Saturday, October 28, 2006

Words you should know in my country : Denmark

"Hej" is pronounced like hi and is used for saying hello - "Hej" and good bye - "Hej hej". Along with "Tak" for thank you and a smile you should now be ready to meet the Danes. Simple, right?


Photo by: AllWork

The Danish language is said to be one of the more difficult to learn and close to impossible to master for non-natives, but hey, on with lecture.

Next sentence is "Jeg vil gerne have to øl" (I would like two beers). I wont try to transcribe this phonetically because I have no idea of how to do that. To celebrate the new acquisition of liquid a loud and firm "Skål" (cheers) is appropriate.

After having exchanged the previous line a couple of times along with some hejs and taks you might need to ask "Hvor er toilettet?" to go relieve yourself.

To take your Danish vocabulary further into the night I refer to ThePrint who has done a very nice job with his recorded Danish Lessons - Learn how to say:


My Swedish friends say Danish sounds like a drunken Swede, some claim that Danish sounds harsh and rusty and others say we speak like we have a potato in our mouth. I will let you be the judge. But before you give your verdict try and say this Danish tongue twister "Rødgrød med fløde" (Red pudding with creme) here is a video of attempts made by a Swede, Irish and American:


6 Comments:

Blogger cole edwards said...

I love your phrases. Very handy. Especially the shaved balls. I can ask for 2 beers, please in french and spanish. Now in your lanuage. Yea.

Very funny.

welcome.

8:07 PM  
Blogger Clare said...

I travelled round Africa in a group that included four Danes. They taught us to say Skål -- and they were very strict about us looking into each other's eyes as we said it.

10:37 PM  
Blogger Jock said...

Hey...

I think "hej" is hi in polish too!

11:20 PM  
Blogger Aurora said...

Hej :) I have to say that my favourite danish word is piskeflöde!!! "Piska" in swedish is whip, as you might know :) I can see myself with a whip à la Indiana Jones whipping the cream up ;)

9:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for linking to some of my phrases. I always hope someone might find a use for them - and tell me about it!

3:13 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Im still trying to say that thing.. hehe

5:37 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home