Having your first conversation in a foreign language is always a feat. If you know how to say ”hello” and ”goodbye”, you have the tools to break the ice – and to sneak away, if the whole thing gets too embarrassing!

Hej! is the normal way to say ”hi!” It sounds pretty much like English hi; just try to make it a tad lighter (not so far back in that throat of yours!) Add a dose of jovial and slightly wary down-to-earthness, and you’ll sound very Danish.

If someone calls you and you can’t hear the person, your word-of-choice should be hallo? [ha-LAW] If you’re in the street and want to get someone’s attention, just say hey! (as in English).

Of course there are also the good something! kind of greetings. Like when you meet somenone in the morning, you say god morgen [gohMORN], in the middle of the day the words to use are god dag [gohDA], and in the evening you go for god aften [gohAFtn]. Please note that ”good day” doesn’t sound strange in Danish – it’s a totally natural thing to say.

In many places in Jutland you’ll hear god dag shortened to daw [daoo]! This is a convenient way to greet that reserved driver of the countryside bus, for example. I guess it sounds more ”macho” than hej!

If you’re in Denmark and take a stroll after dark, however, it’s a bad idea to greet strangers with god nat [gohNAT] (good night), no matter how beautiful the stars are! They’ll think you’re leaving for bed, or expecting them to do it!

This brings us over to taking leave. The traditional way to say bye in Danish is

farvel! [foreVELL]

This is still used in a lot of situations. It’s a nice, polite thing to say, so learn it and use it!

But you shold be aware that many Danes are not aware that it comes from far vel – just like English farewell! (= travel well! = have a nice journey throughout your day!) So, to jazz up their language a bit, many Danes take leave by saying things like hej! or hej hej! (When it’s double, it can only mean bye.)

In many shops the assistant will ”bye-bye” you with the expression ha’ en god dag! (have a good day!) or ha’ en fortsat god dag! (have a day that continues being good!) or ha’ en god weekend! if it’s Friday/Saturday/Sunday. The correct thing to answer is: tak i lige måde! (thanks and you too!) This way of saying bye is currently spreading from the shops, and you’ll probably meet ”ordinary” Danes who say it as well.

And I’ll end this post by saying vi ses! (see you later!) and wishing you pøj pøj [poy poy] (good luck) with your language studies.

Yes! For a week now, Danish fans of melodi grand prix [meloDEE gramPREE] have been in ecstasy. Lørdag den 18. maj in Malmö, Sweden, Emmelie de Forest won the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, as it is better known internationally. The girl from Randers in Jylland won the hjerter [YERter] (hearts) of fjernsynsseere (tv-watchers) all across Europa [eoowROHpaa], who voted Emmelie and Denmark ahead of the 25 other participating lande (countries). With bare tæer (bare feet, literally ”bare toes”) and a kjole [KYOLeh] (woman’s dress, gown) made from organic bomuld [BOMul] (cotton), Emmelie entered the scene [SEHneh] (stage) to conquer Europe with her song ”Only Teardrops”:

This is a great sejr [SIE-or] (victory) for dansk musik (Danish music). It is the third time in the history of the konkurrence [kongkooRANGseh] (contest) that Denmark wins. (The newspaper tells me that the first time was in London in 1963, when Grethe and Jørgen Ingemann sung ”Dansevise” [Dance Ballad]. The follow-up was ”Fly On The Wings Of Love” with the Olsen Brothers in Stockholm, 2000.)

When Emmelie arrived in Copenhagen i søndags (this Sunday, the most recent Sunday), people went crazy. Thousands of people fejrede hende (celebrated her) in Tivoli, Copenhagen’s famous amusement park. She had no choice but to give a second performance of her song!

The sad things for Danish-aficionados is, of course … that the song’s in English! To make sure you get your weekly fix of the odd-but-beautiful Danish language, here’s the Danish version of ”Fly On The Wings…”

Both texts, of course, are happy little things about kærlighed (love)!

But funnily enough, the meaning of the verses varies a lot between the two versions. Let’s look at the most famous part:

English:

Fly on the wings of love
Fly baby fly
Reaching the stars above
Touching the sky

Danish:

Smuk som et stjerneskud
som tiden går
smukkere ser hun ud
år efter år

I think the Danish text har more humor [hooMORe]. It approximately means:

Beautiful as a shooting star
as Time passes
she looks more and more beautiful
each and every year

When you want to tell the world where you are, prepositions come handy: I’m in the garden; we’re on the beach. (And so it is in Danish: Jeg er i haven; vi er på stranden.) However, very often some kind of adverb can do the job as well: I’m home; we’re out. Jeg er hjemme; vi er ude.

You’ll notice that a lot of these locational adverbs end in -e in Danish. In addition to hjemme [YEMMeh] and ude [OOtheh], you’ve got:

- inde (in, inside), as in Hun sidder inde i stuen (she’s sitting in the living-room)

- oppe (up), as in Vi var oppe hele natten (We stayed up all night)

- nede (down), as in Kartoflerne er nede i jorden (The potatoes are down in the earth)

- henne (”at a distance”), as in Han sover henne hos naboen (He sleeps [over there] at the neighbour’s place)

- omme (”at a closer distance”), as in Den ligger omme bag huset (It lies [right there] behind the house)

- fremme (in front), as in Ølflaskerne står altid fremme (the beer bottles are always on display [”in front”])

But what if you wanted to say you were going home rather than being home? In Danish there’s a really nice trick you can use to tweak the meaning of the above words into something more directional: You just remove the final -e:

- Gå hjem! (Go home!)

- Kom ud! (Come out(side)!)

- Hun går ind i stuen (She’s going into the living-room)

- Han står op (He gets up)

- De sætter sig ned (They sit down)

- Vi tager hen til naboen (We’re going to the neighbour’s place [in that direction])

- De kom om bag huset (They came to the back of the house)

- Kom frem! (Come forth!)

Neat, huh?