everything you need to know – alphabets, basic phrases and expressions, greetings, pronouns, grammar, pronunciation and so much more! If you use Ling App consistently, you’ll soon be surprised to see how much progress you have made.

··········· Table of Contents ···········

  • Basics
  • Basics 1
  • Basics 2
  • Family I
  • Common Phrases
  • Food
  • Countries
  • Definite Articles
  • Plurals
  • Genitive Nouns
  • Possessive Pronouns
  • Object Pronouns
  • Animals
  • Present 1
  • Trip
  • Colors
  • Questions
  • Prepositions 1
  • Conjunctions
  • Clothing
  • Dates and Time
  • More
  • Adjectives 1
  • Adverbs
  • Determiners
  • Prepositions 2
  • Numbers
  • Past 1
  • Languages
  • Infinitive 1
  • Past 2
  • Adjectives 2
  • Present Perfect
  • Danish Food
  • Relative Pronouns
  • Indefinite Pronouns
  • Modality
  • Past Perfect
  • Progressive Actions
  • Reflexive Pronouns
  • Compound Nouns
  • Passive Present
  • Politeness
  • Present Participle
  • Imperative
  • Future
  • Passive Past
  • Future Perfect
  • Conditional Perfect
  • H.C. Andersen

Basics #3 · 2023-02-21 ^

Welcome

To the Duolingo Danish course. Here you will get familiar with a language full of fun vowels that has a quite close relationship to English. You will find many patterns used in both English and Danish. Even some shared words, partly due to England being a favourite viking destination a thousand years ago.

You ≠ du

Be carefull with translating ‘you’ into Danish. As many other languages Danish destinguishes between singular and plural in second person. If you speak to a single person you translate you as du. But unlike in English du can only be used to address a single person.

Present tence

You will love verbs in Danish. Any present tence scenario uses the same form of the word. In Danish all of the forms am/are/is are translated to er. This is the same for all Danish verbs.

English Danish
I am jeg er
you are du er

Vowels

Danish is not always written as it sounds. We simply do not have enough vowel symbols for all our sounds, so as in English the same vowel letter represents multiple sounds.

e is the king of multiple sounds with it’s 5 different pronounciations. In this skill you will try out 3 of those.

Note the different sound of e in the words jeg, hej, er and Henrik. jeg has the same e sound as hej, while er and Henrik both have different sounds.

Sound Danish example English example
ɑ jeg I
ɛ er can
e Henrik when

Basics 1 #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Nouns

Danish has two noun genders: Common (or n-words) and neuter (or t-words). Each of these have their own article for indefinite singular. Common words take en and neuter words take et.

In this skill you will only be dealing with indefinite and definite, singular nouns such as a boy, the woman etc. The following skills will gradually introduce you to the plural forms.

Unfortunately, in Danish there is no certain way to tell from a noun which gender it is. So this you will have to learn by heart. There have been made attempts to develop a pattern for determining the gender of a noun from the word itself, and one such can be found here.

The short version is that about 80% of nouns are common gender (taking en as the indefinite article), including most living and animate entities.

The Definite Form

Instead of marking the definite form with an article, Danish uses postfixing. Simply put, the indefinite article is appended to the end of the noun to mark definiteness: -en for common gender and -et for the neuter gender.

  • en mand (a man, common gender) adds -en and becomes manden (the man)
  • vand (water, neuter gender) adds -et and becomes vandet.

If the noun already ends with -e most often only -n (for common) or -t (for neuter) is appended:

  • et æble (an apple, neuter gender) becomes æblet (the apple).

To see how simple this really is, have a look at this table:

Indefinite article Definite postfix
en -en
et -et

In some cases an article is used instead of a postfix to mark the definite form, for example when modifying the noun with an adjective. But do not worry about this for now, it will be explained later :) Furthermore, just to ruin the beautiful simplicity, some nouns change an internal vowel when put in the definite — Again, more about this later.

Subject Pronouns

Subject pronouns are used to indicate the person performing an action: In the sentence you drive a car, the word you informs us who is driving the car.

While this particular skill only involves singular subject pronouns (I, you, and he/she, specifically), we will show you all the (personal) subject pronouns here for completeness. Don’t worry, we’ll include this table again later when the rest of the subject pronouns are introduced!

English Danish
I jeg
you du
he, she, it han, hun, den/det*
we vi
you (plural) I**
they de

*) Depending on the grammatical gender of the subject. As a rule of thumb, use den for all living things, det for inanimate objects.

**) Always capitalized.

Present Tense Verbs

You will love verbs in Danish. They conjugate not for the subject, not for the object, nor for the number of people. They only care about the time (present, past), the aspect (active, passive), and the mood (indicative, imperative). But do not worry about all that just yet, just be overjoyed that there are only seven forms of each verb :)

For now, just know that present tense (things happening right now, or general statements) end in -r, and do not change regarding to the person carrying out the action. As an example, look at the conjugations of at spise (to eat) in the present:

English Danish
I eat jeg spiser
you eat du spiser
he, she, it eats han, hun, den/det spiser
we eat vi spiser
you (plural) eat I spiser
they eat de spiser

Isn’t that beautiful? Similarly, the only form of to be in present (I am, you are, he, she, it is, etc.) is simply er: jeg er, du er, and so on.

To make things even simpler, as to the verb anyway, Danish verbs have no concept of continuous actions such as I am eating. When you say jeg spiser it means all of I eat (in general), I am eating (right now), or I will eat (tomorrow).

Alright, get on it and see you in the next skill!

Basics 2 #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Subject Pronouns

Here they are again, for your reference:

English Danish
I jeg
you du
he, she, it han, hun, den/det
we vi
you (plural) I*
they de

* Always capitalized.

Definite Nouns

Once again, this beautifully simple system:

Indefinite article Definite postfix
en -en
et -et

Some examples from the previous skill:

  • en mand (a man, common gender) becomes manden (the man)
  • vand (water, neuter gender) becomes vandet.
  • et æble (an apple, neuter gender) becomes æblet (the apple).
Plural Nouns

Nouns form the plural by appending either -er (most commonly) or just -e:

  • en avis (a newspaper) adds -er and becomes aviser (newspapers).
  • en dreng (a boy) adds -e and becomes drenge (boys).

Again, if the words ends in an -e the double-e is eliminated:

  • en pige (a girl) adds -er and eliminates the double-e to become piger (girls).

Whether a word uses -er or -e is unrelated to its grammatical gender, and is something that must be learned by heart. Furthermore, some nouns do not change at all in the plural. These must also be learned by heart. There are, however, some general guidelines:

  • The -er postfix is the most common one. Nouns containing multiple syllables usually take the -er ending.
  • Single syllabic words of the common gender (n-words) often use the -e ending.
  • Short, single syllabic nouns of the neuter gender are most likely to remain unchanged in the plural.

Source.

Oh, and remember those irregular nouns we talked about in the previous lesson? This lesson will introduce the first of them

  • en mand (a man) adds no postfix but becomes mænd (men).
Plural Definite Nouns

In the plural definite form (such as the cars), nouns in Danish add -ne to the plural form:

  • en kvinde (a woman) has the plural kvinder (women) and adds -ne to become kvinderne (the women).
  • en dreng (a boy) has the plural drenge (boys) and adds -ne to become drengene (the boys).

This is independent from the grammatical gender of a noun, like the plural form. Again, however, some nouns are irregular, for example:

  • en mand (a man) has the plural mænd (men) but regains the lost -e in the plural, adding -ene to become mændene (the men).

Hopefully you are not overwhelmed yet! There are very few irregular nouns, and most follow the system we can now show as a complete table including singular/plural and definite/indefinite:

Singular, indefinite Singular, definite Plural, indefinite Plural, definite
en -en -er, -e -erne, -ene
et -et -er, -e -erne, -ene

Enjoy these lessons and see you in the next one :)

Family I #2 · 2023-02-21 ^

Gender of nouns

Just like Spanish, French, German, Russian and many other european languages, Danish has different rules for different categories of nouns. Instead of separating feminine and masculine words, however, we work with two categories: common gender and neuter gender.

Common gender nouns uses n for grammar issues, and are therefore commonly called n-words. In this lesson far, mor, søn, datter, bror, søster, are all common gender n-words.

Neuter gender nouns uses t for grammar issues, and are therefore commonly called t-words. In this lesson hus and barn are neuter gender t-words.

In Danish the article of nouns changes based on gender. This means a can be translated by either en or et depending on the noun that comes after.

English Danish
a house et hus
a mom en mor
a child et barn
a dad en far

How do you know the gender?

Well, there is slightly more n-words than t-words in Danish. No good system for deciding the gender exists though, and you will have to try and connect each noun with their article to remember their gender.

Instead of remembering that house = hus, try to remember a house = et hus.

In other news

In danish we pronounce r from deep down the throat, like it is done in French. Put the tongue tip all the way down in the bottom of your mouth, as tongue rolling on r is not a Danish habit.

Ø/ø is a special danish letter used for vowels. It has three different sounds of which two appear in this skill in ø and søn. It has previously been written oe which sometimes is still used when without a danish keyboard.

Common Phrases #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

A note on Capitalization

As you might have noticed already, in Danish, the first person personal pronoun is not capitalized: It might be I eat in English, but in Danish it’s jeg spiser.

There are a number of other things, which are capitalized in English, that are not capitalized in Danish. This includes names of languages, as you will notice in this skill, but also days of the week and names of months.

Giving the Time of the Day

This skill will teach you a number of words you can use to greet and part with people. Some are generic and can be used at any time, such as hej and farvel. The word hej is a funny case that can both be used as a greeting and a farewell. Sometimes, for farewells, it is doubled into hej hej.

Others can only be used at specific times of the day, and primarily as greetings:

  • Godmorgen means good morning and so should only be used in the morning, logically.
  • Godaften translates to good evening and is usually applicable after the work day ends.
  • Goddag, meaning good day can be used more freely, but is usually not used when godmorgen or godaften would be more appropriate.

Just as in English, godnat (good night) is not used as a greeting, but only in parting — or in wishing a friend or loved one a blissful sleep!

Danish has a few extra greetings for specific periods of the day, which will not be taught here. But don’t be surprised if people give you either god formiddag or god eftermiddag for the period between morning and noon, and the afternoon, respectively.

The Case of the Missing Please

Unfortunately, Danish has no simple translation for the word please. Rather, asking for things politely involves some set phrases and modal verbs. Naturally, this will not appear in this skill, so don’t fret :)

We apologize deeply. We’re really quite polite, truly!

Food #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Sticking Words Together

You might already have noticed this trend. If not, this skill contains a few examples of how much Danes love to form new words by sticking two or more words together.

We call these «compound nouns», although sometimes they have become so ingrained in the language that they’re really just plain words now. In some cases the words are just put together directly (no space), and in other cases they require a little glue, in the form of an -e- or an -s- between them.

This skill contains the following words built from individual meanings:

  • Jordbær comes from jord meaning earth or ground and bær meaning berry: So, a berry growing near the ground? Strawberry!
  • Svinekød is constructed from svin, the glue -e- and kød. The first part means pig (or, more literally, swine) and the second meat. Meat from a pig, or as it’s called in English, pork.
  • Morgenmad consists of the words morgen and mad, translating to morning and food. Put them together, and they carry the meaning of breakfast.
  • Aftensmad is similar, but with aften, meaning evening, and the glue -s-. So this one is dinner or supper.

You will meet many more such words during this course, and there is even an entire skill dedicated to learning some more complicated ones further down the tree.

If you’re ever having trouble deciphering a particular Danish word, try to see if you can’t pick it apart in to smaller components, and understand it that way :)

Countries #2 · 2023-02-21 ^

How to ask a question in Danish. Reverse subject and verb.

Spelling names with capital, but not nationality.

Definite Articles #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

The Definite Form

As you may recall, Danish uses postfixing instead of marking the definite form with an article. Simply put, the indefinite article is appended to the end of the noun to mark definiteness: -en for common gender and -et for the neuter gender.

  • en mand (a man, common gender) adds -en and becomes manden (the man)
  • vand (water, neuter gender) adds -et and becomes vandet.

If the noun already ends with -e most often only -n (for common) or -t (for neuter) is appended:

  • et æble (an apple, neuter gender) becomes æblet (the apple).

Put in a table, it looks like this:

Indefinite article Definite postfix
en -en
et -et
Consonant Doubling

In some cases, however, it is necessary to double the ending consonant of a word when forming the definite (and also the plurals). For example, the word for cat:

  • En kat becomes katten.

This occurs when the preceding vowel is short, and the word does not already have two consonants succeeding it (in the same syllable). For example, the word for dog does not double the last consonant:

  • En hund simply becomes hunden.

As a rule of thumb, Danish marks a short vowel by having two consonants after it in the same syllable. However, it does not double the same consonant if nothing follows it. Hence, it is kat in Danish and not katt but katten in the definite form. Another example is æg (egg), which in the definite form is ægget (the egg).

Plural Definite Nouns

In the plural definite form (such as the cars), nouns in Danish add -ne to the plural form:

  • en kvinde (a woman) has the plural kvinder (women) and adds -ne to become kvinderne (the women).
  • en dreng (a boy) has the plural drenge (boys) and adds -ne to become drengene (the boys).

This is independent from the grammatical gender of a noun, like the plural form. Again, however, some nouns are irregular, for example:

  • en mand (a man) has the plural mænd (men) but regains the lost -e in the plural, adding -ene to become mændene (the men).

The complete table including singular/plural and definite/indefinite looks like this:

Singular, indefinite Singular, definite Plural, indefinite Plural, definite
en -en -er, -e -erne, -ene
et -et -er, -e -erne, -ene

Plurals #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Plural Nouns

Nouns in Danish form the plural by appending either -er (most commonly) or just -e:

  • en avis (a newspaper) adds -er and becomes aviser (newspapers*).
  • en hund (a dog) adds -e and becomes hunde (dogs).

