Archive for 'Vocabulary'
Danish for Martians Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jan 20, 2012
Suppose you came from another planet, and you crashed in Denmark with absolute no knowledge of the language… (Or English, for that matter!) What phrases would you need to get along on a very basic level? A friend recently asked me for such a list, so here you are. (Sorry, sci-fi dudes, I have to keep…
O, Christmas Where Art Thou! Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Nov 27, 2011
Today’s got a name in Danish: den første søndag i advent. (Yeah, you got it right: the first Sunday in Advent!) Advent, of course, is the countdown for jul (Christmas). Today many families are lighting the first out of four candles in their adventskrans (advent wreath). Over the next three Sundays the remaining lys (candles)…
Greetings! Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Nov 16, 2011
Hej Pronounced almost like its American equivalent ’hi’, hej is the universal greeting in Denmark, used between young and old, men and women. It is quite informal, though, so using it to greet the Queen probably wouldn’t be a good idea! It is often combined with little tail phrases, as in Hej, hvordan går det? ’Hi…
Hygge Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Nov 12, 2011
No blog on Danish is complete without a post about hygge. This phenomenon – pronounced with the clear, fronted ”u” sound of French nom de plume or German Zürich – may just be the epitome of danskhed (Danishness). Danes repeatedly refer to it, to the slight bafflement of foreigners: What on earth are they talking about? Basically…
Ord is Word! Learning Danish Through English Part II Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 13, 2011
I recently got a reaction to my claim that Danish is an easy language to learn for native speakers of English. I can understand that for a new learner who has just started looking at the language, this may seem to be taken out of the blue. It certainly also makes sense to me that…
Days of the Week Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 2, 2011
Mandag (pronounced ’manda’). This is the first day of the week in Denmark – and most of Europe, for that matter. The American habit of putting Sundays first in calendars looks weird to Danes. You can’t start the week relaxing, you know, it takes some toil before you merit that weekend! Mandag looks like…