Danish Language

[velvet_sky]

Hello there

Can anyone help me with some grammer of the Danish Language
Would really appreciate it! :]

[~~Pınar~~]

I would appriciate it too! I really want to learn that language..For now i just can sing some songs.But pretty difficult language...

[velvet_sky]

Hey, there
Nice that you want to learn it too, hehe Sooo I hope that someone will reply and give some help

[buttonlucho]

i am fluent in danish (my mom is danish) if u have specific questions u can ask me but i don't think i'd be a very good teacher otherwise. i can translate lyrics and letters, etc. hope this helps.

[~~Pınar~~]

Actually i dont think even if you can teach us somethings about danish it wouldnt be enough without pronounciations...But thank you for your help! I will try to learn it by the lyrics

[velvet_sky]

Well, without pronunciations it would be very hard, I agree But thanks for the reply
Still if anyone can teach us the language, with all the stuff... like alphabet, pronunciations, tenses and so on is very very welcomed

by the way ~~Pınar~~ can you suggest me some danish songs ?

[PlainChaos]

I'm willing to help you guys learn Danish grammar (even though it'd probably be a crime against humanity) Lol I don't understand why people wanna learn Danish at all I mean don't you think it sounds too rough?!

Anyways, personal opinions put aside, I think we should start with the pronouns.
Just ask in case there's something you don't understand

[PlainChaos]

Nominative

Singularis
1st person: jeg (I)
2nd person: du (or "De" which is the polite form, notice that it's written with a capital letter) (you)
3rd person: han, hun, den/det (he, she, it)

Ex. 1: Vil De (NB polite form) være så venlig at række mig smøret?
(Would you be so kind to pass me the butter?)
Ex. 2: Jeg er rask, han er syg. (I am well, he is ill.)

Pluralis
1st person: vi (we)
2nd person: I (or "De", polite form) (you)
3rd person: de (they)

Akkusative

Singularis
1st person: mig (me)
2nd person: dig (or "Dem", polite form) (you)
3rd person: ham, hende, den (det) (him, her, it)

Pluralis
1st person: os (us)
2nd person: jer (or "Dem", polite form) (you)
3rd person: dem (them)

Dative

Singularis
1st person: mig (me)
2nd person: dig (or "De", polite form) (you)
3rd person: ham, hende, den (det) (he, her, it)

Pluralis
1st person: os (us)
2nd person: jer (or "Dem", polite form) (you)
3rd person: dem (them)

[velvet_sky]

Hey PlainChaos thanks for the reply
I will read your post carefully and try to get all of the things

[velvet_sky]

I think it would be good if you put also the alphabet with the pronounce of the words

[~~Pınar~~]

PlainChaos! you are perfect! But i actually didnt understand whats akkusative or dative ????

[Zise_ti_zoi]

Why am I seeing that thread now?

@ velvet_sky Как се зариби да учиш Датски?

[velvet_sky]

Ами ми по една или друга причина направих темата за езика, защото и аз не знам... интересен ми се стори...
И все пак знам, че е доста труден език, надявам се да има някой, който може да ни обясни г/д нещата
А иначе ти нещо от езика разбираш ли ?

[panselinos]

Originally Posted by PlainChaos

I don't understand why people wanna learn Danish at all I mean don't you think it sounds too rough?!

No Northern Germanic language sounds rough. They are like music to my ears.

[PlainChaos]

Originally Posted by ~~Pınar~~

PlainChaos! you are perfect! But i actually didnt understand whats akkusative or dative ????

Accusative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accusative_case
Dative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dative_case

[PlainChaos]

How you pronounce the letters depends on which words they are used in.
Especially D and G quite often appear as silent letters, that is, that you either don't read them or pronounce them differently than normally.

A is not always pronounced the same.
Ex. 1 Appelsin (orange) here it's pronounced like the A in Apple.
Ex. 2 And (duck) here it's pronounced like the A in Amber.

NB: From now on let's say that the big A symbolizes the appelsin A (ex. 1) and the little a symbolizes the and A (ex. 2) to make it easier to explain pronounciation.