Again, if the words ends in an -e the double-e is eliminated:

  • en pige (a girl) adds -er and eliminates the double-e to become piger (girls).

Whether a word uses -er or -e is unrelated to its grammatical gender, and is something that must be learned by heart. Furthermore, some nouns do not change at all in the plural. These must also be learned by heart. There are, however, some general guidelines:

  • The -er postfix is the most common one. Nouns containing multiple syllables usually take the -er ending.
  • Single syllabic words of the common gender (n-words) often use the -e ending.
  • Short, single syllabic nouns of the neuter gender are most likely to remain unchanged in the plural.

Source.

A small number of nouns change an inner vowel when forming the plural, such as:

  • en and (a duck) becomes ænder (ducks).
  • en bog (a book) becomes bøger (books).

Typically these are transformations from a to æ or o to ø.

Another group of nouns, typically long words that end in -el and -en without stress on the last syllable, will drop that e. Examples include:

  • en kartoffel (a potato) adds -er but then drops the e before the l to become kartofler (potatoes)
  • en tallerken (a plate) adds -er and drops the e before the n to become tallerkner (plates).
Consonant Doubling

Recall the way nouns are put into the definite:

Indefinite article Definite postfix
en -en
et -et

In some cases, however, it is necessary to double the ending consonant of a word when forming the plural (and also the definite). For example, the word for cat:

  • En kat becomes katte.

This occurs when the preceding vowel is short, and the word does not already have two consonants succeeding it (in the same syllable). For example, the word for dog does not double the last consonant:

  • En hund simply becomes hunde.

As a rule of thumb, Danish marks a short vowel by having two consonants after it in the same syllable. However, it does not double the same consonant if nothing follows it. Hence, it is kat in Danish and not katt.

Word from English

A limited number of loan words from English retain their original, English plural form:

  • En sandwich (a sandwich) is simply sandwiches in Danish.

However, it would not, in most cases, be wrong to form the plural using the Danish structure, if you so wish :)

Genitive Nouns #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

The Genitive Case

Forming the genitive in Danish is so simple you might think we’re kidding. But we’re not! :) One simply adds -s (no apostrophe) to whatever one wishes to put in the genitive. For example:

  • Kvindens æble which means the woman’s apple.

To break it down: kvinde (woman) + -n (the, or definite) + -s (‘s, or genitive).

This is the only way of forming the genitive. There is no equivalent to the English of, such as in the house of my parents. Instead the -s is used every time, for all things:

  • Husets børn which in English would be the children of the house, consisting of hus (house) + -et (definite) + -s (genitive).

If the word that the -s is appended to already ends in an s or an s-sound, an apostrophe is used instead of an extra s:

  • En gris’ avis meaning A pig’s newspaper (gris meaning pig).

Most often, the genitive is not even referred to as a grammatical case at all, because it can really be appended to anything, and not just nouns. Entire clauses can be put in the genitive, such as the-lady-at-the-back of-the-bus’s hat although some people consider it bad language. But don’t worry about that now!

If you know your vocabulary from the previous skills, this one should be a breeze :)

Possessive Pronouns #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Possessive Pronouns and Adjectives

Danish does not distinguish between possessive adjectives (my, your, etc) and possessive pronouns (mine, yours, etc). The same word is used in both cases, for example min for my or mine here:

  • It is my newspaper becomes det er min avis.
  • The newspaper is mine is avisen er min.

However, possessive pronouns and adjectives for the first and second person singular (my, mine, your, yours in English) must be declined towards the thing being owned:

The full table of possessive pronouns/adjectives looks like this:

English Danish
my & mine min/mit/mine*
your & yours din/dit/dine*
his, her & hers, its hans, hendes, dens/dets
our & ours vores
your & yours jeres
their & theirs deres

*) Common/neuter/plural corresponding with the item being owned.

Note that the third person impersonal possessive pronoun (its in English) declines with the grammatical gender of the item that is owning, and not the item being owned:

  • Vi drikker kattens vand becomes vi drikker dens vand because kat is of the common gender (n-word). In English this would be we drink the cat’s water or we drink its water.
  • Vi spiser dyrets mad becomes vi spiser dets mad because dyr is of the neuter gender (t-word). In English, this is we eat the animal’s food or we eat its food.

The possessive adjectives (dens or dets) in these examples stay the same regardless of the grammatical gender of the noun they modify. So it is:

  • Vi læser dyrets avis (we read the animal’s newspaper) into vi læser dets avis (we read its newspaper) even though avis is common (an n-word).

This is contrary to how the first and second person possessive adjectives behave:

  • Jeg læser din avis (I read your newspaper). Here din is used because avis is common (n-word).
  • Jeg spiser dit æble (I eat your apple). Here it is dit because æble is neuter (t-word).

The declension table for min (my, mine) and din (your, yours) looks as follows:

Grammatical gender Singular Plural
Common (n-word) min/din mine/dine
Neuter (t-word) mit/dit mine/dine
Reflexive Possessive Adjectives

As an added complication, Danish has a different set of pronouns when something is being owned or belongs to by whomever is the subject of the sentence. These behave like the possessive adjectives and pronouns for the first and second person above, in that they decline corresponding to the item being owned:

Grammatical gender Singular Plural
Common (n-word) sin sine
Neuter (t-word) sit sine

To better understand this concept in English, one can imagine adding the word own after the possessive adjective:

  • Manden læser sin avis means the man reads his (own) newspaper while if the man was reading someone else’s newspaper, it would be manden læser hans avis.

This extra dimension only comes into play for the third person singular, and can be helpful in distinguishing to whom exactly an item belongs. However, it takes a bit of getting used to :) Try to determine if an item belongs to the person performing the action in the sentence (the grammatical subject) or someone else. This other person could also be mentioned in the sentence, but does not carry out the action. As mentioned above, you can perform a test in your head by inserting own after the possessive adjective (in English): If it sounds weird, you should not be using sin/sit/sine.

Object Pronouns #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Object Pronouns

Object pronouns are the targets of actions in sentences, and stand in the place of the names of people or other objects. In English these are me, you, him, her, it, us and them.

Now, some languages differentiate between direct object pronoun and indirect object pronoun (cough, Spanish, cough), but we Danes like to keep, at least, object pronouns simple. So don’t get your heart racing too fast already. ;)

This table shows the English object pronouns and their equivalents in Danish:

English Danish
me mig
you dig
him, her, it ham, hende, den/det*
us os
you (plural) jer
them dem

*) This object pronoun changes to match the grammatical gender of the word that the object pronouns replaces. For example:

  • I will take it down when talking of a frame becomes jeg vil tage den ned because en ramme is of the common gender.
  • I will take it down, speaking of a map becomes jeg vil tage det ned because et kort is neuter.

Here is a few examples of how to use Danish object pronouns:

  • I am dancing with them = Jeg danser med dem.
  • The dog looks at her = Hunden ser på hende.
  • They give us the newspaper = De giver os avisen.

That was it! See not that scary, huh? Just remember the table and you’ll do just fine in this lesson. ;) Good luck!

Animals #2 · 2023-02-21 ^

Consonant Doubling

Recall the way nouns are put into the definite:

Indefinite article Definite postfix
en -en
et -et

In some cases, however, it is necessary to double the ending consonant of a word when forming the definite (and also the plurals). For example, the word for cat:

  • En kat becomes katten.

This occurs when the preceding vowel is short, and the word does not already have two consonants succeeding it (in the same syllable). For example, the word for dog does not double the last consonant:

  • En hund simply becomes hunden.

As a rule of thumb, Danish marks a short vowel by having two consonants after it in the same syllable. However, unlike its siblings Swedish and Norwegian, we do not double the same consonant if nothing follows it. Hence, it is kat in Danish and not katt like in Swedish/Norwegian, but katten in all of them.

This explanation might not mean much to you now, but hopefully it will help you spell out words later :)

Present 1 #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Present Tense

Good news — the Danish present tense is very simple! You just have to add an -r to the infinitive form and voila! Your verb is now in the present tense.
Here is an example of how to conjugate three regular, Danish verbs in the present tense:

Infinitive English Translation Present tense
skrive write skriver
regne rain regner
arbejde work arbejder

The amazing thing is that this doesn’t change according to who is doing the action like some of you may be used to (I’m looking at you Frenchmen, Englishmen, Italians, Germans and basically the rest of the world!). Look here:

At synge To sing
jeg synger I sing
du synger you sing
han/hun/den/det synger he/she/it sings
vi synger we sing
I synger you sing
de/De synger they/you (formal) sing

Easy right? You should do just fine in this lesson. Don’t worry about the irregular verbs, you just have to learn them by heart like in any other language – okay, maybe a little worry is suitable. But hey! You’ve already learned the irregular verb to be! There aren’t many irregular verbs left prying on you out there – at least not in the present tense. ;)

Kan godt lide

This expression does not have a literal translation in English, but it means to like. If one says to like well we’re a bit closer to the Danish structure.

The word godt is not super important for the meaning and could be omitted, but it is nonetheless used a lot, and serves to enhance the liking somewhat. So if you want to say that you like food, you could either say:

  • Jeg kan godt lide mad (literally I can well like food) or simply:
  • Jeg kan lide mad (literally I can like food).

That was it — have fun and good luck with the present tense!

To Know and not to Know

In Danish, the verb at vide (to know) is transitive, meaning it must always take an object. This means you cannot literally translate I know or I do not know without adding what it is you know or do not know. For the general case, such as when answering a question, det is added:

  • Hvornår spiser vi? (When will we eat?) to which you might answer:
  • Det ved jeg ikke (literally it know I not) or Jeg ved det ikke (literally I know it not).

There is a very slight difference between the two, emphasizing either that you do not know that or that you don’t know it. In most cases, however, you can use either one.

Trip #2 · 2023-02-21 ^

«Sammen med» kontra «med» or «sammen»

Colors #3 · 2018-10-25 ^

Adjectives

Congratulations! You have now reached one of the slightly more difficult parts of the Danish language: Adjectives. Let us take a few moments to go through how they work in Danish.

Adjectives decline according to the grammatical gender and number of the noun that they modify. In Danish you would say a green apple with the sentence et grønt æble. You have already seen et æble, so let us discuss the middle part: grønt. Grøn is the Danish word for green. When used to describe a neuter gender noun such as æblet the adjective is suffixed with -t and becomes grønt.

There are three ways an adjective can be declined: -, -t, or -e. - is used for common gender nouns, -t is used for neuter gender nouns, and -e is used for plural in both genders. This is also described in the following table:

Common Neuter
Singular - -t
Plural -e -e

There are irregular adjectives that are missing one or more of the forms, such as blå (blue), which can only be: blå or blåt. Here blå is used for both singular common and both plural forms: De blå bukser (The blue pants). But also lilla (purple) is irregular and only has one form used for all nouns: et lilla bord (a purple table), en lilla fisk (a purple fish), and tre lilla stole (three purple chairs).

Adjectives and Definite Nouns

While nouns normally express definiteness using a postfix, this changes to using an article if any adjectives (such as a color) is attached to the noun.

If the color (or in general adjective) is used with a definite noun, then it is put between the definite article and the noun: En rød bil (a red car) becomes den røde bil (the red car). In this case the adjective is declined the same way as for the plural, no matter the grammatical number or gender of the noun.

As a reminder, the car without any adjectives is simply bilen, expressing the definite with the -en postfix and no article involved.

Color Variations

Variations of colors can also be formed by prefixing lyse- or mørke- to describe light and dark colors.
As an example there is the color rød (red), which can become lyserød (light red or pink) or mørkerød (dark red).

With this in mind you should be able to master Danish colors. Good luck, and see you in the next skill!

Questions #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Questions

Welcome back! One very important thing to learn is how to ask questions. Danish has the following standard question words, all starting with hv-:

Danish English
hvad what
hvor where
hvordan how
hvorfor why
hvem who
hvis whose
hvornår when
hvilken/hvilket/hvilke which

Most of these are simply used like they would be used in English. The equivalents of which (hvilken, hvilket, and hvilke) work just like adjectives. If you ask the question: Hvilke æbler er dine? (which apples are yours?), then it is declined according to the gender and number of the noun. Here’s a quick table to illustrate this:

Common Neuter Plural
hvilken hvilket hvilke
Inversion

Inversion is when the normal order of words changes in certain situations. In English inversion is used when asking questions, i.e. you are eating becomes are you eating? when formulated as a question. The same holds for Danish, for instance:

  • Han spiser et æble (he eats an apple) becomes Spiser han et æble? (Is he eating an apple? or Does he eat an apple?).

In English, saying eats he an apple? (the literal translation) sounds a bit queer, and one would of course involve the continuous form is eating or add do/does. However, no construction using -ing or to do exists in Danish, and as such the inversion helps to mark the sentence as a question.

When using modal verbs (auxiliary verbs) in Danish it is only the modal verb that is inverted:

  • Han vil spise et æble (he will eat an apple) becomes vil han spise et æble? (will he eat an apple?).

Here Danish and English are very similar. A key point to remember, though, is that Danish does not use to do as an auxilary in the way English does, and as such questions will lose the do/does when translated into Danish: Do you swim? becomes svømmer du?. Note the inversion!

Inversion are used in other cases, too, but you’ll pick those up on your way further down the course. Hopefully this skill will allow you to pry out all sorts of interesting information from Danes. Good luck, and power on :D

Prepositions 1 #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Prepositions

Prepositions in Danish are used similarly to prepositions in English. They describe spatial or temporal relations, but can also mark syntactic and semantic roles.

But what does that mean? It means that prepositions are very important and are used very frequently in both Danish and English. Prepositions can describe how you got a present, where you went, or even who you did something for. Their uses are vast, but there are not that many prepositions in neither Danish nor English.

In this skill we will introduce you to some of the prepositions. Please remember that there is not a 1-to-1 correlation between Danish and English prepositions! For example, a preposition such as (in most cases on), might sometimes mean in: In Danish you might say jeg bor på slottet which literally translated becomes I live on the castle. While it is indeed possible to live on top of a castle, what you most likely wanted to say was I live in the castle.

