Archive for 'Vocabulary'
Spelling your name in Danish Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jul 29, 2017
When you check in at a hostel or meet a new friend, you’re sometimes asked to spell your navn [naoon] (name). Fortunately, the Danish alfabet [alfaBEHT] is quite similar to the English one you already know. In case you forgot bogstaverne (the letters), here’s a crash course. The first pitfall: i and e. (I’ve heard…
Your name is what? Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Apr 21, 2017
Hvad hedder du? (What’s your name?) Jeg hedder… Talking about navn/e (name/s) is important when making new friends. Let’s look at Danish naming traditions! H.C. Andersen is probably the most famous dansker (Dane) of all time… Like all danskere, he’s got a • fornavn [fore-naoon] – in this case: Hans Christian – and an •…
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…
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…
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…
Basic Shapes in Danish Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Sep 30, 2016
You’ve got the colours, and now you need formerne (the shapes). 🙂 You can certainly guess what cirkel [SEERkl] means. 🙂 Streg [sdry] is a common word for linje [LINyeh] (line). When you’re drawing shapes, it’s hard to avoid streger. Some of them get together to make a vinkel (angle). In the Danish flag, two…
Fun and special words in Danish Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Aug 27, 2016
Sometimes learning Danish vocabulary can be really fun – you discover items that make you giggle or shake your head in disbelief: How could anyone even think of an expression like that? A Romanian Danish-learner I knew, was absolutely thrilled by the word agurk [uh-GOOAK] (cucumber). ”It sounds like something an alien would say!” he…