{"id":1479,"date":"2016-10-31T23:55:59","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T23:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=1479"},"modified":"2016-11-01T02:03:09","modified_gmt":"2016-11-01T02:03:09","slug":"false-friends-in-danish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2016\/10\/31\/false-friends-in-danish\/","title":{"rendered":"False Friends in Danish"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"There\u2019s

There\u2019s nothing wrong with this sign\u2026 (Photo courtesy of Banalities at Flickr<\/a>, CC License.)<\/p><\/div>\n

I always tell English-speakers that Danish is easy \u2013 except the pronunciation. Both English and Danish are Germanic languages, and with Nords\u00f8en<\/strong> as the only natural barrier\u00a0between England and Denmark, the two languages are much closer to each other than you\u2019d think. Recently, Danish has also \u201dswallowed\u201d a lot of English words, making the linguistic similarity even greater. This situation creates a lot of falske venner<\/b> (false friends). Here are some words and expressions to keep in mind when speaking Danish\u2026<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Gift<\/b> means \u201dpoison\u201d in Danish. It can also mean \u201dmarried\u201d, as in Er du gift?<\/b> (Are you married?)<\/li>\n
  2. Bad<\/b> is \u201dbath\u201d or \u201dshower\u201d, as in Jeg tager lige et bad.<\/b> (I\u2019ll just take a shower).<\/li>\n
  3. Mad<\/b> means \u201dfood\u201d. \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n
  4. Fire <\/b>means \u201dfour\u201d.<\/li>\n
  5. There\u2019s nothing wrong with signs showing the word fart\u00a0<\/b>= \u201dspeed\u201d.<\/li>\n
  6. There\u2019s also nothing wrong with signage containing the word slut<\/b> (finish), as in slutspurt<\/b> (\u201dfinal run\u201d sales).<\/li>\n
  7. The word pige<\/b> (girl) has nothing to do with swine\u2026<\/li>\n
  8. A time <\/b>is an hour.<\/li>\n
  9. Sky<\/b> means \u201dcloud\u201d. It can also mean \u201dtimid\u201d, as in Hun er meget sky<\/b> (She\u2019s very timid).<\/li>\n
  10. You are probably already aware that there is no religious content in the saying God weekend!<\/b> (Wishing you a good\/happy weekend!)<\/li>\n
  11. If you happen to find a huge red book with the promising title Danmarks love<\/b>, I\u2019m afraid you won\u2019t find much romance in there\u2026 It means \u201dLaws of Denmark\u201d.<\/li>\n
  12. If a fierce Viking gives you a hug<\/b>, you\u2019ll probably die. Because he\u2019ll probably be using an axe or a sword to give you said stroke\/blow.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Do you know any false friends I haven\u2019t listed here? Have you got any fun stories about misunderstanding things in Denmark? Please share with the other readers in the comments section. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

    I always tell English-speakers that Danish is easy \u2013 except the pronunciation. Both English and Danish are Germanic languages, and with Nords\u00f8en as the only natural barrier\u00a0between England and Denmark, the two languages are much closer to each other than you\u2019d think. Recently, Danish has also \u201dswallowed\u201d a lot of English words, making the linguistic…<\/p>\n

    Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":1480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[930,264,468377,468378,468379],"class_list":["post-1479","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-english","tag-false-friends","tag-germanic-languages","tag-nordsoen","tag-the-north-sea"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1481,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions\/1481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}