Learn Danish With Emi

Hi Anon! Thank you kindly for sharing this story! It definitely brought a smile to MY face! And I am very happy to hear that you enjoyed the tips.

Interchanging words as a polyglot is definitely a thing. I do the same with Danish/English all the time without even realizing 😂 As you progess in your language-learning journey you might even experience, if not already, having dreams in Danish (I have tried this with other languages. It’s crazy, even though it was probably gibberish, haha).

Hi!

I believe that vocabulary expands as you get exposed to Danish. When you decide to read a book, watch a video, listen to audio, write text (e.g. a Danish diary) or chat with friends, you will come across words you don’t know and words you want to know. 

You might not remember a word the first time you see it but if the word is common enough, you will see it plenty of times and eventually it will stick!

For translation you can use:

(free) Google Translate - although a common belief is that it’s not always reliable

(free) bab.la

(paid) Gyldendals Røde Ordbøger - we used this in school when taught English and German. It has a lot of dictionaries to/from Danish from/to English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, etc.

You could also find vocabulary lists and study those. I have a few on my page. I’ve also seen some in the wild on Tumblr and on the internet. Maybe I should get around to make some more vocabulary lists. What do you think? :)

Check out this lesson at danishwithemi.com

Not long ago I was asked about advice on how to learn Danish. I figured that getting started or figuring out how to get started can sometimes be hard. Either there’s too many options to pick from (usually when it comes to textbooks) or there’s too little. This guide is supposed to help you figure out the best way for you to learn Danish.

1. Old School Textbook Cool

You could start out by getting a hold of a textbook. There’s a bunch on Amazon if you search “learn Danish”. Or you could read my free lessons at https://danishwithemi.tumblr.com/ or https://danishwithemi.com/. Either options are a great way to learn the grammar.

2. App: Duolingo

A lot of people love Duolingo and it has a Danish course. What’s nice about Duolingo is that it’s not too text-heavy, so it’s easy to get started and built a good habit. And it has gamification, if you enjoy that!

3. Talking about habits..

.. building a habit is key! Set yourself up to success by creating an environment where it’s easy to get started on studying like:

having a textbook/notebook out on your table or carry it around with you

have study apps on your homescreen, so you see them whenever you unlock your phone

always have a website open when on your computer so that you can easily click on the tab and start studying. Even if it’s just one word!

set a time during the day where you want to study. Mornings before school/work/university works for me

4. App: HelloTalk

The app “HelloTalk” is great for exchanging languages. When creating a profile you pick your native language and your target language (e.g. Danish). Then you get “paired” with native people of your target language who wants to learn your native language. You can also write posts with text and/or pictures that people can comments on and/or correct. It’s essentially a social media centered around language learning. This is a great way to practice the language, learn about culture and get new friends.

A similar app is “Tandem”.

5. Read a book

Pick a book you find interesting (or have read before) in Danish and read it. Go through each sentence and translate every word and every piece of grammar you don’t know. Then move on once you’ve learned that sentence. You could start with mining through a paragraph or page a day. Then, once you’ve studied that paragraph or page, you reread it. As you progress further, you should notice that you look up less words and less grammar points.

6. Sentence mining

Sentence mining is when you add a bunch of sentences to a spaced repetition system (SRS) like Anki (Anki). It’s essentially a flash card system where you can have a Danish sentence on the front and the English translation on the back. What’s genius about SRS is that after you’ve tried to memorize a flash card you determine whether it was “easy” or “hard” to memorize. Based on this feedback, Anki will then display the flash card again after x amount of time. Here’s a demo if it all sounded confusing: Anki Demo

Anki pairs well with the previous point of reading a book. You can add all of your unknown sentences to Anki and study them there.

7. Immersion

Immerse yourself in the language. Immersion is great for building a good intuition of a language. I have personally experienced learning words and phrases by only listening to my target language. Immersion is also a great way to practice your listening ability so that you can eventually pick words apart from each other. All you have to do is listen. Your brain will do the rest of the work.

