Danish Language

[PlainChaos]

also can you write down how is in Danish where, why, when, how, this, that, over there, now, then, yesterday, today, tomorrow, slow, fast and so on...

Where = Hvor
Why = Hvorfor
When = Hvornår
How = Hvordan
What = Hvad
Who = Hverm
Which = Hvilke (pl.), hvilket* (sing.), hvilken* (sing.)

*Just like with det and den, this depends on the gender of the word that comes right after.

Hvilket hus bor du i?
Which house do you live in?

Hvilken pige er din søster?
Which girl is your sister?

In Danish we have two genders: fælleskøn (common gender) and intetkøn (neutrum).
With words of the common gender we use the indefinite article en, while with the neutrum we use et.

This = Dette/denne (see the above explanation).
That = Det/den, sometimes you can choose to add der, like this: den der.
Over there = Derover
Now = Nu
Then (back then, in those days) = Dengang
Yesterday = I går
Today = I dag
Tomorrow = I morgen
Slow = Langsom
Fast = Hurtig
Yes = Ja
No = Nej
And so on = Og så videre

[Sisii]

det er altså også svært at lærer andre sprog synes jeg, godt jeg ikke skal være lærer (: men hvis jeg kommer på noget skal jeg nok skrive her, eller hvis der er noget jeg kan svarer på såå skal jeg nok os hjælpe (: Sorry Guys but its a lot easier to talk in danish when we both a from denmark, we just talked about how we should learn you guys this difficult language .. (:

[PlainChaos]

That sounds great, and yeah, I'm glad I won't be a teacher either, though it's kinda fun!
Actually, I've always been good with languages, and I really like tutoring people, but it takes a lot of patience, and tbh I don't think I'd be able to handle a whole class of students lol.

[Sisii]

If someone maybe have a flirt in denmark or gonna have i will help you a little with this
whats your name - hvad hedder du
how old are you - hvor gammel er du
where do you come from - hvor kommer du fra
where do you live - hvor bor du
do you have any sisters - Har du nogen søskende
how old are he/she/they - hvor gammel/gammel/gamle han/hun/de
I love you - Jeg elsker dig
I love you too - Jeg elsker også dig
I miss you - Jeg savner dig
Im gonna miss you - jeg vil savne dig
My Life - mit liv
you look very nice - du ser rigtig godt ud

[PlainChaos]

lol god idé

[velvet_sky]

Originally Posted by PlainChaos

Here's a little task for you, so how would you say: Lene bought me a cake?

well, let's see if I am right should it be: Lene købte Mig en kage.

about hvor... so it's hvor meger for how much, but this is used only when we ask about amount, in the others cases we use just hvor for where, and hvordan for how? like when you say how are you, we will use hvordan, right?

den and det:
soo I use det only for humans, otherwise with subjects and actions I use den, did I get it right?


for now I think I don't have any questions, but tomorrow when I read your posts again I may ask something more, hehe

ahmm also, if it's not a problem can you please edit the posts where you made a typing mistake, 'cause when I read again the post I may forget that you said that it's otherwise really really thanks for all your help, I really do appreciate it!

[PlainChaos]

well, let's see if I am right should it be: Lene købte Mig en kage.

Thumbs up, that's correct!

about hvor... so it's hvor meger for how much, but this is used only when we ask about amount, in the others cases we use just hvor for where, and hvordan for how? like when you say how are you, we will use hvordan, right?

Exactly!

den and det:
soo I use det only for humans, otherwise with subjects and actions I use den, did I get it right?

No, not really. It's the other way round, like I said previously:
when we're dealing with higher living beings (like humans) we use den

for now I think I don't have any questions, but tomorrow when I read your posts again I may ask something more, hehe

Bring it on And it's really no big deal, I'm just glad I can help

ahmm also, if it's not a problem can you please edit the posts where you made a typing mistake, 'cause when I read again the post I may forget that you said that it's otherwise

I was actually also gonna do that, I just got totally distracted (because of someone ) and forgot all about it sorry But no problem, it'll be done byyyy... now!

[Sisii]

hehe skal nok gøre mit bedste , men synes det er svært at lærer andre sprog , især når det er et sprog man i forvejen selv har svært ved dansk er nok ikke lige det nemmeste sprog .. men nu når de vil lærer det må vi jo gøre vores bedste hehe .. i know its really disturbing when someone talk a language that you dont understand soo , i wanna tell you guys .. Me and PlainChaos just talked about how difficult it is to learn other peoble a language that is so difficult that you barely even understand it yourself But anyways we will do our best ...