But don’t fret! Danish and English are very close languages, and sometimes the same prepositions might be used in exactly same way in both languages:

  • Æblet er på bordet, translates to the apple is on the table.

Prepositions are just one of those tiny annoying things that you really need to learn, but can only acquire through constant practice and exposure to the language.

Please do not get frustrated with our language because of this skill! It really didn’t mean to hurt you. Instead, enjoy all those words that make English and Danish the best pals in the world, such as efter (after), nær (near), and under (under).

Conjunctions #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Conjunctions

Not much to say here, really! Aren’t you delighted? :) Conjunctions (glue between parts of sentences) work pretty much the same in Danish as in English.

So instead of tedious explanations, we’ll just give you this nifty table of conjunctions:

Danish English
og and
eller or
fordi because
men but
når when
mens while
at that
hvis if (expressing conditionality)
om if (expressing uncertainty)

To clear up any confusion about hvis versus om, let’s grab two quick examples:

  • I eat if you eat becomes jeg spiser hvis du spiser.
  • I don’t know if she eats becomes jeg ved ikke om hun spiser.

If becomes hvis in the first example because one clause is conditionally dependent on the other one: I will only eat, if you will also eat! In the second one, it becomes om, expressing that there’s an a certain doubt surrounding the statement. The latter is often used when asking for information about the state of things:

  • Do you know, if she is eating? becomes Ved du, om hun spiser?

Clothing #2 · 2023-02-21 ^

How to Wear in Danish

In Danish, the most common way to express that someone is wearing something is to say that they have it on them, literally. In Danish, to wear becomes at have på.

This conjugates to har på in the present tense. Let’s see some examples:

  • I wear shoes becomes jeg har sko på where sko is the object being worn.
  • She is wearing a hat becomes Hun har en hat på. Here en hat is the object being worn.

Notice how the object (what is being worn) is put between the actual verb (har) and the preposition (). This is true also for many other phrasal verbs in Danish, some of which you will meet later in this course.

You might already have realized that English has the same behaviour: For example in the sentence I put my dress on where dress (the object) is put between put and on.

While not a part of this particular skill, we can give you a sneak peak and tell you that in Danish this particular sentence would be jeg tager min kjole på. So, to put on is at tage på in Danish, and the object is put in the exact same location as it is in the English sentence. Easy, huh?

One more thing to note is that in Danish it is possible to omit the article before the thing you’re wearing. For instance:

  • Jeg har en kjole på → literally I have a dress on meaning I am wearing a dress
  • Jeg har kjole på → literally I have dress on meaning I am wearing a dress

Both options are correct, though, so don’t worry. ;) Most often the second one (without article) is used, while the first one is chosen if one wishes to add emphasis to the item being worn.

Since you already speak English, this part of Danish should not be a problem for you at all! :) Good luck!

Dates and Time #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Today, Tonight & Tomorrow

In English there are words for today, tonight, tomorrow, and yesterday. These words all become two words in Danish. For instance i dag means today. Here dag means day, so the literal translation is in day. The same goes for tomorrow and yesterday, which are i morgen (in morning) and i går, respectively.

Tonight is slightly different, because in Danish this could either be i aften (in evening) or i nat (in night), depending on what time you mean. The times for when to use which depends on who you are talking to, but the general definition is that aften is used for events occurring between 18:00 and 24:00, while nat is from sunset to sunrise. Think of evening versus night and you’re good to go!

Because we want you to do well, here’s a table for your viewing pleasure:

Danish English
i dag today
i morgen tomorrow
i går yesterday
i aften tonight, this evening
i nat tonight, this night

The table is left uncapitalized on purpose in order to avoid confusion as to whether something is generally spelled capitalized.

Periods of the Day

While English has the concepts of morning, noon, afternoon, evening, and night, Danish has an extra one for the period between morning and noon. We call this one formiddag (pre-noon) just like eftermiddag is afternoon. Take a look at this table of the periods and points of the day used in everyday Danish:

Danish English Approx. time
morgen morning 6:00 — 10:00
formiddag morning 10:00 — 12:00
middag noon 12:00
eftermiddag afternoon 12:00 — 18:00
aften evening, night 18:00 — 0:00
midnat midnight 0:00
nat night 0:00 — 6:00

Of course, individual people might have separate understandings of the exact definitions of these time periods.

The Word «Om»

The tiny word om is a brave one, serving many purposes. We saw it as a conjunction earlier, but it is used when talking about doing some action during a time period. It can either be translated as in or during in this case. Thus:

  • He sleeps in the morning would be han sover om morgenen.

Here it would be wrong to construct the sentence using i (the literal in). In fact, we won’t even show you the example using i. That’s how wrong it is ;)

Weekday

In Danish we have the notion of a weekday, which is called en hverdag, which can also be translated as an every day. This word is usually used about workdays, which in Denmark are considered to be Monday through Friday, even if some admirable people work Saturday and Sunday. The word is not generally used about holidays even if these might be located on a day that is between Monday and Friday.

Now we’re already talking about days, take a look at this table we’ve crafted especially for you:

Danish English
mandag Monday
tirsdag Tuesday
onsdag Wednesday
torsdag Thursday
fredag Friday
lørdag Saturday
søndag Sunday

The Danish words are not capitalized to make it even more obvious that we do not do such silly things in Danish. Simple enough, hm? :)

More #2 · 2023-02-21 ^

Plural Nouns

Nouns in Danish form the plural by appending either -er (most commonly) or just -e:

  • en avis (a newspaper) adds -er and becomes aviser (newspapers*).
  • en hund (a dog) adds -e and becomes hunde (dogs).

Again, if the words ends in an -e the double-e is eliminated:

  • en pige (a girl) adds -er and eliminates the double-e to become piger (girls).

Whether a word uses -er or -e is unrelated to its grammatical gender, and is something that must be learned by heart. Furthermore, some nouns do not change at all in the plural. These must also be learned by heart. There are, however, some general guidelines:

  • The -er postfix is the most common one. Nouns containing multiple syllables usually take the -er ending.
  • Single syllabic words of the common gender (n-words) often use the -e ending.
  • Short, single syllabic nouns of the neuter gender are most likely to remain unchanged in the plural.

Source.

A small number of nouns change an inner vowel when forming the plural, such as:

  • en and (a duck) becomes ænder (ducks).
  • en bog (a book) becomes bøger (books).

Typically these are transformations from a to æ or o to ø.

Another group of nouns, typically long words that end in -el and -en without stress on the last syllable, will drop that e. Examples include:

  • en kartoffel (a potato) adds -er but then drops the e before the l to become kartofler (potatoes)
  • en tallerken (a plate) adds -er and drops the e before the n to become tallerkner (plates).
Consonant Doubling

Recall the way nouns are put into the definite:

Indefinite article Definite postfix
en -en
et -et

In some cases, however, it is necessary to double the ending consonant of a word when forming the plural (and also the definite). For example, the word for cat:

  • En kat becomes katte.

This occurs when the preceding vowel is short, and the word does not already have two consonants succeeding it (in the same syllable). For example, the word for dog does not double the last consonant:

  • En hund simply becomes hunde.

As a rule of thumb, Danish marks a short vowel by having two consonants after it in the same syllable. However, it does not double the same consonant if nothing follows it. Hence, it is kat in Danish and not katt.

Word from English

A limited number of loan words from English retain their original, English plural form:

  • En sandwich (a sandwich) is simply sandwiches in Danish.

However, it would not, in most cases, be wrong to form the plural using the Danish structure, if you so wish :)

Adjectives 1 #1 · 2018-10-25 ^

Adjectives

Since we have already introduced how to work adjectives in the Colors skill, let us just quickly recap what we learned earlier.

Adjectives decline according to the gender and number of the noun that they modify. In Danish you would say a big apple with the sentence et stort æble. You have already seen et æble, so let us discuss the middle part: stort. Stor is the Danish word for big (along with several other words). When used to describe a neuter gender noun such as æblet it is then suffixed by -t and becomes stort.

There are three ways an adjective can be declined: -, -t, or -e.
- is used for common gender nouns, -t is used for neuter gender nouns, and -e is used for plural.
This is also described in the following table:

Common Neuter
Singular - -t
Plural -e -e

There are irregular adjectives that are missing one or more of the forms, such as beskidt (dirty), which can only be beskidt or beskidte. Here beskidt is used for both of the singular forms: En beskidt abe (a dirty monkey).
Other words, such as moderne (modern) are irregular in a different way and only have one form used for all nouns: et moderne bord (a modern table).

Adjectives and Definite Nouns

While nouns normally express definiteness using a postfix, this changes to using an article if any adjectives is attached to the noun.

If the adjective is used with a definite noun, then it is put between the definite article and the noun: En åben bil (an open car) becomes den åbne bil (the open car). In this case the adjective is declined the same way as for the plural, no matter the grammatical number or gender of the noun.

As a reminder, the car without any adjectives is simply bilen, expressing the definite with the -en postfix and no article involved.

I wish I could tell you which adjectives are irregular, but unfortunately there are no real rules for that. Even with this in mind I am sure you will do great. Good luck!

Adverbs #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Adverbs

Adverbs in Danish are, like in English, a group consisting of a lot of different words, with numerous functionalities.
Adverbs modify or describe verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, or entire sentences.

Word Order

Adverbs sometimes behave slightly different in Danish compared to English.
This is usually when they are used to describe a verb.
Take the example:

  • vi spiser generelt med vores bedstemor

This becomes either we generally eat with our grandmother or we are generally eating with our grandmother. Notice how the verb (eat/eating) and adverb (generally) are on opposite sides of each other in the Danish and English sentence.

When a sentence is started by an adverb describing the verb, then the verb will follow immediately after.
To explain this, let us consider this example:

  • Generelt spiser jeg kød.

This example translates literally to Generally eat I meat, however in English I and eat would be switched giving the sentence generally I eat meat or generally I am eating meat.

Declension

Remember that adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Therefore they do not decline to the noun of the sentence:

  • Hun spiser muligvis et æble which means she is possibly eating an apple.

In fact, adverbs in Danish only decline to express comparative or superlative, just like in English (e.g. small, smaller, smallest). But don’t worry about these for now, you’ll learn these further down the tree :)

From Adjective to Adverb

Just like an adjective in English can be converted to an adverb by adding -ly, so it is possible in Danish, in general by adding -t:

  • Normal (normal) becomes normalt (normally)
  • Fuldstændig (complete) becomes fuldstændigt (completely).

This is not something you need to use actively in this skill, but you might find it interesting to note these converted adjectives.

Now, go and have fun with this skill and see you in the next one!

Determiners #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Determiners

Determiners modify words that determine the kind of reference a noun or noun group has. In short, they describe things in further detail. Some Danish determiners may be a little confusing, since you’ve already learned the word – but with a different meaning! To help you out, we have explained everything below.

Den and det

You might recognize den (common gender) and det (neuter gender) from sentences like: Den spiser = It eats, but you are about to learn something new! Den and det can also mean that as long as the determiner is accompanied by a noun. E.g.:

  • Den spiser means it eats.
  • Den mand spiser means that man eats.

De

At this point you’ve learned to combine de with a verb to form a simple present tense: De spiser = They eat. But if you combine de with a plural noun, your sentence will get a whole new meaning: De kjoler er smukke. = Those dresses are beautiful. De mænd arbejder = Those men are working.

Disse

This determiner works the same way as de, but simply means these instead.

Here is a table to make it «bell-clear» as we say in Danish:

The demonstratives
this denne/dette
that den/det
these disse
those de

Anden and andet

These two determiners means the same but change gender according to the noun they describe. As you might have guessed anden is common gender and andet is neuter gender.

Sådan and sådanne

In English these would both be translated to such, but be aware that in Danish we differentiate between sådan (singularis) and sådanne (pluralis). They have to match the noun they describe too – but at least you don’t have to worry about gender with these two.

We hope that was helpful. Good luck!

Prepositions 2 #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Ad versus Af

Danish has two propositions that both translate roughly to the English of, and to make it worse they are also pronounced almost or exactly the same. These are ad and af.

Ad is used to describe a direction along, through, or towards something, and can often be eliminated in the English translation. For example:

  • Jeg går ned ad gaden means I’m walking down (along) the street.
  • Pigen kigger ud ad vinduet means the girl is looking out (of) the window.
  • Hunden løber ind ad døren means the dog runs in (through) the door.
  • De griner ad ham means they’re laughing at him.

Af on the other hand describes something originating from something, physical movement away from from something or a cause of something. It also doubles as the word for off. Here’s a few examples:

  • Du stiger af toget means you get off the train.
  • Stolen er lavet af træ means the chair is made of wood.
  • Tag kjolen af means take the dress off.
  • Den er fuld af vand means it is full of water.

Even Danes get these two mixed up, with a clear tendency towards the disappearance of ad. Poor word. As mentioned, in spoken language there is no distinction between these two, so don’t worry too much about it!

Now run along and learn some more prepositions!

Numbers #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Numbers

Welcome back! It’s now time for you to learn how to count. I know you probably learned that quite a few years ago, but now it is time for you to do it in Danish! Isn’t that exciting?

Here’s the list of numbers:

Danish English
en, et one
to two
tre three
fire four
fem five
seks six
syv seven
otte eight
ni nine
ti ten
elleve eleven
tolv twelve
tretten thirteen
fjorten fourteen
femten fifteen
seksten sixteen
sytten seventeen
atten eighteen
nitten nineteen
tyve twenty
tredive thirty
fyrre fourty
halvtreds fifty
tres sixty
halvfjerds seventy
firs eighty
halvfems ninety
hundred hundred
The Logic Behind the Numbers

You are probably looking at the numbers, and thinking, there is absolutely no system behind that madness. And I would almost agree, except there is. You see, in Danish the number system is from a time where people loved to count in twenties, or something like that.

