How to know when the baker’s born… Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Nov 11, 2012
A Swede enters a Danish taxa (cab) and asks the driver to take him to a rolig place. To the Swede’s bewilderment, the driver drops him off at a graveyard! The fun part of this joke is that the word rolig means ”amusing” in Swedish, but ”relaxed” or ”quiet” in Danish… A lot of Danish humor [HOO-more] is based on ordspil (puns, literally ”word plays”)…
What time is it? Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 28, 2012
I dag [ee da-y] (today) Denmark went from sommertid (summer time) to vintertid. 12 o’clock became 11 o’clock, as every ur (watch) had to be adjusted by one hour. But in what direction? To solve this eternal problem, the Danes have a saying: In spring, you put your havemøbler (garden furniture) frem (forward, out in…
Season of Fruits and Colours Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 27, 2012
The word efterår (autumn/fall) may sound a bit sad or melankolsk in Danish, as the name of the season following sommer and preceding vinter literally means ”after-year”. (On a more optimistic note, spring is forår, ’fore-year’.) But don’t let the language fool you – in spite of less dagslys [DOWslees] (daylight) and falling temperatures, autumn…
Kongefamilien Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 22, 2012
Having looked at the Danish words for various family members, the time has now come to lære at kende (get acquainted with) the Danish royal family. You’ve already said hello to the familieoverhoved (head of family, literally ’family over-head’!): Dronning Margrethe den anden (Queen Margareth the second), our friendly and kunstnerisk (artistic) queen since 1972…
Familien Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 20, 2012
What would we be without a familie (family)? Even though an increasing number of Danes choose to live alene (alone), most people live together with at least one of their familiemedlem/mer (family member/s). Let’s take a look at the relevant words: mor mother (remember the sound of the Danish R? Small children cry ”mo-a!”) far…
Danish Numbers 1 – 20 Posted by Transparent Language on Oct 19, 2012
We’ve created this simple table of Danish numbers from one to twenty for our readers who are new to learning Danish. You can also hear native speaker pronunciation in the companion video below. Try listening to the video a few times, and also practice speaking the words aloud yourself; it can be the hardest part…
Ulv, ulv! Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 18, 2012
To many people, Denmark outside of Copenhagen is either a pretty blomsterhave (flower garden) or a boring motorvej (motorway, freeway) that unnecessarily prolongs the drive between Central Europe and the attractive wilderness of Norway and Sweden. Too bad that these people don’t know that there are some pretty wild things going on in Denmark too!…