Christmas in Denmark Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Dec 24, 2021
Hurra, så er det jul! (Hooray, then it’s Christmas!) For billions of people, that means glæde (joy) and spending time with familien (the family). But what is special about the højtid (feast, literally ’high time’) in Denmark? Jul [yool] is a very old tradition in Danmark – in fact, even the Vikings had a party…
Danes and Cold Water Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Nov 30, 2021
Danes just can’t stay away from vandet (the water) – even with temperatures approaching frysepunktet (the freezing point), they jump into havet (the sea)… Vil du med ud at vinterbade? (Wanna go ”winter-bathing”?) The last few years, the Danes’ interest in vinterbadning (winter bathing) has just exploded. For example, there were 25.000 organised vinterbadere (winter…
Adding Endings Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 19, 2021
One of the funny things about Danish is that you can’t avoid adding endings to words. Well, of course English learners also sometimes get confused – how do you add a plural -s to box? But generally, as long as you know how to add an -s to words, you don’t have to worry about…
Queen of Scandinavia Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Sep 30, 2021
Did you know Danmark, Norge (Norway) and even Sverige (Sweden) were once united – and ruled by a kvinde (woman)? This month, Margrete den Første (Margrete the First), a film starring the Danish ”movie queen” Trine Dyrholm, is making its rounds in danske biografer (Danish cinemas). Let’s take a look at this important historisk skikkelse…
It’s a Numbers Game Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Aug 28, 2021
How often do you need to do number tricks in a foreign language? Det står nok ikke øverst på listen (it probably isn’t on top of the list), but still, if you’re a little bit like me, you’ll sometimes find yourself in situations where simply counting is not enough… In Danish, saying basic calculations out…
Danish endings and beginnings Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jul 31, 2021
After some culture-related posts it’s time to take another look at det danske sprog (the Danish language). ”All Danish words seem to end in -er!” my sister once ex-claimed. And true enough, really many Danish words end in -er: • verbs in the present tense: køber, maler, smiler (buys, paints, smiles) • plurals of around…
Danish Football for the Win Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 30, 2021
Jeg er normalt ikke til fodbold, men… (I normally don’t like football/soccer, but…) Recently, variants of that phrase have been buzzing around everywhere in the air of Danmark. Fodbold-EM [fothbolt-eh-em] (the European Football Championship) is upon us, and almost everybody has a good excuse to be excited! Farvel, nedlukning – goddag, kvartfinale! (Goodbye, lockdown –…