{"id":1379,"date":"2016-04-15T15:16:35","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T15:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=1379"},"modified":"2016-04-15T15:16:35","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T15:16:35","slug":"danish-pronoun-lets-get-personal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2016\/04\/15\/danish-pronoun-lets-get-personal\/","title":{"rendered":"Danish Pronouns \u2013 let\u2019s get personal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Not<\/a>

Not exactly Danish, but I thought this photo was a perfect fit for the text. \ud83d\ude42 (Courtesy of DaveBleasdale at Flickr<\/a>, CC License.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Nothing speeds up communication like a good pronoun! \ud83d\ude42 Instead of having to repeat a personal name umpteen times, it\u2019s really great that once everybody agrees on a topic, \u201dyou\u201d can manage with a short \u201dI\u201d or \u201dshe\u201d. At first glance, Danish stedord<\/b> (pronouns or \u201d[in]-place-[of something]-words\u201d) look a lot like the English ones:<\/p>\n

Jeg<\/b> ringer senere. <\/b>(I\u2019ll call you later.)<\/p>\n

Du<\/b> har vel ikke set en lille hund? <\/b>(You haven\u2019t seen a small dog around here, have you?)<\/p>\n

Hun savner solen. <\/b>(She\u2019s missing the sun.)<\/p>\n

Han tager metroen. <\/b>(He\u2019s taking the metro.)<\/p>\n

Vi rydder op i huset. <\/b>(We\u2019re tidying up the house.)<\/p>\n

De cykler til stranden.<\/b> (They\u2019re going by bike to the beach.)<\/p>\n

Then of course, Danish has\u00a0a special plural you (\u201dthou and thou\u201d):<\/p>\n

Vil <\/b>I<\/b> have et lift? <\/b>(Do you guys want a ride?)<\/p>\n

Notice that this word is always written with a capital I<\/b> [ee] \u2013 of course, it has nothing to do with the similarly written English \u201dI\u201d! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Danish has two different ways of saying \u201dit\u201d \u2013 depending on whether the thing referred to is neuter (an \u201det<\/a><\/b>\u201d noun) or common gender (an \u201den<\/b>\u201d noun):<\/p>\n

Har du set min mobil? <\/b>Den<\/b> l\u00e5 lige her\u2026<\/b> (Have you seen my mobile phone? It was lying around just here\u2026)<\/p>\n

Har du set mit pas? <\/b>Det<\/b> er amerikansk.<\/b> (Have you seen my passport? It\u2019s American.)<\/p>\n

When \u201dit\u201d is referring to something other than a noun \u2013 like a phrase or a situation \u2013 only det<\/b> is used:<\/p>\n

Jeg h\u00e5ber du kommer. Det ville v\u00e6re s\u00e5 godt! <\/b>(I hope you\u2019ll come. It [that] would be so great!)<\/p>\n

I think the greatest difficulty for English-speakers comes with the \u201dme\u201d forms of pronouns (accusative\/dative\/reflexive, if you speak grammar!)<\/p>\n

Du ser mig, og jeg ser dig.<\/b> (You see me, and I see you.)<\/p>\n

Keder I jer? <\/b>(Are you guys bored? \u2013 Literally: Do you guys bore yourselves?)<\/p>\n

Nej, vi keder os aldrig\u2026<\/b> (No, we\u2019re never bored\u2026 \u2013 \u201dWe never bore ourselves.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Jeg ringer n\u00e5r jeg finder <\/b>den<\/b>\/<\/b>det<\/b>.<\/b> (I\u2019ll give you a call when I find it!)<\/p>\n

Hun ser <\/b>ham<\/b>, og han ser <\/b>hende<\/b>. <\/b>(She sees him, and he sees her.)<\/p>\n

Hun ser <\/b>sig<\/b> i spejlet.<\/b> (She sees herself in the mirror.<\/p>\n

Sig<\/b> points back to either han<\/b>, hun<\/b> or de<\/b>, and can be translated as \u201dherself\u201d, \u201dhimself\u201d, \u201dthemselves\u201d. But this is where you need to be careful! \ud83d\ude42 Because if you drop the phrase<\/p>\n

Hun ser hende i spejlet<\/b><\/p>\n

it means that she sees someone else in the mirror, like her friend standing nearby! This is a Danish oddity which will become even more tricky in the next post, where we\u2019ll look at possessive pronouns<\/i>! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Nothing speeds up communication like a good pronoun! \ud83d\ude42 Instead of having to repeat a personal name umpteen times, it\u2019s really great that once everybody agrees on a topic, \u201dyou\u201d can manage with a short \u201dI\u201d or \u201dshe\u201d. At first glance, Danish stedord (pronouns or \u201d[in]-place-[of something]-words\u201d) look a lot like the English ones: Jeg…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":1380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3359,238421,411789,411791],"class_list":["post-1379","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-pronoun","tag-reflexive-pronoun","tag-sig","tag-stedord"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t