Although ex. 2 as might appear as capital letters (first letter of a word) (like in our example and) they appear more frequently in the middle of a word, unlike ex. 1 As, which also might appear in the middle of a word, but are more often to be seen as the capital letter. This is not an official rule, though. There might be exceptions.

B is pronounced the same way as in English.

C is pronounced like S.

D same as in English, but as mentioned before, D sometimes appears as a silent letter (except when it's used as the capitel letter).
Ex. 1 Danse (dance) here the D is pronounced like in English, because it's the capital letter.
Ex. 2 Led (mean, nasty) here the last letter is a silent D and it's pronounced like this [-ijd] (at least that's my best suggestion, it's difficult to explain foreigners how we really pronounce the silent Ds and Gs in Danish, but I'm trying to do my best).

E same as in English.

F same.

G might also appear as a silent letter, but when it's used as the capital letter it's pronounced the same way as in English.
Ex. 1 Gulerod (carot) notice the silent D (hence last letter). Here G is pronounced the same way as in English. [gullöroijd].
Ex. 2 Mening this is like in English meaning, the G is silent. Other examples: enig [e-nee] (agree), and words ending with -ning like roning (rowing), flytning (moving, relocation), also words ending with -ling like kylling (chicken). These silent Gs in Danish are actually pronounced the same way as with the silent Gs in English, e.g. ring, skying, flying, smoking, killing etc.

H same as in English.

I is pronounced like this [ee].

J is pronounced like the Y in English.

K same as in English.

L same.

M same.

N same.

O same.

P same.

Q same.

R might appear as a silent letter, just like in English, like in the word argument. But when it appears in verbs in present tense it's pronounced like [-Ah]. Ex: henter [hen-tAh] (bringing), spiser [spee-sAh] (eating), elsker [el-skAh] (loving) etc.

S same as in English.

T same.

U pronounced like [oo].

V same as in English.

W same, but rarely used in Danish.

X same, but rarely used.

Y pronounced like [ü].

Z like in English, but rarely used in Danish.

Æ is pronounced like in the first letter of the name Elizabeth.

Ø pronounced [ö].

Å is kinda pronounced like the English U or the O, it's somewhat like in the word understand, or over, or like in Osama lol.

[Zise_ti_zoi]

Originally Posted by velvet_sky

Ами ми по една или друга причина направих темата за езика, защото и аз не знам... интересен ми се стори...
И все пак знам, че е доста труден език, надявам се да има някой, който може да ни обясни г/д нещата
А иначе ти нещо от езика разбираш ли ?

Ами, не , всъщност не разбирам нищо от езика , но и аз като теб съм ентусиаст.

Thanks Plain mou for explaining so well.

[velvet_sky]

Soo let's continue Can you write some useful phrases and so on ?

[PlainChaos]

Like what? Idioms? or everyday speech?
Give me some examles and I'll tell you how we say it in Danish

[velvet_sky]

Yeah, everyday speech Like going to the shop, asking how to get to somewhere and so on also maybe some verbs and their conjuction in Present Simple at the beginning maybe

[PlainChaos]

Okay then

Hvor meget koster det? (How much does it cost?)
Verb used here is cost: koster (present tense) - kostede (past tense) - kostet (past participial)

pronounciation: [wo marget kos-tah dhe?]

Hvordan kommer jeg til [name of place/adress]? (How do I get to [...]?)

[wodan kommah yay til ...?]

Alternative: Hvor ligger [...]? (Where is [...]?)
Hvordan finder jeg [...]? (How do I find [...]?)

Verb come: kommer (present) - kom (past) - kommet (past participial)
Verb lie: ligger - lå - ligget
Verb find: finder - fandt - fundet

[velvet_sky]

thanks will learn that

one more thing, can you write the whole conjugation of some other verbs. Like do, eat, go and so on

[PlainChaos]

Yeah of course, you just come with examples/ideas, cause I'm totally blank atm!

When you say 'whole conjugation' you do mean the way I wrote it in my previous post, like with the present/past tense and so on, right?

(to) do = (at) gøre
Imperative/The stem of this word is: gør
gør - gjorde - gjort

Examples:
1) Det han gør, er forkert. (What he's doing is wrong.)
2) Gjorde det ondt? (Did it hurt?)
3) Hvad har du gjort? (What have you done?)

