Archive for 'Grammar'
Where not to put IKKE? Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jul 31, 2017
Ikke (not) phrases are often called negative phrases – even if some of them have a very positive meaning: Vi vil ikke have mere vold! (We don’t want any more violence!) Sometimes, though, even the most positive negative sentence can drive a poor language-learner mad: Where do(n’t) I put ikke? Let’s take some simple…
Just do it! Giving orders in Danish Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 31, 2017
Bring my bag! Call the dog! Sometimes, there’s little time to be høflig (polite), and we need to give somebody a direct ordre (order). In English, we simply use the dictionary form of the verb (go! wait! shut up!) In Danish, it’s almost just as easy to make the bydeform (imperative, literally ”bidding form”). 🙂…
Verbs in the Mirror Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jan 31, 2017
Drømte mig en drøm i nat… (Dreamt myself a dream tonight…) One of the oldest songs in the Danish language (click here to listen to it) starts with a reflexive verb. Since there is a difference between I wash myself and I wash the dog, speakers of many languages found a way to refer back…
Your Danish Possessives Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Apr 25, 2016
You’ll probably not find this in your grammar book, but the most important thing to ask yourself when you want to use a possessive pronoun (”my”, ”her”…) in Danish is this: Does it end in an -s? If yes, you’re lucky: hans, hendes, vores, jeres, deres NEVER change: Hans cykel, hendes bil, vores hus, jeres…
Danish Pronouns – let’s get personal Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Apr 15, 2016
Nothing speeds up communication like a good pronoun! 🙂 Instead of having to repeat a personal name umpteen times, it’s really great that once everybody agrees on a topic, ”you” can manage with a short ”I” or ”she”. At first glance, Danish stedord (pronouns or ”[in]-place-[of something]-words”) look a lot like the English ones: Jeg…
More and Most Danish Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Feb 28, 2016
Strangely, until now I’ve totally forgotten to write about the gradbøjning (”comparison inflection”) of adjectives… As you can probably remember, Danish adjectives take various endings: -e when it’s describing a definite noun (these often come with ”the” in English): den søde pige (the cute girl), den gamle ugle (the old owl), husenes røde farve (the…
Feeling the Way of Words Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Nov 30, 2015
Hello all you people who are brave and patient enough to delve into the mysteries of dansk! Some time ago I asked you for feedback on your learning difficulties, and a couple of great suggestions popped up (keep ’em coming!) One of you wrote: ”Do you have an idea how to obtain that feeling of…