The numbers from fifty and up are short forms of their original words, so let us have a look at those: halvtredsindstyve, tresindstyve, halvfjerdsindstyve, firsindstyve, and halvfemsindstyve. These weird number using halv- come from a line of old number words used to describe the base number minus a half, for instance: halvanden (2-0.5 = 1.5), halvtredje (3-0.5 = 2.5), halvfjerde (4-0.5 = 3.5), and halvfemte (5-0.5 = 4.5). Today only halvanden is left as a standalone word and is frequently used, while the others only appear in the aforementioned weird long forms.

Right, let us now discuss how this helps us understand the number halvtreds: First we take the long form halvtredsindstyve, which can be split into halvtredje, sinde (times), and tyve. Now this gives us «2.5 times 20», which is 50.

Here’s the quick rundown for the rest of them:

Number Long form Split words Math
tres tresindstyve tre sinde tyve 3 times 20
halvfjerds halvfjerdsindstyve halvfjerde sinde tyve 3.5 times 20
firs firsindstyve fire sinde tyve 4 times 20
halvfems halvfemsindstyve halvfemte sinde tyve 4.5 times 20

I hope this at least gives you an idea of why the Danish numbering works like it does :)

Counting From Twenty and Beyond!

In this course we are currently not teaching how to count to twenty-one and such due to a limitation with Duolingo. But here is how you do it:

Taking a two digit number above twenty it is written as XY, where X is the ten, and Y is the one. Let us take 34 as an example. Here X = 3 (thirty) and Y = 4 (four).
In English you would say X-Y, so thirty-four. But Danish does it in reverse (which is different from both Norwegian and Swedish), so you would say Y-og-X. Let us consider our example of 34 again, here X = 3 (tredive) and Y = 4 (fire), which gives us fireogtredive (four-and-thirty). Note that in Danish numbers are treated like one word, where in English they are hyphenated. Let us do another quick example: 57 would be fifty-seven in English, but syvoghalvtreds in Danish.

More Things: Flere versus Mere

In English more can be used both to indicate a larger amount of something and a larger count, or number, of things. In Danish, however, we use mere for a amounts and flere for counts:

  • Vi har mere mad end jer meaning we have more food than you, but:
  • Vi har flere biler end jer meaning we have more cars than you.

The same goes for the superlative:

  • Vi har mest vand meaning we have the most water, but:
  • Vi har flest børn meaning we have the most kids.

You might have realized that these are the comparative and superlative forms of meget and mange:

English Danish Comperative Superlative
Much Meget Mere Mest
Many Mange Flere Flest
Age

Now, I bet you want to know how to tell your age in Danish. Or maybe not… But I will teach you how anyways!

It’s simple. Use the verb at være (to be): «Jeg er tyve år gammel.» You can also just forget about «gammel» and say: «Jeg er tyve år». If you change the pronoun nothing happens, so just go for it!

You may encounter someone saying: «Jeg har en ven på tyve år.» Wait, what? Is he sitting on top of twenty years? Actually, this is just the clumsy Danish way of saying: «I have a twenty year old friend.» But don’t worry about how to use this expression for now, you will learn that later. ;-)

Phew! That was a lot of text and a lot of new information! Some practice on this subject should do you good now. ;)

Past 1 #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Past Tense

Welcome to another verb skill! You have already been through a couple of present tense skills. I cannot promise you that this skill will be just as easy, since it is not as brain dead simple as adding a simple -er at the end of the stem of the verb.

I promise you though that this skill is fairly simple still, since the verb is not conjugated according to the gender or number but rather to the verb itself. Seeing as English is probably simpler here, I’m sorry for promising too much.

In Danish there are two regular conjugations in the past tense. The conjugations are -ede and -te. These are added to the stem of the verb.

Here are examples of verbs using the -ede conjugation:

Infinitive English Translation Stem Present tense Past tense
lave make lav- laver lavede
elske love elsk- elsker elskede
lytte listen lyt- lytter lyttede

The last word lytte does not quite follow the pattern, but if you forget the magically added second t then it does. This magically appearing second t is simply due to Danish consonant doubling, which is explained in previous skills, but here is a quick recap:

It occurs when the preceding vowel is short and the word does not already have two consonants succeeding it (in the same syllable). For example, the word for cat:

  • En kat becomes katte.

As a rule of thumb, Danish marks a short vowel by having two consonants after it in the same syllable. However, it does not double the same consonant if nothing follows it. Hence, it is kat in Danish and not katt.

Now let us take some examples of verbs using the -te conjugation:

Infinitive English Translation Stem Present tense Past tense
spise eat spis- spiser spiste
høre hear hør- hører hørte
tænke think tænk- tænker tænkte
Irregular Verbs

It would be too simple if all verbs were regular, so like in English we also have irregular verbs when it comes to past tense.
With these verbs there are very few rules to help you, and the only surefire way to know how it is conjugated is to look in a dictionary.

I hope this was not too scary. Have fun with this skill! :D

Languages #2 · 2023-02-21 ^

Language vocabularies go here

Infinitive 1 #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Infinitive Verbs

Welcome back to another round of verbs, your host this evening is ever-friendly owl, Duolingo and Team Danish.
We will guide you through the infinitive form of verbs.
The infinitive form is also called the at-form in Danish, because at is placed in front of all verbs when on their own, for instance:

  • at være means to be.

The word at (to when used with infinitive verbs) can easily be confused with the word og (and) in speech, since they are pronounced the same way by the certain members of the careless youth today.

Modal verbs

In Danish the infinitive form is usually preceded by the at word except when used with modal verbs, such as can, will, etc. An example of this is: Jeg kan gå (I can walk), where kan (can, may, or able to) is a modal verb and (walk) is the infinitive form of the verb. In this skill we will introduce kan and vil (will or want to) as the only modal verbs for now. You will encounter many of these later, and learn the grammar behind those. For now, do not worry too much about it, and instead learn the way infinitive verbs work.

More examples of this are:

  • Jeg kan ikke gøre det which means I cannot do it.
  • Hun vil blive her which means she wants to stay here.
Infinitive as subject or object

The infinitives in Danish may be used as the subject or object of a verb, just like in English. For instance:

  • At rejse er at leve (to travel is to live), here both at rejse and at leve are infinivites used as subject and object, respectively.
  • Jeg elsker at spise æbler (I love to eat apples or I love eating apples).

Thank you for your time, and good luck with this skill. It can be a little difficult to learn when to add the at, but we believe in you!

Past 2 #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Past Tense

In Danish there are two regular conjugations in the past tense. The conjugations are -ede and -te. These are added to the stem of the verb.

Here are examples of verbs using the -ede conjugation:

Infinitive English Translation Stem Present tense Past tense
lave make lav- laver lavede
elske love elsk- elsker elskede
lytte listen lyt- lytter lyttede

The last word lytte does not quite follow the pattern, but if you forget the magically added second t then it does. This magically appearing second t is simply due to Danish consonant doubling, which is explained in previous skills, but here is a quick recap:

It occurs when the preceding vowel is short and the word does not already have two consonants succeeding it (in the same syllable). For example, the word for cat:

  • En kat becomes katte.

As a rule of thumb, Danish marks a short vowel by having two consonants after it in the same syllable. However, it does not double the same consonant if nothing follows it. Hence, it is kat in Danish and not katt.

Now let us take some examples of verbs using the -te conjugation:

Infinitive English Translation Stem Present tense Past tense
spise eat spis- spiser spiste
høre hear hør- hører hørte
tænke think tænk- tænker tænkte
Irregular Verbs

It would be too simple if all verbs were regular, so like in English we also have irregular verbs when it comes to past tense.
With these verbs there are very few rules to help you, and the only surefire way to know how it is conjugated is to look in a dictionary.

Da versus Når: Past and Future

In English the conjunction when can be used to indicate how something relates time-wise to something else:

  • I was tired when he arrived
  • I will do it when she tells me to

Notice how the first one describes something that occurred in the past, while the other one describes something that have not yet come to pass.

You have already met the Danish conjunction når, which translates to when. However, når is only used when speaking of the present or the future. When describing the past, we use da instead:

  • Jeg spiser når jeg kan, the familiar one, meaning I will eat when I can or I eat when(ever) I can. But:
  • Jeg var træt da han kom indicates something that has already passed (I was tired when he arrived) so we use da instead.

Enjoy another blast from the past!

Adjectives 2 #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Adjectives

Here’s a recap of how to handle adjectives in Danish.

Adjectives decline according to the grammatical gender and number of the noun that they modify. In Danish you would say a big apple with the sentence et stort æble. You have already seen et æble, so let us discuss the middle part: stort. Stor is the Danish word for big (along with several other words). When used to describe a neuter gender noun such as æblet it is then suffixed by -t and becomes stort.

There are three ways an adjective can be declined: -, -t, or -e:

Common Neuter
Singular - -t
Plural -e -e

There are irregular adjectives that are missing one or more of the forms, such as beskidt (dirty), which only has that form for both singulars, and then another for plural (beskidte).
Other words, such as moderne (modern) have one form used for everything.

Adjectives and Definite Nouns

While nouns normally express definiteness using a postfix, this changes to using an article if any adjectives is attached to the noun.

If the adjective is used with a definite noun, then it is put between the definite article and the noun: En åben bil (an open car) becomes den åbne bil (the open car). In this case the adjective is declined the same way as for the plural, no matter the grammatical number or gender of the noun.

As a reminder, the car without any adjectives is simply bilen, expressing the definite with the -en postfix and no article involved.

Comperative and Superlative

Just like English, adjectives in Danish can be declined to indicate a degree This works exactly like in English, where you either postfix the adjective with -ere (or -re) for comparative and -st (or -est) for superlative or put the words mere (more) or mest (most) in front. The usual rules of consonant doubling and no repetition of e applies.

We apologize deeply for the two forms of comparative and superlative even in regular adjectives. There’s is no clear way to determine which one it is except for what «sounds best»: The -ere and -stare by far the most common ones, with -re being used for very common adjectives, and -est when the absence of e would make the word uncomfortable to pronounce (for a Dane!). Here’s a few pretty regular adjectives:

English Danish Comparative Superlative
fast hurtig hurtigere hurtigst
beautiful smuk smukkere smukkest
cheap billig billigere billigst
sharp skarp skarpere skarpest
long lang længere længst
new ny nyere nyest

Note that, in the comparative and superlative the adjectives no longer have any agreement with the grammatical gender of the noun the modify. The superlative declines with an added -e when put in the definite:

  • Vi har de hurtigste biler meaning we have the fastest cars.

Unfortunately, there are a bunch of completely irregular adjectives, just like in English. You’ll get a chance to practice some of these in this skill:

English Danish Comparative Superlative
good god bedre bedst
old gammel ældre ældst
big stor større størst
small lille mindre mindst
young ung yngre yngst

Mere (more) and mest (most) work exactly like in English when used to indicate the degree of an adjective:

  • Du er mere intelligent end mig meaning you are more intelligent than me.
  • Hun er den mest intelligente i klassen meaning she is the most intelligent in the class.

The general rule is that words of Latin or Greek origin take mere/mest and not postfix, while all other words can take either one. Some people will frown upon not using the postfix form for irregular adjectives, however.

More Things: Flere versus Mere

In English more can be used both to indicate a larger amount of something and a larger count, or number, of things. In Danish, however, we use mere for a amounts and flere for counts:

  • Vi har mere mad end jer meaning we have more food than you, but:
  • Vi har flere biler end jer meaning we have more cars than you.

The same goes for the superlative:

  • Vi har mest vand meaning we have the most water, but:
  • Vi har flest børn meaning we have the most kids.

You might have realized that these are the comparative and superlative forms of meget and mange:

English Danish Comperative Superlative
Much Meget Mere Mest
Many Mange Flere Flest

Have fun!

Present Perfect #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Present Perfect

Congrulations! You have approached some more interesting verb tenses.

This skill focuses on the present perfect tense. This tense is very similar to English in that it (usually) uses har (have or has) combined with the past participle of the verb. The verb then has either -t or -et added to the stem form, depending on if it ends with an e or not.

For you grammar hawks out there, the present perfect is formed with at have (or at være, to be, see below) plus the past participle.

Let us have a look at some example of this:

  • Jeg har læst bogen meaning I have read the book.
  • Jeg har boet i Danmark meaning I have lived in Denmark.

The stem form of the two words are: læs and bo respectively.

There is nothing too difficult about this tense when coming from English, since the word order is basically identical between the two languages even for questions, which previously caused some more complex structures:

  • Har du læst bogen? meaning have you read the book?
Using «er»

In modern English, present perfect is almost exclusively done using have or has, but in Danish there are also verbs that use er (the present form of at være, to be) instead of har. However, these are few and in this skill only concerns blevet (become) and ankommet (arrived).

An example being:

  • Jeg er blevet gammel meaning I have become old.

In general, words that use er have to do with moving, such as walking, going, running, moving, arriving, and so on. For language buffs, this will ring a bell as being a shared tendency across European languages, even in older English.

Anyway, I am sure you will breeze right through this, and even if you do not, then no harm done. I am here to teach you!

Danish Food #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

It Is All About the Food

Welcome to another relaxing skill in the world of the Danish course. We promise that this skill will not be about all those pesky verbs and their annoying rules. This skill will instead use what you have already learned, and give you some Danish culture at the same time.

Some people love to cook food, and some people just love to eat it. In this skill we will have a look at some food that is very common in Danish culture, and add some food which was not introduced in the Food skill you already had. The reason this skill is further down is so that we can use it to rehearse with you guys some of the verb conjugations you have already learned. See, there is a reason behind the madness!

Danish-only Food

In this skill you will encounter some words that are very difficult to translate, or the translation will simply be literal, since the food does not exist outside of Denmark and the Danish culture (at least not to the same extent or in the same variation). Some of these are flæskesteg, which is a very common Danish dish that is basically roasted pork. You can read more about this dish on Wikipedia. Not all of these dishes will be described on the English Wikipedia, but if you finish this course we can almost guarantee that you can read about them on the Danish Wikipedia.

