Archive by Author
8 Danish Proverbs Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jan 27, 2017
Before the Internet, proverbs were like offline memes that anybody could throw into a conversation to make a point! 🙂 Even though our communication has changed, ordsprog (proverbs, literally ”word-languages”) still exist in many communities, including the Danish-speaking world. I think proverbs are a great window into the original ”mood” or setting of any language…
Happy New Year from the Queen Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Dec 31, 2016
Unlike julen (Christmas), the Danish nytårsfejring (New Year Celebration) hasn’t got a lot of traditioner. People get together, eat, drink (remember to say skååål!) and watch fyrværkeri. (Each year a small number of people get hurt by raketter – rockets.) One fixed tradition, however, is the televised nytårstale (New Year’s speech) by Queen Margrethe. Here…
Christmas Vocabulary Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Dec 24, 2016
Nu er det jul igen! (Now it’s Christmas again! – a line from a Danish Christmas song…) Few people are so crazy about jul (Christmas) as the Danes – maybe because it’s nice to have something to glæde sig til (look forward to/happily anticipate) in the dull Danish winter, where you never know if the…
Worst Case Danish Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Nov 30, 2016
Danmark er som regel et trygt land at være i. (As a rule, Denmark is a safe country to be in.) Here are a few expressions to use when everything goes wrong… – Hjælp, jeg er faret vild! (Help me, I’ve lost my way!) – Ved du hvor den nærmeste købmand/tankstation /det nærmeste sygehus er…
100 Basic Words in Danish Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Nov 27, 2016
Sometimes linguists come up with stuff that’s really useful for language learners. Even if science is not your thing, I hope you’ll like the Swadesh list as much as I do. 🙂 It’s a list of 100 ”core ideas” that speakers of most languages can express – just simple things like ”sun” or ”foot”. (This…
False Friends in Danish Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 31, 2016
I always tell English-speakers that Danish is easy – except the pronunciation. Both English and Danish are Germanic languages, and with Nordsøen as the only natural barrier between England and Denmark, the two languages are much closer to each other than you’d think. Recently, Danish has also ”swallowed” a lot of English words, making the linguistic…
Danish Is A Zoo! Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 19, 2016
Isn’t it fun that @ is called elephant’s trunk A (snabel-a) in Danish? 🙂 While I’m sure that other languages use animal expressions too, I love the way dyr (animals) keep popping up in dansk: If something costs en hund (a dog), you’ll have to betale (pay) et hundrede kroner (100 Kroner). Did you get…