[velvet_sky]

Hey PlainChaos thanks a lot

so here I have a question.
Well as you said in past participle we always have to use one of the three verbs (have, to be, stay) and you said when we have a main verb vere we use have/har, when we have blive we use vere/er... but when the main verb is have/har what should I use ? vere or blive? and also when the main verb is different from those, how can I find out which of these three to put in front of them

~ Can you write how is my, your, his, her, their, its, our
also good, wrong

[PlainChaos]

Originally Posted by velvet_sky

Well as you said in past participle we always have to use one of the three verbs (have, to be, stay) and you said when we have a main verb vere we use have/har, when we have blive we use vere/er...

Yup, that's right!

but when the main verb is have/har what should I use ? vere or blive?

That's a good question, the answer is none of them! I know this might sound strange (and yes Danish really is a weird language), but we use have in front of have in past principial.

The conjugation of the verb have looks like this:

Present: har
Past: havde
Past principial: har haft

and also when the main verb is different from those, how can I find out which of these three to put in front of them

Well, this is the hard part of it, there's no rule or anything, but we mainly use har, some verbs are irregular and cause a lot of trouble, but when you're in doubt I'd say you should just use har.

~ Can you write how is my, your, his, her, their, its, our
also good, wrong

Yup, those are the possessive pronouns, we're gonna take them next

Good! = Godt!
Wrong = Forkert

[PlainChaos]

I was gonna put it in a table/diagram like I did before with the personal pronouns, but I guess it'll be easier if we just leave out all the grammatic words, so here's a list:

Min/mit, (this is like den/det controled by the noun that comes right after), mine (pluralis) = mine
Din/dit, dine (pl.) = yours
Hans = his
Hendes = her
Dens = its
Dets = its
Vores = our
Jeres = yours (pl.)
Deres = theirs

[velvet_sky]

Thanks once again
with the table/diagram is more easier I think but here I will try to sort them as your first post with the personal pronouns

Possesive Pronouns

Singularis
1st person: Min/mit (mine)
mine (plurals) -mine
2nd person: din, dit (yours)
dine (plurals) - yours
3rd person: Hans, Hendes, Dens/Dets (his, her, its)

Pluralis
1st person: Vores (our)
2nd person: Jeres (yours)
3rd person: Deres (theirs)

[PlainChaos]

That looks great, thank you. And no prob, det var så lidt (=you're welcome).

[velvet_sky]

sooo tomorrow I will try to write some sentances with the verbs you gave me and will post it here for corrections
if you have any ideas for exrcises it would be great!

aahh and can you write here some other verbs like drink, walk, jump, talk, listen.. so on

[PlainChaos]

You're a diligent student! Hehe I'm looking forward to see that!

Yeah, of course I will:

At drikke
To drink
drikker - drak - har drukket

At gå
To walk
går - gik - har gået

At hoppe
To jump
hopper - hoppede - har hoppet

At tale
To talk
taler - talte - har talt

At lytte
To listen
lytter - lyttede - har lyttet

[velvet_sky]

Soo here I am again

first I will write the sentances that I wrote yesterday (I have a notebook made only from this topic, hehe )

1) Jeg gor min lektier.
2) Jeg kommer med ham.
3) Hun har fundet Appelsin.
4) Det koster 39 Euros.
5) Vi elsker chocolate ( I don't know how is chocolate in Danish )
6) De spiste I gar i os. ( ahm that sentace I wanted to mean like this: Yesterday they ate in us *in our home* , but I am pretty shure it's written wrong )
7) Du gar foran.

and I have a question about the sentances. What is the rule for making sentances, I mean the structure?

1) Han besluttede sig for at gå en tur. (He decided to go for a walk.)

ahm here I see that at ga is after for and If I translate it directly in Enliglish it will look: He decided for to go a walk so what's the structure of a sentance, which have to be first?