(to) make/do = (at) lave
The stem of this word is: lav
laver - lavede - lavet

Examples:
1) Hvad laver du? (What are you doing?) This is like saying what's up? In Danish we use this slang instead: hva'så?
2) Hun lavede en tegning i går. (She made a drawing yesterday.)
3) Han har lavet sine lektier. (He has done his homework.)

(to) eat = (at) spise
spiser - spiste - spist
The stem of this word is: spis

Examples:
1) Nu spiser vi dessert. (Now we're eating dessert.)
2) Hun spiste langsomt. (She ate slowly.)
3) Hvad har I spist i dag? (What have you eaten today?)
4) Spis dit mad! (Eat up your food!)

(to) go = (at) gå
The stem of this word is: gå
går - gik - gået

Examples:
1) Han besluttede sig for at gå en tur. (He decided to go for a walk.)
2) De gik hjem. (They went home.)
3) Hun er gået. (She has left).

(Also, in my previous post the verbs in present tense should end with -r, I accidentally wrote the infinitive form, my bad! )

NB: In the past participial form you'll always have either one of these verbs: være (to be), blive (stay, become) or have (to have) in front of the other verb, let's take some of the previous examples:

Hun er gået.
er is the present form of være.

But when the main verb is være, you're gonna use have/har in front of it and when it's blive you use være/er in front of it (remember, we're still talking past participial):

Hun har været syg. (She has been sick.)

Hun er blevet syg. (She has got sick).

And so on, I hope I have explained it well, otherwise you can just ask!

[PlainChaos]

There are the regular verbs and the irregular verbs.
The irregular verbs don't follow any definite pattern, but we have a rule with the regular verbs:

Present tense: stem of the verb + er
Past tense: stem of the verb + ede
Past participial: stem of the verb + et

At elske (to love) is a perfect example on a regular verb:

Imperative/stem: elsk

elsker - elskede - (har) elsket

Irregular verbs:

At være (to be)
Imperative/stem: vær
er - var - (the past participial form is har været)

At have (to have)
Imperative/stem: hav
har - havde - (the past participial form is har haft)

At blive (to become)
Imperative/stem: bliv
bliver - blev - (the past participial form is er blevet)

[velvet_sky]

ah thank you very much Now I will have to read all these things carefully
btw this At that's standing in front of the verbs you wrote, means the same to in Enligsh, right?
Also does it have the same meaning as to express direction?

And one more thing... is this right for the verb to do on Present Simple Tense
Jeg gore
Du gore
Han,Hun, Den gore

Vi gore
I gore
de gore

[PlainChaos]

You're very welcome!

And please feel free to ask questions when there's something you don't quite understand.
The more you ask, the more you learn, or as we say in Danish:

Der findes ingen dumme spørgsmål, kun dumme svar!
There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers!

Imagine if you guys really did learn Danish only by means of this page lol.
That would be so cool, I won't promise it's gonna happen, but I'mma do my best!

At means to, but it's not a preposition, so to answer your question, no it doesn't express direction, the word til is a preposition and it's the one that's used to express direction.

Examples on prepositions (called forholdsord in Danish):
På (on), om (about/of), ved (at), foran (ahead/in front), bagved (behind), under (under), med (with), i (in), til (to), over (over), imellem (between), for (for).

No dear, in the previous post, the conjugation of gøre was shown, and if you look at it carefully,
you'll see that it's gør in present tense:

(to) do = (at) gøre
Imperative/The stem of this word is: gør
gør - gjorde - gjort

But when you have a modal verb standing in front of the verb, then you add -e to the verb,
just like you did right before!

Ex. Jeg kan gøre.

Modal verbs:

kan (present) - kunne (past) - kunnet (past principial*) = can - could
skal - skulle - skullet = shall - should
må - måtte - måttet = may, might
bør - burde - burdet = should, ought to
vil - ville - villet = will - would

*The past principal form doesn't exist in English when you're dealing with the modal verbs, but it does exist in the Danish modal verbs, even though it's rarely used.