There are a lot more dishes than we can describe here, but go have fun and learn about some of the Danish food!

Relative Pronouns #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns are used as relative clauses that modifies the main clause of the main sentence. For instance:

  • Jeg har bøgerne som de taler om meaning I have the books that they are talking about.

Here the word som is used to refer to the noun bøgerne from the main sentence.

In Danish there are two very common relative pronouns: som and der. Both can be used instead of which or that, however there is a simple rule: som can be used for both subject and object, but der can only be used for objects.

The question words hvem, hvilket, hvilken, and hvilke can also be used as relative pronouns, however since they are not essential and have already been presented, they are left out from this skill. Hvem is used to refer to a person, while hvilket, hvilken, and hvilke are used for non-human entities.

There are, however, two more words that are left in the skill: hvad and hvis, translating to what and whose.

Danish English
der/som that/which
hvis whose
hvem who
hvilke/hvilket/hvilken which
hvad what

These are some words that will be fairly easy to translate since they have a rather nice correlation with English. Also, if you’re ever in doubt whether to use der or som, then som is the safer bet. Now, good luck with the skill!

Indefinite Pronouns #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Referring to the Indefinite

Welcome to something confusing!

A very common thing in Danish is to say something like man må ikke bande (one must not swear), when talking about some general person. Indefinite pronouns are used when referring to an unknown or unspecified being, object, or place.

There are three difficult pronouns that it is key to understand the difference between, since they are generally translated to almost the same in English. These three words are: man, én, and ens. The last word is slight different, since it is the possessive indefinite pronoun, but let us wait with that. The apostrophe on én is optional, and you might also encounter it (elsewhere) written with a double-e instead (een). It merely serves to differentiate it from the meaning of a or one.

First we will look at the two words man and én. Man is only used as the subject, and can be translated to one or you. Which one it is translated to comes down to preference in most cases, or which side of the Atlantic you were/one was born on. Én can only be used as the object, and also translates to one or you. Therefore it is usually easy to translate to English, but it requires a lot more thought going back.

Here are some examples:

  • Det er dejligt når andre tænker på én (It is nice when others think of you), here it is the object, since others think of the pronoun, and thus it is én.
  • Man spiser ikke heste (you do not eat horses or one does not eat horses), here it is the subject and thus it is man.

I hope this is pretty clear, because now we will extend it with the word ens. This is the possessive indefinite pronoun and translates to your or one’s. This should be pretty straight forward, but let us take an example:

  • Det er ikke altid godt når andre går ind i ens hjem (It is not always good when others go into one’s home), the English sentence can obviously use both your and one’s. I just arbitrarily picked one’s for this example.

I hope this is clear. There are not many indefinite pronouns worth spending time on learning, so this is a very focused skill. Good luck!

Modality #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Modal verbs

Modal verbs (can, may, shall, will, etc.) are auxiliary, meaning they modify the verb and express whether the action described is seen as a plan, intention, prediction, permission, and so forth. In Danish the modal verbs leave out the infinitive mark at when combined with infinitive verbs:

  • Kan du høre hende synge? meaning can you hear her sing?
  • Jeg kunne ikke høre hende synge meaning I could not hear her sing.

Modal verbs are rather common in Danish, but most can be directly translated to English. There are however some words that you should look out for.

Words to Look For

May and must are often translated into the same word: . Therefore the difference from English is described through the rest of the sentence.

  • Må jeg spørge dig om noget? meaning may I ask you about something?
  • Hun må være meget glad meaning she must be very happy.

The past and conditional of is måtte:

  • Hun måtte ikke spise mere meaning she was not allowed to eat any more.

Vil

The Danish word vil can express a want, an intention or demand, or an opinion or prediction. Please note that even though English uses will to indicate future this is not the case for Danish. In Danish it is only used to describe future actions if you want to underline an intention or opinion.

  • Han kommer senere becomes he will come later.

The past and conditional of vil is ville:

  • Ville han komme herhen? meaning would he come over here?.

Skal

The past and conditional of skal is skulle. This word covers a lot of things, so let us list them:

  • A plan, system, suggestion, or agreement: Du skulle prøve det! meaning you should try it!
  • Usually with the word nok: A promise or an assurance: Du skal nok blive god meaning you will be good (I assure you!)
  • The pattern behind a behavior: Hvorfor skal du altid lytte? meaning why do you always have to listen?
  • A common opinion: H.C. Andersen skulle være god meaning Hans Christian Andersen should be good (I heard it from my friends)
  • A feared scenario: Jeg er bange at han en dag skal falde (I fear that he shall one day fall)

Please note that skal is also used for describing transport or intent:

  • Jeg skal til Danmark (I am going to Denmark)
  • Jeg skal flyve til England (I will be flying to England)
  • Du skal hjem nu meaning you are going home now.
  • Vi skal ud at løbe meaning we are going to go running.
More Modal Verbs in One Phrase**

In Danish you can combine modal verbs:

  • Du skal kunne tale dansk meaning you must be able to speak Danish, where kunne becomes be able to.

Right, this should get you started! Hopefully you are not too terrified of Danish yet. We wish you the best of luck!

Past Perfect #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Past Perfect

Well then, this skill is rather simple if you aced the Present Perfect, and even if you did not then this is again very similar to the English past perfect.

This tense uses the Danish word havde (from at have, to have) combined with the past participle of the verb. Therefore the verb either has -t or -et added to the stem form of the word. This mostly depends on it ending with an e or not.

Some examples:

  • Jeg havde læst bogen meaning I had read the book.
  • Jeg havde boet i Danmark meaning I had lived in Denmark.

The stem form of the two words are: læs and bo respectively.

There is nothing too difficult about this tense when coming from English, since the word order is basically identical between the two languages even for questions, which previously caused some more complex structures:

  • Havde du læst bogen? meaning had you read the book?
Using «var»

As with present perfect, then past perfect is almost exclusive done using had, but in Danish there are also verbs that use var (past tense at være, to be) instead of havde.

One example is:

  • Jeg var gået da du kom meaning I had left when you arrived.

In general, words that use var have to do with moving, such as walking, going, running, moving, arriving, and so on. Just like in the present perfect.

So, basically this skill is present perfect all over again, with a different auxiliary. Free repetition! Enjoy!

Progressive Actions #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Progressive Aspect

The progressive aspect describes something that is happening over an extended period of time, e.g.: I’m sleeping. or I was reading a book. The progressive aspect is also often used when another action interrupts an on-going event, e.g.: I was eating when a ninja appeared in the window.

In Danish we do not have a specific conjugation of the verb to express this, as some other languages do. Instead we have a number of different constructs used in expressing on-going events.

Står/Sidder/Ligger/Går og …

Danes often use either one of the verbs står, sidder, ligger and går together with the verb that describes the thing we are also doing to express that we do it right now. For example:

  • Jeg sidder og læser. = literally I’m sitting and reading

  • Han står og snakker. = literally He’s standing and talking.

  • De ligger og sover. = literally They’re lying and sleeping.

You will often see that the word lige is added after the first verb:

  • Jeg sidder lige og læser.

  • Han står lige og snakker.

  • De ligger lige og sover.

The adding of lige is sometimes unimportant, but it can also change the meaning from something being done in the present to that someone is busy doing something and must not be interrupted. You will have to judge this by the situation. For example:

  • Må jeg spørge om noget? = May ask (about) something?

Nej, jeg sidder lige og læser. = No, I’m busy reading.

  • Hvad laver du? = What are you doing?

Jeg sidder lige og læser. = I’m reading.

I gang med, i færd med and at være ved noget

The best translation for these three phrases would be either in the midst of or to add -ing to the verb stem. They all mean the same, but i gang med and at være ved noget is used more often both in written and spoken language whereas i færd med occurs less often – you are most likely to find this phrase in Danish literature.

Here are a few examples to help you understand the phrases better:

  • Jeg er i gang med at lave mad means either I’m cooking food or I’m in the midst of cooking food.

  • Han var i færd med at undervise børnene means either he was teaching the children or he was in the midst of teaching the children.

  • Jeg er ved at tænde lysene means either I’m lighting the candles. or I’m in the midst of lighting the candles.

Please note that at være ved at is a little different from i gang med and i færd med — it can also mean to be about to something as seen in these examples below:

  • Jeg er lige ved at forstå. = I’m just about to understand.

  • Jeg er ved at være færdig. = I’m about to be done.

Være ved at blive

Means is about to become, becoming or in the midst of becoming – sometimes it can mean all three things at once!

  • Det er ved at blive mørkt. = It’s getting dark.

  • Det er lige ved at blive mørkt. = It’s just about to become dark.

  • Han er ved at blive en mand. = He is becoming a man or he is in the midst of becoming a man.

  • Vi er ved at blive gamle. = We are getting old.

Don’t worry too much about that weird little word lige. There is no accurate translation and the meaning will change according to the sentence’s structure and the situation. This is one of the queer things of the Danish language, that you can only come to understand with time.

This was just about everything you had to know about the Danish progressive actions. We hope it wasn’t too confusing. Good luck with it!

Reflexive Pronouns #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Reflexive Pronouns

Hey! You have made it this far? Impressive. We are at reflexive pronouns and we are glad you are here with us.

Reflexive pronouns are pronouns that refer to a noun, adjective, adverb, or pronoun that precedes or follows it within the same clause. That is kinda confusing though, so let us just take an example:

  • Manden vasker sig (The man washes himself).

In this example sig is the reflexive pronoun referring to the man.

Let us get an overview with the following table:

Danish English
mig myself
dig yourself
sig himself/herself/itself
os ourselves
jer yourselves
sig themselves
The Use of «Selv»

You may sometimes encounter the use of the reflexive pronoun followed by the word selv. This does not change the way it is translated, and Danes may use it or not. It can be used to express an added emphasis, if so desired.

We hope that this will be easy enough for you, else we can hunt down the people who control Danish. They sure have let it run wild.

Compound Nouns #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Compound Nouns

Hey there! Here’s a relaxing skill for you. The purpose of this skill is to properly introduce you to compound nouns. Compound nouns are less common in English than they are in Danish, since they are usually split into separate words in English. In Danish there is in theory no limit to how long a compound noun can be.

A compound noun always has a noun as the last part and is pronounced with one strong stress. If a compound is spoken with one strong stress and consists of two or more parts that are regular nouns, then the compound is always written in one word, no matter how long the compound noun might be:

  • telefonledning (telephone cord)
  • parkeringsbilletautomat (parking ticket machine)
  • studieopholdsforsikringspolice (study insurance policy)

Right, go have fun with this skill, and we will see you in the next one!

Passive Present #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Passive Present

This skill will probably mess with your brain a little bit.

Passive voice is not that common in English, but it is very common in Danish. Therefore we decided to teach you both passive present and passive past. Passive past will come a little later, but be very much like this. Passive voice is so common that if you do not know it, you will probably be lost when you come to Denmark. Okay, just kidding, but it is common!

Passive voice can be formed in two ways: -s-passive, and blive-passive. Let us have a look at both:

  • -s-passive is formed by adding -s to the infinitive of a verb instead of the present form -r: sælges (is sold or is being sold) where the present form is sælger (sells).
  • blive-passive is formed by the word bliver and the perfect form of the verb: bliver solgt (same as above).

Here are some examples:

  • The -s-passive: Smørret tages fra skabet (the butter is taken from the cabinet) can be made into blive-passive in the following way: Smørret bliver taget fra skabet. Both sentences are translated into the same in English in this case.
  • The -s-passive: Historien fortælles igen og igen (the story is told again and again) becomes: Historien bliver fortalt igen og igen.

Please note that some verbs can be used in both forms, some verbs change meaning slightly depending on the form, and some verbs can only be exist in one form. There are no real way to know except for looking it up.

Good luck with these. Be sure to ask questions if something is confusing!

Politeness #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Politeness

If you want to impress the old ladies in Denmark, you have to be polite – and we are here to help you with that!

The formal form of addressing someone is not that common in Denmark anymore. Some shop assistants and cashiers use this form, but while some customers might appreciate this, others might find it a little unusual and weird. Among young people it’s almost extinct, but it’s always considered appropriate to address the elderly and higher-rankings in the polite form.

De, Dem and Deres

When speaking to someone in a formal manner, you will have to use the 3rd person plural: De/Dem = you and Deres = your.

De is used (instead of du) when talking directly to someone:

  • De ser godt ud = You look good.
  • Hvem er De, frue? = Who are you, ma’am?

Dem means the same as De, but is either being controlled by a preposition or is the object of a verb:

  • Hvad kan jeg gøre for Dem, hr.? = What can I do for you, sir?
  • Kan jeg hjælpe Dem? = Can I help you?

Deres means your or yours. It is used when talking about something belonging to the person you are addressing in a polite manner:

  • Er dette Deres? = Is this yours?
  • Skal jeg tage Deres jakke? = Shall I take your jacket?

Please note how the D is always capitalized in written language to distinguish between plural and polite form.

Fru and frue

Fru is used when talking to a married woman and frue to either a married woman or to a woman above the age of around 30.

You can use frue independently of her last name:

  • Har De det godt, frue? = Are you well, ma’am?
  • Frue, De må ikke være her = Ma’am, you are not allowed to be here.

Fru requires you to mention the last name of the woman:

  • Fru Hansen er her ikke i dag. = Mrs. Hansen is not here today.
  • Hr. og fru Aagaard bor på en gård. = Mr. and Mrs. Aagaard live on a farm.

Frk. and frøken

En frøken is a miss — an unmarried, young woman or girl. The same rules applies here as explained above: frk. requires you to mention the last name of the young woman whereas frøken can be used independently:

  • Frk. Jensen er meget smuk. = Miss Jensen is very beautiful.
  • Er du en frøken eller frue? = Are you a miss or a ma’am?

Hr. and herre

Hr. can be used both with and without the mention of last name. It describes an adult man, married as well as unmarried:

  • Undskyld mig, hr., De glemte Deres pung. = Excuse me, sir, you forgot your wallet.
  • Hr. Olsen smiler til sin kone. = Mr. Olsen smiles at his wife.