* and also what's sig

and did I write correct the verb decide (beslutte)

beslutter(present tensen) - besluttede (past) - besluttetet (past participle)


and one more question, I have bought a phrase-book in Danish. And as I was reading it, I saw this:
en bog (a book)
et hus (a house)
en by (town)
et arbejde (a job)
and I was wondering why the book is with en when it's not a human

sorry for being too long

[velvet_sky]

thanks for the verbs you gave me
and can you write how is apple, strawberry, milk, water, sandwich, cherry, sweet, salt, sour, bitter, pet, pen, pencil, shirt, dress, trousers, pants

and other verbs: kiss, write, see, look, sit



edit: is this correct about the stems of the verbs your wrote
to drink = at drikke stem: drikk
to walk = at ga stem: ga (btw I see that to walk is the same as to go, is it the only word for walk? )
to jump = at hoppe stem: hopp
to talk = at tale stem: tal
to listen = at lytte stem: lytt

and also

At tale
To talk
taler - talte - har talt

shouldn't it be the form of the verb in past tence taltede and taltet

Edit again

Gjorde det ondt? (Did it hurt?)

ondt is hurt, right?
so is this correct:
ondter - ondt - ondtet

[PlainChaos]

First of all I've gotta say that you really impressed me this time, what a diligent student you are,
you'll learn Danish in no time!

I just noticed you don't have Danish keys on your keyboard (what a surprise, huh? )
so here's how you write them using normal letters:

æ = ae
ø = oe
å = aa

1) Jeg gør min lektier.

Here you should use the verb "at lave" (to make) instead, I know that in English you can both say "do homework" and "make homework", but in Danish you can only say "lave lektier" and not "gør lektier", that would be literally wrong.

2) Jeg kommer med ham.

Well done! If you said "Jeg kommer sammen (together) med ham" it would have a totally different meaning = I'm dating (going out with) him lol.

3) Hun har fundet Appelsin.

She has found an orange? or the orange? Depending on what you wanted to say, you should either put an en before it (en appelsin an orange) or en behind it (appelsinen, with no space).

4) Det koster 39 Euros.

Great job.

5) Vi elsker chocolate ( I don't know how is chocolate in Danish )

Great job again! It's chokolade.

6) De spiste I gar i os. ( ahm that sentace I wanted to mean like this: Yesterday they ate in us *in our home*, but I am pretty shure it's written wrong

Here we'd say "hos os" and not "i os". We normally always say "hjemme hos" when you're visiting someone's homes and so on, you know what I mean, but it's also okay just to say "hos".

And here's an important thing about Danish syntax, you either put the date (indication of time) in the very beginning of the sentence or in the end. The place (where? hos os) always have first priority, it comes before the indication of time (when? i går, yesterday).
But when the date is put in the beginning, the place comes afterwards; I går (date at the beginning of sentence) spiste de (hjemme) hos os (place comes after). De spiste hjemme hos os (place first) i går (time/date afterwards).

7) Du gar foran.

You go first? or you go in the front? Depending on which one you meant;
1) Du går først. 2) Du går forrest.

and I have a question about the sentances. What is the rule for making sentances, I mean the structure?

It's like in English; first you have the subject x, then the verb o, then the indirect object □ (if there is one) and then the direct object ∆.

sig is a reflexive pronoun that refers back to the subject in the sentence (ex. han slog sig he hurt himself here sig refers back to han. hun kom til sig selv she came to herself here sig refers back to hun. de ærgrede sig they were annoyed and so on).

The possesive pronoun sin (sit - sine) is also used as a reflexive pronoun (refering back) ex. han slog sit hoved he hurt his head.

ahm here I see that at ga is after for and If I translate it directly in Enliglish it will look: He decided for to go a walk so what's the structure of a sentance, which have to be first?

That's because for also means "to" or "cause of" in Danish.

and did I write correct the verb decide (beslutte)

beslutter(present tensen) - besluttede (past) - besluttetet (past participle)

Yup, only wrong thing is the past principial, remember: stem + et
The stem of beslutte is beslut, and with the past principial sufix added it'll be like this: besluttet, notice that some words get an extra consonant when they're conjugated, besluttet.

and I was wondering why the book is with en when it's not a human

Well, as I said, there's no rule to this, I can't tell why and when we use the et and en, most often en is used for higher living beings, yes, but sometimes as you see it can also be used for books, this is something that takes a lot of practise, the more nouns you study and memorize, the faster you'll learn it.

