{"id":1788,"date":"2019-02-28T23:41:34","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T23:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=1788"},"modified":"2019-03-01T01:12:10","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T01:12:10","slug":"head-knee-toe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2019\/02\/28\/head-knee-toe\/","title":{"rendered":"Head, knee, toe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Pixabay License<\/a>.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Without a physical body, learning Danish would be kind of hard. Not only do we use our tongue and lips to pronounce words \u2013 we also use our lunger<\/strong> (lungs) to breathe while we speak, our ears to listen, our hands to explain stuff\u2026 Let\u2019s look at kroppen<\/strong> (the body).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a nice children\u2019s song about the body that you might already know in English. The Danish version goes: Hoved, skulder, kn\u00e6 og t\u00e5, kn\u00e6 og t\u00e5. Hoved, skulder, kn\u00e6 og t\u00e5. \u00d8je, \u00f8re, n\u00e6se og mund. Hoved, skulder, kn\u00e6 og t\u00e5. <\/strong>(Head, shoulder, knee and toe\u2026 Eye, ear, nose and mouth\u2026)<\/p>\n

As you can see, Danish words for kropsdele<\/strong> (body parts) are very similar to the English ones. Quite a number of body words have special plurals:<\/p>\n

fod \u2013 f\u00f8dder<\/strong> (foot \u2013 feet)<\/p>\n

t\u00e5 \u2013 t\u00e6er<\/strong> (toe\/s)<\/p>\n

h\u00e5nd \u2013 h\u00e6nder<\/strong> (hand\/s)<\/p>\n

tand \u2013 t\u00e6nder<\/strong> (tooth \u2013 teeth)<\/p>\n

\u00f8je \u2013 \u00f8jne<\/strong> (eye\/s)<\/p>\n

A few don\u2019t even change in the plural: ben, kn\u00e6, l\u00e5r, h\u00e5r, n\u00e6sebor, \u00f8jenbryn, \u00f8jenl\u00e5g <\/strong>(leg\/s, knee\/s, thigh\/s, hair\/s, nostrils, eyebrow\/s, eyelid\/s).<\/p>\n

On the back side we\u2019ve got a ryg<\/strong> (back) and a numse<\/strong> (butt). On the front side we\u2019ve got a hals<\/strong> (neck), a mave<\/strong> (belly), a navle<\/strong> (navel) and a bryst<\/strong> (chest or breast \u2013 the plural bryster<\/strong> is used as in English). Of course there are also other bits, which I\u2019m sure you can find in a dictionary\u2026<\/p>\n

On the sides of the body we\u2019ve got arme<\/strong> (arms) with albuer<\/strong>, h\u00e5ndled, fingre og negle<\/strong> (elbows, wrists, fingers and nails). In ansigtet<\/strong> (the face) we\u2019ve got kinder, hage, l\u00e6ber, tunge, pande<\/strong> (cheeks, chin, lips, tongue, forehead) \u2013 eventually a sk\u00e6g<\/strong> (beard). And all over the body we\u2019ve got hud<\/strong> [hooth] (skin).<\/p>\n

Well, I hope reading this didn\u2019t give you rynker i panden<\/strong> (\u201dwrinkles in the forehead\u201d) \u2013 or that you now har ondt i hovedet<\/strong> (have pain in the head = have a headache). Stay healthy and happy language learning! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n