Herre is not a common form of addressing, but is often used when talking of sports, clothing and toilets:

  • herretoilet = gentlemen’s lavatory
  • herretøj = men’s clothing
  • herrefodbold = football for men.

Herre can also mean the Lord (God) if the h is capitalized:

  • Du må bede Herren om tilgivelse. = You must ask the Lord for forgiveness.

At last herre can mean sire or master as seen in these examples:

  • Katten er sin egen herre. = The cat is his own master.
  • Lægen er her, herre. = The doctor is here, sire.

Please note, that this use of herre in the meaning of sire only appears in literature and movies which takes place in old times. It’s not used in real, everyday life.

Bede om

At bede means to ask for (and also to pray, but that’s not important right now), so if you want something, you will have to ask like this: Må jeg bede om vandet? = literally May I ask for the water? Same goes for actions, favors, help ect:

  • Må jeg bede dig om en tjeneste? = May I ask you a favor?
  • Må jeg bede om noget hjælp? = May I ask for some help?
  • Jeg må bede dig gå nu. = I will have to ask you to leave now.

At være så venlig

It is always good to know this phrase: Vil du være så venlig at… = literally Would you be so kind to… It functions as the English please, but is used at the beginning of the sentence:

  • Vil De være så venlig at flytte Dem lidt? = Would you move yourself a little, please?
  • Vil du være så venlig at lave mad i aften? = Would you make dinner tonight, please?

Pay attention to the verb: when following være så venlig it has to be infinitive.

Tak for mad

If you should ever find yourself at a Danish dinnertable, you will have to say tak for mad when you’ve finished your meal. It literally means: thanks for food. The answer to this will almost always be: velbekomme. The English language does not have anything corresponding, but it functions as a kind of you’re welcome.

That was it! You are now armed to the teeth with politeness. This skill should not be too difficult – good luck with it!

Present Participle #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

The Limited Present Participle

In English, the present participle has a wide array of applications, such as forming the progressive (I am eating), forming adjective phrases (You are sitting at the table), or for adverbial clauses with the subject implied by the main clause (Looking at the stack of papers, I am overwhelmed). In English, it is formed by adding -ing to the stem.

In Danish, however, the usage is much more limited. It is only used to convert a verb into an adjective, and sometimes an adverb. It is formed by adding -ende to the verb stem.

For example, to smile is at smile (easy, huh?). The stem here is smil-, to which we add -ende:

  • Den smilende mand spiser en is meaning the smiling man is eating an ice cream.

Here the verb is used as an adjective to describe a property of a noun. Another example could be:

  • Jeg hader skrigende børn meaning I hate screaming children.

Imagine you have a younger sibling who is just now returning from the playground, having hurt himself enough to cry a bit. The verb is at græde with the stem being græd-. So we might describe the situation:

  • Barnet kom grædende ind where we use the verb in the present participle to describe the manner in which the child came in: The child came crying in

More naturally, perhaps, in English one would say the child came in, crying. Notice how the present participle is free to move around in English, while it is more locked down in the adverb position in Danish.

The present participle can also be used descriptively, like any other adjective:

  • Hun er en smilende person. Here the verb is smile which we saw before, so this translates to she is a smiling person (i.e. someone who smiles often).
  • Du er krævende from kræve (demand) hence you are demanding.
  • Skrigende børn er irriterende. Double up! Here we have at skrige and at irritere, in English to scream and to annoy. Converting to adjectives we get: Screaming children are annoying.

While it can be tempting to try to translate, for instance, the progressive (I am eating) using the present participle just the same in Danish, this would be wrong! Don’t do it!

In summary, present participle only for adjective and adverb purposes :)

Imperative #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Imperative

So, you may be wondering why we have not been more demanding. I mean in the sense of having sentences such as: «Go away!» and such. This is because it requires a special mood of the verb in Danish, different from the infinitive. However, this mood is equivalent to the stem of the word. So it’s really not that hard :)

Imperative is also called bydeform in Danish (bidding-form roughly translated), because it is used to issue commands and biddings. So that we know that, why not have a look how it actually works?

Infinitive Stem Imperative English
at sove sov- sov sleep
at synge syng- syng sing
at betale betal- betal pay
at lytte lyt- lyt listen
at fortælle fortæl- fortæl tell

It is pretty simple, since it just has the form of the stem of the word which we’ve already used in other skills to form other tenses.

To find the stem, or imperative, one can just strip off any e-s that you can (and any double consonants like in the table above), and then you have your word. If the word is so short that removing the e leaves it with one letter or only consonants, then you went too far.

Now you can say things like:

  • Gå væk! (Go away!)
  • Se her! (Look here!)
  • Tal nu eller ti for evigt! (Speak now or forever hold your peace)

Okay that last one was a phrase that is probably very situational. Anyway, have fun issuing commands!

Future #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

The Unmarked Future

Welcome to the skill that is not recognized by many Danes in daily speech: The future.

This is because Danish usually has an unmarked future, meaning it uses the present tense as future.
Future in Danish can also be formed with the use of modals such as vil (want) or skal (must or shall) followed by the infinitive.
Lastly future can be formed with blive (become), which in this case will have the meaning will be.

  • Examples of using the present tense: Jeg rejser i morgen (I will travel tomorrow) and jeg kommer senere (I will come later).
  • Examples of using modals: Jeg skal svømme i morgen (I am going to swim tomorrow) and jeg vil drikke tre glas vand i næste uge (I will drink three glasses of water next week).
  • Lastly we have future using blive: Bliver det nogensinde godt igen? (Will it ever become good again?)

There is really nothing else to it. Either Danes do not care about the future, or we care so much that it is a very incorporated part of our language. Who knows? Don’t look at us.

Passive Past #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

Passive Past

This skill is so similar to the passive present that this might seem very alike. However, the ways of forming passive are slightly different in the past, even though they are called the same things. This skill is again one of the most difficult skills to grasp coming from English, since passive is not that common as it is in Danish. Passive voice is very common in Danish.

Passive voice can be formed in two ways: -s-passive, and blive-passive. Let us have a look at both:

  • -s-passive is formed by adding -s to the active form of a verb (-te or -ede): solgtes (was sold or was being sold) where the active form is solgte (sold).
  • blive-passive is formed by the word blev and the perfect form of the verb: blev solgt (same as above).

Here are some examples:

  • The -s-passive: Dørene åbnedes for to timer siden (the doors were opened two hours ago) can be made into blive-passive in the following way: Dørene blev åbnet for to timer siden. Both sentences are translated into the same in English in this case.
  • The -s-passive: Loven ændredes efter mange år med krig (the law was changed after many years with war) becomes: Loven blev ændret efter mange år med krig.

Please note that some verbs can be used in both forms, some verbs change meaning slightly depending on the form, and some verbs can only be exist in one form. There are no real way to know except for looking it up.

Good luck with these! Please do not hesitate to ask questions, this is one of the most confusing areas of learning Danish.

Future Perfect #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

The Nonexisting Conjugation

Future perfect is a conjugation that is not strictly found in Danish. Therefore this skill is a little… strange. However, we want to still give you the option to speak about something that will have happened in the future, but haven’t happened yet, because that is just way cooler.

In Danish future perfect is be formed by using present perfect about an action that is not happening now, but will happen in the future. This is a bit confusing, so let us take some examples:

  • Jeg har fundet mine nøgler når du kommer (I will have found my keys when you arrive), in this sentence the future comes through the use of when you arrive.
  • Manden har spist sin mad i morgen aften (the man will have eaten his food tomorrow evening), again the sentence becomes future due to the use of tomorrow evening.

Notices how the sentences can quickly become present perfect if we remove the future part:

  • Jeg har fundet mine nøgler meaning I have found my keys
  • Manden har spist sin mad meaning the man has eaten his food.

If you want to be nit-picky about it, the perfect future can be formed using vil have (will have) just like in English, but it sounds rather strange.

As you can see Danish does not use future perfect and it is also not that common in colloquial Danish. However, we understand that you guys come from a different language and thus may love this conjugation, therefore we will be teaching you guys this!

Aren’t we nice?

Conditional Perfect #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

The What-If

Ever wanted to say that you would have gotten away with something if it had not been for those meddling kids? Well now you can do so in Danish. After this skill anyway.

So the above paragraph already uses conditional perfect. It is a grammatical construction that uses the conditional mood combined with the perfect aspect. A typical phrasing in English would be: would have + perfect tense of the verb, e.g. would have gotten. The same goes for Danish, however it is fairly common to use the modal verbs: kunne, ville, skulle and then have. Here are some examples.

  • Jeg kunne have købt en bil, hvis jeg havde haft nok penge (I could have bought a car, if I had had enough money).
  • Det ville have ændret mit liv, hvis vi havde vundet (It would have changed my life, if we had won).

There are several more, but you get the idea: modal verb + have + perfect tense of verb. This is very similar to English.

Now go ace this skill and we will see you in the next one!

H.C. Andersen #2 · 2018-10-25 ^

The Secret Bonus Skill

First of all: congratulations for reaching the bottom of the tree! You made it through 68 skills so far! As a little “present” we made this secret bonus skill for you. Maybe you’ve seen it down there in the bottom wondering what “Once Upon” was supposed to mean. Wait no longer!

We are happy to reveal that this is a skill dedicated to one of Denmark’s most beloved authors, the world famous H.C. Andersen.

These lessons will focus on some of his most famous fairytales such as The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Snow Queen, The Nightingale and many more! And who knows? Maybe you’re able to read them all in Danish now!


50 skills with tips and notes

Danish Phrases

Most Danes do have some English understanding, and the majority have a very good understanding. However, as in any country it’s always polite to have a few words in Danish in order to communicate. Anyone who has visited a foreign language country knows the uncomfortable feeling of not knowing how to say sorry to somebody because you bumped into them.

In Denmark in particular, don’t fear that saying «hello» in Danish will result in someone believing you speak Danish. Your average Dane will immediately recognize your English accent and be delighted to practice their English skills, yet your use of a few words of Danish will mark you as an experienced traveler.

There are a multitude of other situations where knowing a little bit of the language would be helpful. Knowing a handful of Danish words can also help you translate some of the Danish signs and text you will encounter while you are in Denmark. Any attempt a foreigner makes at speaking Danish will be greatly appreciated.

Her are a few helpful words and phrases in order to get you started:

English

Danish

Pronounciation

     

Hello

Goddag/Hej

Go-day/Hi

Goodbye

Farvel

Fah-vel

Yes

Ja

Ya

No

Nej

Nai

Thank you

Tak

Tack

Excuse me

Undskyld

Un-school

Sorry

Beklager

Bi-clay-er

You’re welcome

Selv tak

Sell tack

Do you speak English?

Taler du engelsk?

Tai-ler do eng-gelsk?

I don’t speak Danish.

Jeg taler ikke dansk.

Yai tai-ler igge dansk.

How much is it?

Hvor meget koster det?

Vor my-et kaw-sta day?

I’m just looking. (Useful when shopping)

Jeg kigger bare.

Yai kee-gah bah

Unleaded petrol

Blyfri benzin

Blee-free ben-seen

Diesel

Diesel

Dee-sel

Where is…

Hvor er…

Vor air…

I’m ill

Jeg er syg.

Yai air sue.

I’m allergic to… Jeg er allergisk over for… Yai air a-ler-geesk ower for…

It hurts here.

Det gør ondt her.

Day ger ond hair.

What’s your name? Hvad hedder du? Ved hell-er do?
My name is… Mit navn er… Meet now-n air..
Where are you from? Hvor kommer du fra? Vor kom-ah do fra?
I’m from… Jeg er fra… Jai air fra..
Entrance Indgang In-gang
Exit Udgang Ool-gang
Open Åben Oben
Closed Lukket Lou-ket
Prohibited Forbudt For-boot
Police Politi Po-lee-tee
Hospital Hospitalet/Sygehus Haws-pee-tai-let/Sue-who-s
Post Office Posthus Post-who
City Centre Centrum Cen-trum
What time is it? Hvad er klokken? Ved air claw-gen
Toilet (Mens) Toilet (Herrer) Toy-let (Hair-ah)

Toilet (Womens)

Toilet (Damer)

Toy-let (Day-mah)

Merry Christmas

Glædelig Jul

Gley-thlee yool

More about Learning Danish and the unique Danish Alphabet.

  • Words and Phrases: Food and Drink

LastUpdate: 2020-05-15 18:54:39

This is a list of the 1,000 most commonly spoken Danish words. The top 100 words have audio pronunciations if available.