[PlainChaos]

An apple: et æble
Two apples: to æbler
The apple: æblet
The apples: æblerne

A strawberry: et jordbær
Two strawberries: to jordbær
The strawberry: jordbæret
The strawberries: jordbærerne

A sandwich: en sandwich
Two sandwiches: to sandwich/sandwicher
The sandwich: sandwichen
The sandwiches: sandwicherne

A pet: et kæledyr
Two pets: to kæledyr
The pet: kæledyret
The pets: kæledyrene

A pen: en pen
Two pens: to penne
The pen: pennen
The pens: pennene

A pencil: en blyant
Two pencils: to blyanter
The pencil: blyanten
The pencils: blyanterne

A shirt: en bluse
Two shirts: to bluser
The shirt: blusen
The shirts: bluserne

A dress: en kjole
Two dresses: to kjoler
The dress: kjolen
The dresses: kjolerne

These cannot be conjugated:

Water: vand
Milk: mælk
Sweet: sød/sødt (søde pl.)
Salty: saltet
Sour: sur/surt (sure pl.)
Bitter: bitter/bittert (bitre pl.)
Trousers: bukser
Pants: underbukser

At kysse
To kiss
kysser - kyssede - har kysset

At skrive
To write
skriver - skrev - har skrevet

At se
To see
ser - så - har set

At kigge
To look
kigger - kiggede - har kigget

At sidde
To sit
sidder - sad - har siddet

edit: is this correct about the stems of the verbs your wrote
to drink = at drikke stem: drikk
to walk = at ga stem: ga (btw I see that to walk is the same as to go, is it the only word for walk? )
to jump = at hoppe stem: hopp
to talk = at tale stem: tal
to listen = at lytte stem: lytt

A verb in Danish never ends with two consonants in the stem, the extra consonant is added in the conjugations. So the correct answers are: drik, gå (yes it's the only word), hop, tal, lyt.

and also shouldn't it be the form of the verb in past tence taltede and taltet

No, tale is an irregular verb, and don't follow the rules.

ondt is hurt, right?
so is this correct:
ondter - ondt - ondtet

Ond means evil, but when you wanna say "it hurts", den jo say "det gør ondt", you conjugate gøre and not ondt, det gjorde ondt, det har gjort ondt.

[velvet_sky]

Hey thanks for the compliment and you're very good teacher!

thanks for showing me how to write the letters with normal keys, hehe
thanks also for the verbs and the words you listed ;D

soo here are questions again:

I går (date at the beginning of sentence) spiste de (hjemme) hos os (place comes after).

I see you wrote de after spiste, the nominative pronoun always have to after the verb?

You go first? or you go in the front? Depending on which one you meant;
1) Du går først. 2) Du går forrest.

ahm I wanted to mean "you go ahead" or "go ahead"
and in front is "foran" right, why you used "forrest"

sig is a reflexive pronoun that refers back to the subject in the sentence (ex. han slog sig he hurt himself here sig refers back to han. hun kom til sig selv she came to herself here sig refers back to hun. de ærgrede sig they were annoyed and so on).

The possesive pronoun sin (sit - sine) is also used as a reflexive pronoun (refering back) ex. han slog sit hoved he hurt his head.

so whenever I want to write himself, herself, itself and so on I should use sig? and this sit when it's reflexive pronouin too, how to know which to use ? or it's again on memorizing

*here is too late and I feel so sleepy now, so I will go to sleep, tomorrow I will write my questions about your last post with the verbs

[velvet_sky]

Hi again

first wanna ask about the stems of the verbs again:
At kysse - to kiss stem: kys
At skrive - to write stem: skrev
At se - to see stem: se, or saa
At kigge - to look stem: kig
At sidde - to sit stem: sid

=========

Quote:
and also shouldn't it be the form of the verb in past tence taltede and taltet

No, tale is an irregular verb, and don't follow the rules.

ahaam, so It's like in English, I should remember the three form of the irregular verbs
maybe you could give some other irregular verbs

also can you write the numbers

[PlainChaos]

Thank you, I'm honored

I see you wrote de after spiste, the nominative pronoun always have to after the verb?

No, the verb normally comes after the subject (or pronoun), but in this case the verb gotta be first, because we chose to place the time/date (i går) at the beginning of the sentence.

ahm I wanted to mean "you go ahead" or "go ahead"
and in front is "foran" right, why you used "forrest"

Because foran means in front of something (ex. a bulding), it can't be used in this context.

so whenever I want to write himself, herself, itself and so on I should use sig? and this sit when it's reflexive pronouin too, how to know which to use ? or it's again on memorizing

You should use sig selv sit is just like det, ex. you don't say sin hus, but sit hus, because hus is neutrum (hence et hus, det hus, huset etc.)

