Jeg kan tale dansk en lille smule - Learning Danish
"I can speak a little bit of Danish."
So apparently I am already learning Danish for almost two months now - time to write something about it! Mabye one day when I'm fluent in Danish - hahaha - I'll look back at this one and laugh about my naivety and struggles that I had with this language.
However, before I dive into the topic - yes, I am one of those crazy people who attempt to learn Danish.
Why?
Because I simply wanted to learn a new language and things just turned this way. Now I also have the amazing opportunity to visit Denmark for the first time in my life in summer!
You might have heard that Danish sounds like a man talking with a potato in his mouth. And yes, that one might be a very appropriate analogy. The articulation and pronunciation of Danish is very complex and often works without rules, which makes it quite hard to grasp this language at the start since it feels like you cannot rely on anything at all. Even easy vowels like o and e can be pronounced in four different ways!
On the other hand, the grammar isn't an obstacle most of the time, especially for me as a native German speaker. Well, I haven't covered all grammatical aspects of the Danish language yet, but so far it was quite similar to the German one or even easier. But the modal verbs that serve for expressing the future can still be confusing as well as knowing which form of the adjective is appropriate in a particular context...
Another thing about the Danish language that seperates itself from its closest cousins Norwegian and Swedish is how the Danes count. Now, the numbers from 0 to 20 are not unusual, they reminded me of the French numbers. But it does get complicated from 30 to 100.
50 is halvtreds
60 is tres (Why tres? Why did they choose something that sounds so much like 3 in Italian and Spanish???)
70 is halvfjerds
80 is firs (Huh?)
90 is halvfems
So they kind of say numbers like "Oh, I have half five cherries" instead of "Oh, I have ninety cherries" - Even my Danish teacher isn't completely sure who came up with that words.
It even seems to be more crazy when it comes to the ordinal numeral. Instead of ninetieth you say halvfemsindstyvende (Bless you!) in Denmark. So you end up saying something like "halv five multipled by 20 -th".
In addition to that, there is no definite article. Instead of remembering another seperate word, you simply have to take the indefinite article (which is either en or et) and attach it to the back of the noun - voilà, a we've got a suffix!
So instead of "et hus" you'll say "huset" - easy, right?
But no matter how hard Danish is going to be, I'm already into it and really enjoy learning a new language. So I am definitely accepting the challenge that this particular language is setting to its learners! I really can't wait to visit Denmark now - maybe I can already use some expressions? It would definitely be fun to actually apply my skills in real life.
Before you go, I want to share a bit of my small Danish knowledge with you. Unfortunately I cannot teach you the correct pronunciation of the following phrases, but maybe you'll find an online ressource that can help out! Personally, I would recommend using Duolingo or Memrise if you want to learn a new language or refresh your language skills - it's a nice little practise each day and for free!
Hej! - Hello! (Almost always used!)
Godday! - Good day!
Godmorgen! - Good morning! (Which sounds like me in the morning when I'm super tired and say good morning in German)
Jeg hedder... - My name is...
Hvad hedder du? - What's your name?
Jeg er ... âr gammel. - I am .... years old.
Hvor gammel er du? - How old are you?
Hvordan gâr det? - How are you?
Jeg har det godt, tak! - I am good, thanks!
Jeg bor i... - I live in...
Hvor bor du? - Where do you live?
Skal vi gâ? - Shall we go?
Det var sâ lidt! - You're welcome!
Undskyld! - Excuse me!
Skâl! - Cheers!
Hej hej! - Bye!
Farvel! - Goodbye!
0 nul
1 en/et
2 to
3 tre
4 fire
5 fem
6 seks
7 syv
8 otte
9 ni
10 ti
11 elleve
12 tolv
13 tretten
14 fjorten
15 femten
16 seksten
17 sytten
18 atten
19 nitten
20 tyve
P.S.: If anyone whose Danish is way better than mine spots a mistake - feel free to step forward and correct me!