Number Danish Word in English
1 er

is
2 jeg

I
3 det

the
4 du

you
5 ikke

not
6 i

in
7 at

to
8 en

one
9 og

and
10 har

have
11 vi

we
12 til

to
13

on
14 hvad

what
15 mig

me
16 med

with
17 de

they
18 for

for
19 den

the
20

so
21 der

there
22 dig

you
23 han

he
24 kan

can
25 af

of
26 vil

will
27 var

was
28 her

here
29 et

a
30 skal

to
31 ved

by
32 nu

Now
33 men

but
34 om

about
35 ja

yes
36 som

as
37 nej

no
38 min

my
39 noget

something
40 ham

him
41 hun

she
42 kom

came
43 bare

just
44 være

be
45 din

your
46 hvor

where
47 dem

them
48 os

us
49 ud

out
50 hvis

if
51

Do
52 se

see
53 fra

from
54 godt

well
55 have

garden
56 ville

would
57 okay alright
58 gør

do
59 lige

right
60 op

up
61 alle

All
62 lad

let
63 hvorfor

Why
64 tak

thanks
65 sig

the
66 tror

think
67 kommer

come
68 hvordan

how
69 meget

very
70 kunne

could
71

get
72 eller

or
73 gøre

do
74 hende

her
75

go
76 hvem

who
77 bliver

will
78 man

to
79 ingen

no
80 havde

had
81 tilbage

back
82 nok

enough
83 da

since
84 efter

after
85 i går

yesterday
86 sagde

said
87 mit

my
88 alt

Total
89 når

when
90 ind

In
91 mand

husband
92 over

of
93 aldrig

Never
94 nogen

no
95 jo

the
96 lidt

little
97 vores

our
98 måske

maybe
99 to

two
100 siger

says
101 selv even
102 mere more
103 hej Hello
104 skulle to
105 jer you
106 også also
107 far father
108 hans his
109 deres their
110 ser look
111 kun only
112 dit your
113 får get
114 sådan Such
115 hele the
116 blev was
117 sammen together
118 hold team
119 igen again
120 mine my
121 ned down
122 tager take
123 denne this
124 komme come
125 dette this
126 mor mother
127 dag day
128 undskyld Pardon
129 åh oh
130 tage take
131 blive be
132 sige say
133 helt completely
134 væk away
135 end than
136 god good
137 fordi because
138 været been
139 tag tag
140 sted place
141 tid time
142 gang time
143 før before
144 laver Make
145 gjorde did
146 år year
147 nogle some
148 mange many
149 mener believe
150 fik got
151 lille small
152 dine your
153 ting things
154 e e
155 mr Mr.
156 virkelig really
157 altid always
158 gud god
159 siden ago
160 vent Wait
161 hjem home
162 brug use
163 folk people
164 anden other
165 elsker love
166 stadig still
167 finde find
168 kender know
169 tale speech
170 andre other
171 gerne like
172 hør linen
173 vej road
174 klar ready
175 liv life
176 tre three
177 uden without
178 set seen
179 hr hr
180 fanden fuck
181 mod against
182 giv Give
183 ret right
184 lide Like
185 reach
186 sir sir
187 fint fine
188 vel well
189 tog train
190 l l
191 sidste last
192 bedre better
193 jeres your
194 troede thought
195 hen go
196 aften evening
197 intet nothing
198 vær be
199 sker happens
200 død death
201 skat tax
202 ven Friend
203 første first
204 penge money
205 hendes her
206 blevet been
207 gjort made
208 vide Know
209 morgen Tomorrow
210 gik went
211 arbejde work
212 samme same
213 andet other
214 s s
215 hjælp help
216 give provide
217 sin its
218 hjælpe help
219 vidste knew
220 under during
221 forstår understand
222 synes seems
223 høre hearing
224 navn Name
225 bedste top
226 hey hey
227 eneste only
228 giver gives
229 endnu yet
230 burde should
231 holde keep
232 venner Friends
233 ok ok
234 stop stop
235 tro faith
236 taler speaks
237 engang even
238 sikker safe
239 sikkert safe
240 fortælle tell
241 stor large
242 nødt have
243 står stands
244 fyr guy
245 hedder states
246 længe long
247 bruge use
248 hver each
249 store large
250 par couple
251 verden World
252 ude out
253 måde way
254 pige girl
255 lort shit
256 næste next
257 selvfølgelig of course
258 bange afraid
259 døde dead
260 fået been
261 faktisk actually
262 først first
263 holder with
264 øjeblik moment
265 hallo hallo
266 snart soon
267 finder finds
268 skete happened
269 mænd men
270 ellers otherwise
271 hos at
272 gamle old
273 børn children
274 behøver need
275 disse these
276 rigtigt correctly
277 betyder means
278 ligesom and
279 flere more
280 ked sorry
281 ihjel death
282 gode good
283 fandt found
284 rigtig really
285 stille quiet
286 tiden time
287 lave low
288 farvel goodbye
289 vist shown
290 nye new
291 prøver samples
292 pas passport
293 kone wife
294 pa pa
295 ses seen
296 gange times
297 mennesker people
298 galt wrong
299 helvede Hell
300 orden order
301 slå beat
302 søn son
303 fem five
304 lade let
305 huske remember
306 gav gave
307 dage days
308 møde meeting
309 slags sort of
310 minutter minutes
311 én one
312 bliv Stay
313 derfor therefore
314 altså therefore
315 alene alone
316 die
317 r s
318 kvinde female
319 ønsker want
320 herfra here
321 hurtigt quickly
322 taget taken
323 rolig calm
324 skyld guilt
325 kommet come
326 rundt around
327 hørt heard
328 sagt said
329 dreng boy
330 pis piss
331 hvilken which
332 allerede already
333 bil car
334 hellere rather
335 senere later
336 vejen road
337 grund because
338 familie family
339 livet life
340 hører hear
341 klare clear
342 fire four
343 venter waiting
344 frem forward
345 sa sa
346 hvornår when
347 kører running
348 håber hope
349 glad happy
350 kæft shut up
351 haft had
352 fortæl tell
353 fundet found
354 nogensinde Ever
355 hørte heard
356 bilen car
357 imod against
358 hinanden each other
359 sæt set
360 hus house
361 langt far
362 dør door
363 arbejder working
364 længere longer
365 del part
366 ord words
367 begge both
368 sandt TRUE
369 heller Nor
370 side page
371 inden before
372 ingenting nothing
373 politiet police
374 byen town
375 ny new
376 tænkte thought
377 sket happened
378 gået gone
379 næsten almost
380 dog However,
381 fejl error
382 lyder sounds
383 dr Dr.
384 sent late
385 sød sweet
386 snakke talk
387 lang long
388 hva huh
389 løb race
390 barn child
391 prøve specimen
392 bror brother
393 virker works
394 inde inside
395 vise show
396 videre further
397 jack jack
398 ondt ache
399 leder leader
400 dræbe kill
401 problem problem
402 mens while
403 slap lax
404 velkommen welcome
405 indtil until
406 g g
407 sjovt fun
408 forbi past
409 job job
410 spørgsmål questions
411 ben legs
412 drenge boys
413 bag behind
414 sit its
415 kalder call
416 omkring about
417 d d
418 ringer call
419 køre run
420 problemer problems
421 egen Own
422 fat hold
423 tænker thinking
424 timer hours
425 john john
426 ti ten
427 sgu damn
428 færdig finished
429 ha ha
430 ad ad
431 gammel ancient
432 kaptajn Captain
433 fortalte told
434 sidder sitting
435 snakker talk
436 igennem through
437 fantastisk great
438 klarer doing
439 the the
440 ligner similar
441 mad food
442 fast fixed
443 fri free
444 gennem through
445 hjemme home
446 pengene money
447 tænke think
448 bor live
449 slår beats
450 skide fucking
451 nummer number
452 ligger is
453 stå stand
454 flot nice
455 tænk Think
456 hånd hand
457 hader hate
458 chance chance
459 bad bath
460 dollars dollars
461 lader leaves
462 vente wait
463 tii tii
464 stedet Instead
465 hovedet head
466 historie History
467 prøv try
468 seks six
469 spille play
470 plads space
471 kvinder women
472 døren door
473 mest most
474 slet Delete
475 spise eat
476 nat night
477 føler feel
478 datter daughter
479 glem Forget
480 al al
481 beklager sorry
482 piger girls
483 lavet made
484 new New
485 helst any
486 resten the rest
487 uge week
488 stoppe stop
489 ske spoon
490 tur trip
491 svært hard
492 ring ring
493 våben weapons
494 mellem between
495 leve live
496 stort large
497 ringe call
498 t t
499 nyt new
500 vand water
501 lære learn
502 herrer Gentlemen
503 fortæller says
504 spiller play
505 miss Miss
506 a a
507 fuld full
508 smuk beautiful
509 land country
510 kort Cards
511 gift married
512 røven ass
513 begynder begins
514 huset house
515 jorden ground
516 oh oh
517 hvilket which
518 kære dear
519 sine its
520 øjne eyes
521 søster sister
522 tæt close
523 klokken at
524 luk close
525 værsgo here you go
526 sagen case
527 fedt fat
528 by city
529 skynd hurry
530 holdt held
531 passer fit
532 små small
533 lov Law
534 svin pigs
535 husker remember
536 seng bed
537 time hour
538 unge young
539 fyre guys
540 herre Men
541 kærlighed love
542 læg put
543 jamen gee
544 beder ask
545 kæreste Girlfriend
546 måtte had
547 live live
548 hjerte heart
549 slut end
550 mindre less
551 knægt kid
552 roligt quiet
553 fred peace
554 røv ass
555 forstået understood
556 bruger user
557 held successfully
558 alligevel anyway
559 mrs Mrs.
560 lyst bright
561 afsted off
562 spørge ask
563 bør should
564 sandheden truth
565 tom empty
566 øje eye
567 dræbt killed
568 masse lot
569 dagen day
570 nede down
571 tænkt thought
572 lkke Not
573 slog beat
574 rigtige right
575 goddag hello
576 præcis exactly
577 oppe up
578 film film
579 o o
580 vis show
581 blod blood
582 elskede loved
583 handler Trades
584 husk remember
585 idiot idiot
586 sætte put
587 perfekt perfect
588 frank frank
589 slip slip
590 n n
591 måneder months
592 spil game
593 ansigt face
594 damer Ladies
595 rejse travel
596 lever live
597 foran front
598 dræbte killed
599 kl at
600 lavede made
601 stykke piece
602 redde save
603 ej not
604 hårdt hard
605 besked message
606 betale pay
607 hoved main
608 hvert each
609 godnat goodnight
610 fortalt told
611 forkert wrong
612 sjov fun
613 sikke sikke
614 idé idea
615 udenfor outside
616 forstå understand
617 værelse room
618 uger weeks
619 tja Well
620 kamp match
621 venstre left
622 højre right
623 godmorgen good morning
624 krig war
625 endelig final
626 lykke happiness
627 vigtigt important
628 manden man
629 find Find
630 sætter sets
631 millioner million
632 sag Case
633 vinder wins
634 muligt possible
635 fuck fuck
636 aftale agreement
637 skyde shoot
638 valg choice
639 bede ask
640 ligeglad care
641 natten night
642 derude out there
643 foregår going
644 prøvede tried
645 skrive write
646 rart nice
647 ønske wish
648 kør run
649 steder places
650 træt tired
651 fandens damn
652 tøj clothes
653 svar reply
654 york york
655 købe buy
656 arbejdet work
657 dårligt bad
658 forældre parents
659 gutter guys
660 viser show
661 sove sleep
662 let easy
663 hund dog
664 hente pick up
665 klart clear
666 mening view
667 søde cute
668 talte spoke
669 plan plan
670 findes available
671 charlie charlie
672 ringede rang
673 lover promise
674 syv seven
675 hænder hands
676 j j
677 general General
678 gider bother
679 javel javel
680 hjælper help
681 baby baby
682 træk features
683 kæmpe fight
684 straks immediately
685 givet given
686 dum stupid
687 dræber killer
688 værd worth
689 chef Chief
690 m m
691 sidde sit
692 fald case
693 sender send
694 fly flight
695 hvide white
696 sidst last
697 fru Mrs
698 største largest
699 blot just
700 talt spoken
701 sam sam
702 skyd shoot
703 henter download
704 læse read
705 skyder shoot
706 stod stood
707 mindste least
708 george george
709 spørger asks
710 værre worse
711 yeah yeah
712 derinde there
713 øh uh
714 pistol gun
715 aner ancestry
716 begyndte began
717 mærke brand
718 skole school
719 kaffe coffee
720 tillykke Congratulations
721 vii vii
722 fest celebration
723 sikkerhed security
724 utroligt incredible
725 syg ill
726 røvhul asshole
727 smule bit
728 person person
729 dårlig poor
730 kendte known
731 øjnene eyes
732 vild wild
733 spiser eat
734 dame lady
735 bog book
736 smukt beautiful
737 indenfor within
738 onkel Uncle
739 vinde win
740 kigger looking
741 dumme stupid
742 ø island
743 desværre Unfortunately,
744 hår hair
745 mente thought
746 betaler pay
747 makker mate
748 følge follow
749 dejligt nice
750 nød enjoyed
751 vejret weather
752 skudt shot
753 sid sid
754 løbe run
755 højt high
756 tjeneste service
757 mødes meet
758 mangler missing
759 sex sex
760 otte eight
761 david david
762 sekunder seconds
763 tal numbers
764 bo stay
765 ung young
766 enhver any
767 mike mike
768 drikke drinking
769 smukke beautiful
770 ende end
771 fortsæt Continue
772 ma ma
773 lys light
774 kig look
775 doktor Doctor
776 peter peter
777 åbne open
778 jimmy jimmy
779 eget own
780 pigen girl
781 fyren guy
782 skød shot
783 nar fool
784 større more
785 skolen school
786 hent download
787 tidligere former
788 alting everything
789 michael michael
790 passe fit
791 james james
792 dyr animals
793 slået enabled
794 travlt hurry
795 frue Lady
796 godeste Goodness
797 elske love
798 skai Skai
799 harry harry
800 drink drink
801 ide idea
802 sendt sent
803 bord table
804 sort black
805 fængsel prison
806 glemt Forgotten
807 landet landed
808 kalde call
809 anderledes different
810 lig equal
811 f f
812 billede picture
813 lod let
814 joe joe
815 følger follows
816 menneske human
817 rette right
818 lærer teacher
819 sende send
820 overhovedet at
821 rør tube
822 ene one
823 venlig Yours
824 vandet water
825 tingene things
826 skade damage
827 sorte black
828 spurgte asked
829 paul paul
830 tør dry
831 mistet lost
832 præsident President
833 sat set
834 stil Style
835 herinde here
836 ah ah
837 råd Advice
838 jesus jesus
839 skriver write
840 begynde begin
841 guds God
842 familien family
843 kontor office
844 ære honor
845 syntes seemed
846 drøm dream
847 nemlig namely
848 satan Satan
849 følg follow
850 advokat lawyer
851 faldt decreased
852 sover sleeping
853 egne own
854 lede lead
855 oberst Colonel
856 agent agent
857 født born
858 forklare explain
859 mødt met
860 hænderne hands
861 hertil this
862 forhold relationship
863 betjent officer
864 fader father
865 mund mouth
866 kigge look
867 halv half
868 mester champion
869 rejser travel
870 løber run
871 kendt known
872 åben open
873 bedst best
874 tidspunkt time
875 forsigtig cautious
876 bekymret worried
877 føles feels
878 sang song
879 luften air
880 netop just
881 musik music
882 uanset regardless
883 stolt proud
884 skid skid
885 sendte sent
886 fange catch
887 dér there
888 kende know
889 skør crazy
890 falder fall
891 læge doctor
892 døden death
893 fart speed
894 vore our
895 børnene children
896 naturligvis course
897 telefon telephone
898 slås fight
899 umuligt impossible
900 rent clean
901 dele parts
902 meter meters
903 skylder owe
904 telefonen phone
905 pænt nicely
906 ægte genuine
907 bestemt specific
908 ryger smoking
909 taber loser
910 kørte drove
911 skrev wrote
912 krigen war
913 stopper stops
914 fanget caught
915 ordne Fix
916 middag dinner
917 hav sea
918 ærligt honestly
919 aftes last night
920 forlade leave
921 øl beer
922 frøken Miss
923 slippe drop
924 beskytte protect
925 b b
926 all all
927 glemme forget
928 undskylde excuse
929 stemme vote
930 tv TV
931 danse dance
932 send send
933 satans Satan
934 mødte met
935 skrevet written
936 derovre over there
937 flyt move
938 forsvind Disappearing
939 an an
940 max max
941 brugte used
942 slemt bad
943 glemte forgot
944 ændre change
945 smid throw
946 normalt usually
947 føle feel
948 masser lots
949 pris price
950 wow wow
951 flyve Flying
952 stole chairs
953 ro ro
954 ni nine
955 alex alex
956 direkte direct
957 mord murder
958 spor track
959 forkerte wrong
960 blå blue
961 bob bob
962 lukket closed
963 kammerat mate
964 prøvet Tried
965 sikre ensure
966 lært learned
967 gave gift
968 paris paris
969 vende return
970 historien story
971 hurtigere faster
972 problemet problem
973 stykker pieces
974 vildt game
975 vender faces
976 lyset light
977 brugt used
978 forsøger trying
979 skrid slip
980 kampen fight
981 sad sat
982 krop body
983 bill bill
984 fleste Most
985 billeder pictures
986 sulten Hungry
987 starter start
988 starte start
989 fars father
990 fare danger
991 løgn lie
992 lyver lying
993 tidligt early
994 stærk strong
995 fjols fool
996 vred angry
997 right right
998 pludselig suddenly
999 sur sur
1000 forbandede Cursed

