The Queen’s guards marching at Amalienborg in Copenhagen. (Photo by Tuala Hjarnø at Flickr, CC License.)

How much do you know about Danish culture? Here’s a quick quiz to speed up your brain…

1. Danes are said to talk with a … in their mouth.
Æ. frø (frog)
Ø. kartoffel (potato)
Å. rugbrød (rye bread)

2. LEGO is short for
Æ. leg godt (play well)
Ø. lev godt (live well)
Å. lille egoist (little egoist)

3. When Danes have eaten, they often say
Æ. skål (cheers)
Ø. tak for mad (thanks for the food)
Å. (nothing – they just leave the table)

4. Denmark was the first country to legalize
Æ. slavery
Ø. marijuana
Å. pornography

5. Dannebrog, the Danish flag, is said to have fallen from the sky in
Æ. Estonia
Ø. Poland
Å. Atlantis

6. The Queen of Denmark is called
Æ. Margrethe I
Ø. Margrethe III
Å. Margrethe II

7. The famous tongue-twister rødgrød med fløde actually means
Æ. Rotten bread with butter
Ø. Red porridge with cream
Å. Leftover porridge with cream

8. Danish is spoken natively in
Æ. Denmark and Poland
Ø. Denmark and parts of Germany
Å. Denmark and parts of Sweden

9. In which film can you hear Viggo Mortensen speaking Danish
Æ. Jauja
Ø. Eastern Promises
Å. The Fellowship of the Ring

10. How did former PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt get the world’s attention
Æ. She signed a famous deal with the EU
Ø. She made Vladimir Putin burst into laughter at a funeral
Å. She took a selfie with Barack Obama

11. The Danish language is difficult because it has got so many finely tuned
Æ. hiccups
Ø. burps
Å. vowels

12. The national bird of Denmark is the
Æ. svale (swallow)
Ø. svane (swan)
Å. spurv (sparrow)

13. Danes still love to talk about the year 1992 when
Æ. De danske fodbolddrenge (the Danish football ”boys”) beat Germany and became European Champions
Ø. De danske håndboldpiger (the Danish handball ”girls”) beat Croacia and became European Champions
Å. The Danish language got a new vowel

14. In 2014, Danes voted that their national dish should be
Æ. Bøf med løg (hamburger steak with onion)
Ø. Stegt rødspætte (fried plaice [a very flat kind of fish])
Å. Stegt flæsk med persillesovs (fried pork with parsley sauce)

15. In September 2015, the first Danish astronaut landed at the International Space Station. His name is
Æ. Andreas Mogensen
Ø. Wulff Morgenthaler
Å. Benny Andersen

The answers are… 1ø 2æ 3ø 4å 5æ 6å 7ø 8ø 9æ 10å 11å 12ø 13æ 14å 15æ

So, how many did you get right? 🙂