{"id":1669,"date":"2018-02-28T23:52:32","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T23:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=1669"},"modified":"2018-03-01T01:20:31","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T01:20:31","slug":"danish-for-a-non-dane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2018\/02\/28\/danish-for-a-non-dane\/","title":{"rendered":"Danish for a Non-Dane"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

A scene from Hvidovre<\/strong> (\u2248 VEEth-owr-uh): Danish pronunciation is tricky! (Free photo from Pixabay; no copyright.)<\/p><\/div>\n

A while ago a British guy in Denmark, Barnaby, kindly sent me his thoughts about learning Danish as a foreigner. Although I didn\u2019t actually interview him, I\u2019ve tweaked his most important points into an interview\u2019ish text in order to make it more readable.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s tricky about learning Danish?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Phrasal verbs are tricky. Why does \u201dJeg kan godt lide<\/b>\u201d <\/b>mean \u201dI like\u201d? It should<\/em> mean \u201dI can well suffer\u201d\u2026 And \u201dHvad er i vejen?<\/b>\u201d means \u201dWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d rather than \u201dWhat\u2019s in the way?\u201d \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

If you add a preposition, you can entirely change the meaning of something: t\u00f8rre af<\/b> means \u201dto wipe\u201d, not \u201ddry off\u201d. It\u2019s not too hard, but it\u2019s weird.<\/p>\n

Danes often say things like \u201dDet er det.\u201d <\/b>and \u201dDet ved jeg godt.<\/b>\u201d The additional \u201ddet<\/b>\u201d and \u201dgodt<\/b>\u201d would be strange in most languages (this is taught by repeated drilling).<\/p>\n

Pronunciation is a pain: Hvidovre<\/b>. No more needs to be said.<\/p>\n

Spelling from hearing is exceptionally <\/i>hard. The slight differences between sounds are very hard to hear: Meget mad med kartofler.<\/b><\/p>\n