Tag Archives: English
Danish for a Non-Dane Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Feb 28, 2018
A while ago a British guy in Denmark, Barnaby, kindly sent me his thoughts about learning Danish as a foreigner. Although I didn’t actually interview him, I’ve tweaked his most important points into an interview’ish text in order to make it more readable. What’s tricky about learning Danish? Phrasal verbs are tricky. Why does ”Jeg…
False Friends in Danish Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 31, 2016
I always tell English-speakers that Danish is easy – except the pronunciation. Both English and Danish are Germanic languages, and with Nordsøen as the only natural barrier between England and Denmark, the two languages are much closer to each other than you’d think. Recently, Danish has also ”swallowed” a lot of English words, making the linguistic…
Meet the Monster Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 31, 2015
Uhyret er løs! (The monster is ”loose”!) After all that hygge, the time has come for some real uhygge (eeriness, literally ”un-hygge”). And that creepy monster is lurking in the dark, doing everything it can to prevent you from learning dansk! You want to get through Halloween alive? Godt så (good). First, you have to…
H.C. Andersen Sensation Goes Global Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Dec 15, 2012
What! Suddenly a Danish word is mentioned by media all over the world! 🙂 The word in question is Tællelyset – The Tallow Candle – the name of the supposedly first eventyr (fairytale) from the quill of H.C. Andersen, Denmark’s most famous author of all times. Now, this would certainly have been ”let’s yawn” material if it hadn’t been…
Danish Vowels: A, E, I Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Aug 29, 2012
Language geeks love Danish. They’re amazed by the fact that the language is full of strange vowel sounds, and that we Danes pronounce our consonants with so much ”timidity” that the whole language sounds like a stream of vowels (our a soup, if you like 🙂 ). Yeah, if you analyze it at scientific level…
For the Love of Books Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 13, 2012
Tucked away in an upstairs department with a backyard entrance accessible from Klostergade in central Århus, a lady and a black cat make a living selling bøger (books) in French, Spanish, Italian, English and German. I met them for a chat. What’s your story? My name is Geneviève Munck, I’m French and came to Århus…