More Languages

Note: The words on this list are ranked in order of frequency used in subtitles (from opensubtitles.org). You can download more extensive word lists here. The translations are from Google Translate (please be aware that the translations can be rough as they do not consider context!) and the audio is provided by these users of forvo.

Quick Tips for Travelers to Denmark

When planning your trip to Denmark, it’s important to understand that although many of its citizens speak English, Danish is the official language of the country. As a result, it will greatly improve your trip to learn a few Danish words and phrases to help you get around this foreign land.

If you’ve traveled in Scandinavia before, it might also be helpful to review all the differences and similarities between the Scandinavian languages to get a sense of how Danish fits in.

Pronunciation Tips

The first step to speaking Danish is getting your accent right. Many Danish letters are similar to the English language, but here are a few exceptions.

  • a sounds are pronounced like the letter e in «egg»
  • i sounds are pronounced like a combination of e in «egg» and i in «ill»
  • o sounds are pronounced like e in «see»
  • æ is pronounced like a short version of a in «ache»
  • w is pronounced like v in «van»
  • y sounds like ew in «few» but with the lips more rounded
  • r sounds at the beginning of a word or after a consonant, sound like a strong guttural h like the Spanish j in «Jose»
  • r sounds between vowels or before a consonant becomes part of the vowel sound or is lost entirely

Danish Greetings and Basic Expressions

Here are some ways to greet people in Denmark, plus common expressions that may come in handy.

  • Goddag. — Good day.
  • Hej. Hello.
  • Farvel. — Goodbye.
  • Ja. — Yes.
  • Nej. — No.
  • Tak. — Thank you.
  • Undskyld. — Excuse me.
  • Hvad hedder du? — What’s your name?
  • Jeg hedder… — My name is…
  • Hvorfra kommer du? — Where are you from?
  • Jeg kommer fre de Forenede Stater. — I am from the United States.
  • Hvor gammel er du? — How old are you?
  • Jeg gammel… — I am …. years old.
  • Jeg leder efter… — I’m looking for…
  • Hvor meget koster? — How much is it?

Danish Signs and Establishment Names

When you’re out in public, you might need to identify these common words and phrases for directions around town. From identifying entrances and exits to knowing what the police station is called, these words can become extremely important in your travels.

  • Indgang — entrance
  • Udgang — exit
  • Å¢en — open
  • Lukket — closed
  • Toiletter — bathroom
  • Herrer — men
  • Damer — women
  • En bank — a bank
  • Centrum — city center
  • Mit hotel — my hotel
  • Den Forenede State Ambassade — The United States Embassy
  • Markedet — the market
  • Museet — the museum
  • Politiet — the police
  • Politistation — police station
  • Postkontoret — the post office
  • Et offentligt toilet — a public toilet
  • Telefoncentralen — telephone center
  • Turist-informationen — tourist office
  • Domkirke cathedral
  • Kirke — church
  • Torvet — main square
  • Boghandel — bookstore
  • Fotohandel — photo store
  • Delikatesse — delicatessen
  • Vaskeri laundry
  • Aviskiosk newspaper stand

Words for Time and Numbers in Danish

Although you might feel like a vacation is the perfect moment to forget about time, chances are you’ll have a dinner reservation or play to catch and might need to ask someone to let you know what day or what time it is.

  • I dag/I morgen — tomorrow
  • Tidlig — early
  • Mandag — Monday
  • Tirsdag — Tuesday
  • Onsdag — Wednesday
  • Torsdag — Thursday
  • Fredag — Friday
  • Lordag — Saturday
  • Sondag — Sunday
  • Hvad er klokken? — What time is it?
  • Klockken….er. — It’s….o’clock.
  • 0 — nul
  • 1 — en
  • 2 — to
  • 3 — tre
  • 4 — fire
  • 5 — fem
  • 6 — seks
  • 7 — syv
  • 8 — otte
  • 9 — ni
  • 10 — ti
  • 11 — elleve
  • 12 — tolve

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Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by Danes, the people of Denmark. Like Norwegian words and Swedish words, Danish words are peculiar to their culture meaning you won’t find them in English. Here’s a round-up of the beautiful Danish words that have no translation.

Must Read: The Most Beautiful Words in the World

Beautiful Danish Words

Here are some of the cool words in Danish that you can try out in conversation and impress people 🙂

Let’s start with how to say hello in Danish!

Hej (n.)

Pronunciation: hi

Meaning: Hi, Hello

Hej is the most commonly used casual greeting in Danish. You can use it in any situation and with anyone from strangers to friends. Hej Hej means goodbye in Danish.

hej danish words

Related Read: 100 Unique and Creative Travel Words with Beautiful Meanings

Speciallægepraksisplanlægningsstabilliseringsperiode

Pronunciation: speciallæge-praksisplanlægnings-stabiliseringsperiode

Meaning: Literally translates to a period of stabilizing the planning of a specialist doctor’s practice

Made up of 51 letters, it’s the longest word in Danish!

longest word in danish

Suggested Read: Dragor in Denmark – A Perfect Day Trip from Copenhagen

Hygge (n.)

Pronunciation: hue-gah

Meaning: An atmosphere of warmth, wellbeing, and coziness when you feel at peace and able to enjoy simple pleasures and being in the moment.

Scandinavian countries enjoy the simple pleasures in life. They all have a word to define the simple joys. Danish have hygge, Swedish have mys, Norwegians have kos, and Finnish have kalsarikannit 🙂

Hygge gains so much popularity across the globe that this Danish word is added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in 2017.

hygge beautiful danish words

Read More: Copenhagen on a Budget

Forelsket (adj.)

Pronunciation: for-el-skit

Meaning: Being madly in love – an ineffable euphoria experienced when one’s enamored with someone.

Norwegians too use the word forelsket to define the similar feeling.

Forelsket cool danish words

Read Next: 13+ Incredible Day Trips from Copenhagen

Bagstiv (adj.)

Pronunciation: bag-stiv

Meaning: Waking up still drunk from the night before, Hungover

bagstiv untranslatable words danish

Related Read: 3 Days in Copenhagen Itinerary

Hils (n.)

Pronunciation: hils

Meaning: When Danes tell someone to give regards or say hello to the third person, they just say hils. e.g. I’ll be meeting Amanda today. Okay, hils.

Short and sweet. Isn’t it?

hils danish words

Suggested Read: Best of Nordic Countries in 3-Weeks – Scandinavia Itinerary

Arbejdsglæde (n.)

Pronunciation: ahh-bites-gle-the

Meaning: Happiness at work, Job satisfaction, Work pleasure

You are incredibly lucky if you have a job that makes you happy 🙂 Arbejdsglæde is super important as it leads to success.

arbejdsglæde beautiful words danish

Read More: Best Sunset Quotes and Sunset Captions for Instagram

Sympatisk (adj.)

Pronunciation: sym-pat-isk

Meaning: Likeable, Friendly, Nice, Trust-worthy

Sympatisk danish words

You Might Want to Read: 101 Best Travel Quotes to Inspire Wanderlust

Uoverskuelig (adj.)

Pronunciation: over·skuelig

Meaning: When Danes don’t know where to start or are unable to deal with the task at hand, they use this word.

uoverskuelig danish words

Read Next: The Ultimate List of Road Quotes

 Træls (adj.)

Pronunciation: trels

Meaning: Annoying, Grueling, Tiresome, Disappointing, Nuisance, Inconvenient

træls words in danish

Read More: Quotes About Northern Lights

Overmorgen (n.)

Pronunciation: aw-mawgen

Meaning: the day after tomorrow

overmorgen danish words

You Might Like: 150+ Best Summer Quotes and Summer Captions for Instagram

Forgårs (n.)

Pronunciation: faw-gaws

Meaning: the day before yesterday

Forgårs danish words

Read More: 200+ Savage Quotes for Your Next Instagram Caption

Tanketorsk (n.)

Pronunciation: tan-ke-to-sg

Meaning: Literally translates to thought cod. Used to describe a thoughtless action or gaffe or a statement made without considering the consequences.

tanketorsk danish words

Read Next: Where to Stay in Copenhagen

Velbekomme (interj.)

Pronunciation: velbe-komme

Meaning: Telling someone to enjoy their meal. What bon appetit is to French, velbekomme is to Danes.

Velbekomme danish words

You Might be Interested: How to Plan a Trip to Europe

Orke (v.)

Pronunciation: ok

Meaning: It means that you can’t be bothered to do something or that you don’t have the strength or energy for it.

orke danish words

Read More: Best Sunrise Quotes and Sunrise Captions for Instagram

Jo (n.)

Pronunciation: yo

Meaning: Literally means yes but is only used in response to a negative question or statement. e.g. Did you not finish your homework yesterday? Jo, I finished it before going to the bed.

jo danish words

Do you have any fascinating and beautiful Danish words that you’d like us to add to this list of unique words from the Danish language?

Read More: The Ultimate Itinerary for Exploring Denmark

Save the Beautiful Danish Words to Pinterest

beautiful danish words

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На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать грубую лексику.


На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать разговорную лексику.


There is no Danish word for «please».


The «K» in vitamin K gets its name from the Danish word for coagulation.


Moler is the original Danish word for the unique local diatomite, which has an extraordinary high content of clay.



Молер — это оригинальное датское название уникального местного диатомита, который обладает необычайно высоким содержанием глины.


Atto- was made from the Danish word for eighteen (atten).



Приставка атто образована от датского atten («восемнадцать»).


Danish word for «part, division, portion.»


The letter ‘K’ stands for ‘koagulering’, the Danish word for ‘clotting’, since it was a Danish scientist, Dr. Henrik Dam, who discovered this vitamin.



Буква К, являющаяся первой буквой в слове «koagulering», датском соответствии слову «свертывание», используется в названии этого витамина по той причине, что последний был обнаружен ученым из Дании, доктором Хенриком Дамом.


Copenhagen’s Danish Architecture Centre is showing an exhibition that looks at the work of architecture practice Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) alongside the historical perspective of the Danish word for design: formgiving.



В Датском архитектурном центре в Копенгагене демонстрируется выставка, на которой рассматриваются работы архитектурной практики Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), а также историческая перспектива датского слова «дизайн»: формация.


It is worth noting that the Danish word for hostel is Vandrerhjem, which also what hostels in Denmark are usually signposted as.



Стоит отметить, что датское слово «хостел» — «Vandrehjem», которое обычно обозначают также хостелы в Дании.


But the Danish word for design is «formgivning,» which literally means to give form to that which has not yet been given form.



В датском языке слово «дизайн» буквально означает «придание формы», то есть придание формы тому, у чего её ещё нет.


The word «lykke» is simple enough: It’s simply the Danish word for «happiness.»


The city is located on the mouth of the small river, Århus Å (Å being the Danish word for a small river).



Орхус расположен в устье небольшой реки, Орхус О)-о, датское слово для небольшой реки.


The first prototype ‘1’ (after the single letter danish word for island) was recently launched and can be found floating around the south of Copenhagen harbour.



Первый прототип «1» (так назвали первый остров) был недавно запущен и может быть найден вами плавающим в южной части Копенгагенской гавани.

Ничего не найдено для этого значения.

Результатов: 12. Точных совпадений: 12. Затраченное время: 297 мс

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Индекс слова: 1-300, 301-600, 601-900

Индекс выражения: 1-400, 401-800, 801-1200

Индекс фразы: 1-400, 401-800, 801-1200

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