Correct answers:
At kysse - to kiss stem: kys
At skrive - to write stem: skriv
At se - to see stem: se
At kigge - to look stem: kig
At sidde - to sit stem: sid

ahaam, so It's like in English, I should remember the three form of the irregular verbs
maybe you could give some other irregular verbs

Exactly Check out this web site, there's a lot of irregular verbs you can start memorize (good luck btw ) http://www.geocities.com/tsca.geo/dansk/dkirrverbs.html

also can you write the numbers

http://www.olestig.dk/dansk/numbers.html

[velvet_sky]

Thanks a lot!

[Lyndsie]

This is a fantastic thread, the only Danish I know is from Nik & Jay songs, ie, not a lot.

My only question thus far {I need to give this thread a better read through}, can you explain ikke?
Mostly just placement--does it go before or after the word/verb you are trying to negate?
Oh, and also the difference between jeg er and jeg', and things of that nature, I'm assuming it's a contraction, so could you go a bit in-depth with the difference between Danish and English contractions?

Thanks so much!

[PlainChaos]

Glad to have you join us

Ikke is always put before the verb, there's some exceptions in poetry etc., though.

Well, as you already said jeg' is a contraction of jeg er.
You can also say du' (you're) det' (it's) vi' (we're) I' (you're, pl.) de' (they're), but of some reason we won't contract han er (he's) and hun er (she's) in Danish. The apostrophe is not necessary at all, in fact, these contractions are only used in daily speech (or in songs etc), normally in written lang. and so on you'd never make contractions like these, this also applies to the examples below:

ka' (kan) can
ku' (kunne) could

ska' (skal) shall
sku' (skulle) should

ha' (hav) have
Ex. Ha' en god dag. Have a nice day.

go' (god) good
Ex. Go' aften. Good evening.

hva' (hvad) what
Ex. hva' så? what's up?

These were some of the most frequently used contractions in daily speech.

[Lyndsie]

Okay, thank you, that's extremely helpful!

I'm hopefully going to Denmark through school in 2012 so I'm trying to get a headstart on learning the language a little bit so I don't make a complete fool of myself when I arrive, haha.

[panselinos]

I made this thread sticky, so it won't move from the top when new threads are created. Keep up the good work, guys!

[PlainChaos]

Thx panselinos what a great idea yay

Originally Posted by Lyndsie

Okay, thank you, that's extremely helpful!

I'm hopefully going to Denmark through school in 2012 so I'm trying to get a headstart on learning the language a little bit so I don't make a complete fool of myself when I arrive, haha.

You're welcome

That's so cool, and don't worry you're already doing great

[Lyndsie]

Another question--what's the difference between ikk and ikke?
I notice both forms when looking at lyrics...is it a bit like color and colour?

And could you maybe list some polite phrases/words, for example;
Thank you.
Please.
May I...?
You are welcome.
and things of that nature? Other ones are escaping me at the moment but you may think of others I forgot..

Oh, and also, salutations, like;
Mr.
Mrs.
Ms.
sir
ma'am

Thanks.

[PlainChaos]

Originally Posted by Lyndsie

Another question--what's the difference between ikk and ikke?
I notice both forms when looking at lyrics...is it a bit like color and colour?

Not exactly; ikk is just informal language, like e.g. when you write to your friends etc.

Thank you = Tak (skal du have)
Thank you so much = Tusind tak
Thank you, the same to you = Tak i lige måde (informal contraction = ilm)
Thank you for a lovely evening = Tak for i aften
Thank you for today = Tak for i dag
Thank you for yesterday = Tak for i går
Thanks for helping = Tak for hjælpen
Please = Kom nu or vil du ikke nok? or vær nu sød, you could also just say please
May I...? = Med forlov
You are welcome = Det var så lidt or selv tak
See you = Vi ses
Take care of yourself = Pas godt på dig selv
Send my regards to [name] = Hils [name]
Good morning = God morgen
Good afternoon = God eftermiddag
Good evening = God aften
Goodnight = Godnat

Mr. and sir = Hr. (herre)
Mrs. and ma'am = Fru
Ms. = Frk. (frøken)

I can't really think of anything else right now, but I hope those will help you