Is a danish actually Danish? Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 10, 2016
When English-speakers hear the word ”Danish” they often think about … kager (cakes)! I always found that hilarious, because in Danish, a Danish pastry is called … wienerbrød [VEEnorbroth] – bread from Vienna, the capital of Austria! So, is the English-speaking world wrong? En københavnsk bager havde været i Wien (a Copenhagen baker had been…
Colour your tongue! Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 28, 2016
Can you imagine a day without farver (colours)? It’s no wonder that many language courses are quick to introduce a few colours. Here are the basic ones in Danish – can you guess the meaning of the words? 1 rød 2 blå 3 gul 4 grøn 5 brun 6 orange [oRANGSHeh] 7 lilla 8 sort…
Oops! The Danish Irony Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 19, 2016
”Det var bare mega fedt!” (It was just mega nice!) The guy telling this to his friend had lost his bilnøgler (car keys), topping a rather awful day where everything just went wrong. Fortunately, his friend was a Dane accustomed to ironi [eeronEEh] (irony). She understood that losing the keys hadn’t been a nice experience…
Denmark in Tokyo Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 1, 2016
Coming from et lille land (a small country), many Danes worry what foreigners – especially Americans – think about them. Whenever the tennis player Caroline Wozniacki or another Danish kendis [KENN-diss] (famous person) gets ”big in the U.S.A.”, Danish journalister [shoor-] (journalists) seem to get really busy. 🙂 But some Danes get, as the saying…
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…
The World’s Happiest People Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Mar 31, 2016
Do all Danes wake up to Pharell’s song ”Happy”? According to FN (De Forenede Nationer – United Nations), they probably should. The 2016 World Happiness Report once again kårer (elects) Denmark as verdens lykkeligste folk (the happiest people on earth), followed by Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Finland. Maybe it’s because Danes take so many lykkepiller (happiness…