So apparently I am already learning Danish for almost two months now - time to write something about it! Mabye one day when I'm fluent in Danish - hahaha - I'll look back at this one and laugh about my naivety and struggles that I had with this language.
However, before I dive into the topic - yes, I am one of those crazy people who attempt to learn Danish.
Why?
Because I simply wanted to learn a new language and things just turned this way. Now I also have the amazing opportunity to visit Denmark for the first time in my life in summer!
 |
| I am now using the beautiful notebook that a very good friend of mine got me for Christmas! |
You might have heard that Danish sounds like a man talking with a potato in his mouth. And yes, that one might be a very appropriate analogy. The articulation and pronunciation of Danish is very complex and often works without rules, which makes it quite hard to grasp this language at the start since it feels like you cannot rely on anything at all. Even easy vowels like o and e can be pronounced in four different ways!
On the other hand, the grammar isn't an obstacle most of the time, especially for me as a native German speaker. Well, I haven't covered all grammatical aspects of the Danish language yet, but so far it was quite similar to the German one or even easier. But the modal verbs that serve for expressing the future can still be confusing as well as knowing which form of the adjective is appropriate in a particular context...
Another thing about the Danish language that seperates itself from its closest cousins Norwegian and Swedish is how the Danes count. Now, the numbers from 0 to 20 are not unusual, they reminded me of the French numbers. But it does get complicated from 30 to 100.
50 is halvtreds
60 is tres (Why tres? Why did they choose something that sounds so much like 3 in Italian and Spanish???)
70 is halvfjerds
80 is firs (Huh?)
90 is halvfems
So they kind of say numbers like "Oh, I have half five cherries" instead of "Oh, I have ninety cherries" - Even my Danish teacher isn't completely sure who came up with that words.
It even seems to be more crazy when it comes to the ordinal numeral. Instead of ninetieth you say halvfemsindstyvende (Bless you!) in Denmark. So you end up saying something like "halv five multipled by 20 -th".
In addition to that, there is no definite article. Instead of remembering another seperate word, you simply have to take the indefinite article (which is either en or et) and attach it to the back of the noun - voilà, a we've got a suffix!
So instead of "et hus" you'll say "huset" - easy, right?
But no matter how hard Danish is going to be, I'm already into it and really enjoy learning a new language. So I am definitely accepting the challenge that this particular language is setting to its learners! I really can't wait to visit Denmark now - maybe I can already use some expressions? It would definitely be fun to actually apply my skills in real life.
Before you go, I want to share a bit of my small Danish knowledge with you. Unfortunately I cannot teach you the correct pronunciation of the following phrases, but maybe you'll find an online ressource that can help out! Personally, I would recommend using Duolingo or Memrise if you want to learn a new language or refresh your language skills - it's a nice little practise each day and for free!
Hej! - Hello! (Almost always used!)
Godday! - Good day!
Godmorgen! - Good morning! (Which sounds like me in the morning when I'm super tired and say good morning in German)
Jeg hedder... - My name is...
Hvad hedder du? - What's your name?
Jeg er ... âr gammel. - I am .... years old.
Hvor gammel er du? - How old are you?
Hvordan gâr det? - How are you?
Jeg har det godt, tak! - I am good, thanks!
Jeg bor i... - I live in...
Hvor bor du? - Where do you live?
Skal vi gâ? - Shall we go?
Det var sâ lidt! - You're welcome!
Undskyld! - Excuse me!
Skâl! - Cheers!
Hej hej! - Bye!
Farvel! - Goodbye!
0 nul
1 en/et
2 to
3 tre
4 fire
5 fem
6 seks
7 syv
8 otte
9 ni
10 ti
11 elleve
12 tolv
13 tretten
14 fjorten
15 femten
16 seksten
17 sytten
18 atten
19 nitten
20 tyve
 |
| Don't forget to give your life some HYGGE :) |
P.S.: If anyone whose Danish is way better than mine spots a mistake - feel free to step forward and correct me!
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