Ex. Han har kunnet spille klaver, da han var syv. (He could play the piano when he was seven).

You can't say he has could in English. First of all, that would just sound totally silly And second, you don't have the past principial form for the modal verbs in English at all, unlike Danish, where you can say han har kunnet.

[Sisii]

Hello Guys .
Im danish Too ,but PlainChaos Did an excellent job here, so i think i will let her about the grammar
but if you have specific phrases or sentences or lyrics or words or anything like that, i will be here . (:

[PlainChaos]

Originally Posted by Sisii

Hello Guys .
Im danish Too ,but PlainChaos Did an excellent job here, so i think i will let her about the grammar
but if you have specific phrases or sentences or lyrics or words or anything like that, i will be here . (:

Thank you canım
Du er meget velkommen til at give en hånd, er snart ved at løbe tør for gode ideer!

[velvet_sky]

Ok I have some questions

Originally Posted by PlainChaos

Dative

Singularis
1st person: Mig (Me)
2nd person: Dig (or "De", polite form) (You)
3rd person: Han, hende, den (det) (He, her, it)

Pluralis
1st person: Mig (Me)
2nd person: Dig (or "De", polite form) (You)
3rd person: Han, hende, den (det) (He, her, it)

here in the 3rd person you wrote that Han is He did you mean his sorry If I sound a bit stupid but as a beginner everything is very cloudy to me

Also what is the difference between hvor and hvordan? They both means how right? like I see in

Originally Posted by PlainChaos

Hvor meget koster det? (How much does it cost?)
Verb used here is cost: koste (present tense) - kostede (past tense) - kostet (past participial)

pronounciation: [wo marget kos-tah dhe?]

Hvordan kommer jeg til [name of place/adress]? (How do I get to [...]?)

[wodan kommah yay til ...?]

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...

and also: 2) Gjorde det ondt? (Did it hurt?)
here you used "det" for "it"... but your previous post you wrote that "it" is also "den" .. when should I use den and when det


and how is "yes" and "no"

[PlainChaos]

here in the 3rd person you wrote that Han is He did you mean his sorry If I sound a bit stupid but as a beginner everything is very cloudy to me

Hehe that's okay, I totally understand!
No, it's not his, but he (and btw, it was supposed to be ham and not han, typing mistake sorry).
Here's an example to show you how it works:

Lene købte ham en kage.
Lene bought him a cake.

In Danish we call:

Nominative (subject) = Grundled (x cross)
Akkusative (direct object) = Genstandsled (∆ triangle)
Dative (indirect object) = Hensynsled (□ square)

In Danish syntax the verb is called udsagnsled and it's marked with a circle o.

So let's analyze the above sentence:

Lene (subject x) købte (verb o) ham (indirect object □) en kage (direct object ∆).

To find out what's what in this sentence we simply ask:

- Who? (subject x) Lene
- Did what? (verb o) købte (bought)
- Bought what? (direct object ∆) en kage (a cake)
- To whom? (indirect object □) ham (to him, notice: in Danish you don't have to say til ham, it's sufficient just to use the dative form, ham in this case.

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

Also what is the difference between hvor and hvordan? They both means how right? like I see in

Normally hvor means where, and hvordan means how, but when we're talking about amounts of something, then we use hvor, you don't say hvordan meget when asking how much, but hvor meget.

and also: 2) Gjorde det ondt? (Did it hurt?)
here you used "det" for "it"... but your previous post you wrote that "it" is also "den" .. when should I use den and when det

Damn, I knew you would ask that sooner or later
That's probably one of the most difficult things in Danish grammar, when do we use det and den or et and en?

Well, I don't think there's any rule actually, but when you're e.g. talking about the weather (it's raining) then we normally use det (det regner) and also when describing something (that sounds great! det lyder godt!) otherwise it's kinda hard to tell when you're exactly gonna use which form, usually when we're dealing with higher living beings (like humans) we use den:

Ex. 1) En pige (a girl), den pige (that girl), pigen (the girl).
Ex. 2) Et dyr (an animal), det dyr (that animal), dyret (the animal).
Ex. 3) Et hus (a house), det hus (that house), huset (the house).