To immerse you can:

change your phone/computer language to Danish 

talk to Danish friends in Danish

watch Danish series and movies

watch Danish youtubers

read Danish books (tip: pick a book you’ve already read so that you know the context and story. This should give you an easier time understanding what’s going on)

listen to Danish audio books

listen to Danish podcasts

travel to Denmark

8. Live classes

Sign up for live classes! This could either be in your neighbourhood, online (e.g. italki.com) or even in Denmark.

9. Have fun

Make sure you are having fun! So pick a method that works for you. This should help you stay in the loop and keep you enganged. You like reading? Go read! You hate reading? Don’t read! Watch videos instead. Whatever floats your boat.

I hope you find something useful here! Happy studying :)

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter where I post updates and more!

Hello! This is such a nice message. Thank you so much 😭 I am sorry I haven’t posted any new lessons for quite some time. I’ve been so focused on trying to find a job and pratice job-related skillsets, that I have put aside writing new lessons. I am still here and I still want to help.

Hi! Here’s a few recommendations:

(1) You could start out by reading my blog lessons at https://danishwithemi.tumblr.com/ or https://danishwithemi.com/ (not finished site, but it should work just fine).

(2) Some people like Duolingo. I know they have a Danish course. What’s nice about Duolingo is that it’s not too text-heavy, so it’s easy to get started and built a good habit. And it’s gamification, if you like that!

(3) Talking about habits.. building a habit is key! Set yourself up to success by creating an environment where it’s easy to get started on studying like:

- having a textbook/notebook out on your table or carry it around with you

- have study apps on your homescreen, so you see them whenever you unlock your phone

- always have a website open when on your computer so that you can easily click on the tab and start studying

- set a time during the day where you want to study. Mornings before school/work/university works for me

(4) Check out the app “HelloTalk”. When creating a profile you pick your native language and your target language (e.g. Danish). Then you get “paired” with native people of your target language who wants to learn your native language. This is a great way to practice the language, learn about culture and get new friends.

(5) Immerse yourself in the language. 

- change your phone/computer language to Danish 

- talk to Danish friends in Danish

- watch Danish series and movies

- watch Danish youtubers

- read Danish books (tip: pick a book you’ve already read so that you know the context and story. This should give you an easier time understanding what’s going on)

- travel to Denmark!

(6) Sign up for live classes! This could either be in your neighbourhood, online (e.g. italki.com) or even in Denmark.

(7) Make sure you are having fun! So pick a method that works for you. This should help you stay in the loop and keep you enganged. You like reading? Go read! You hate reading? Don’t read! Watch videos instead. 

Check out this lesson at danishwithemi.com

What is this? What is that? It’s your first question word: what!

Question words are essential in any language! So in this lesson I am going to teach you your first question word: what. These lessons on question words will be short and therefore (hopefully) easy to comprehend. After each lesson I want you to go and ask yourself (or your Danish friend/Danish language partner) a bunch of questions and answer them!

Question word

What = hvad

Example sentences

What is it? = Hvad er det?

It’s a pillow = Det er en pude

What is that? = Hvad er det? (note: the context is when an item away from you)

It’s a toothbrush = Det er en tandbørste

What is this? = What er det her? (note: the context is when you are holding an item)

It’s a magnet = Det er en magnet

What time is it? = Hvad er klokken?

It’s half past three = Den er halv fire

What are you doing? = Hvad laver du?

I am studying Danish = Jeg studerer dansk

What do you think? = Hvad synes du? (note: the context is when asking about an opinion)

I think it is a good idea = Jeg synes at det er en god idé

What are you thinking about? = Hvad tænker du på? (note: in Danish you are not thinking ABOUT something. Instead you are thinking ON something. On = på)

I am thinking about you = Jeg tænker på dig

Fun fact: English question words start with “wh”, where Danish question words start with “hv”. Reversed, almost!

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter where I post updates and more!

Check out this lesson at danishwithemi.com

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Imagine being locked inside an empty room. Pretty boring, right? Not much to do. Now, imagine that the only thing in there with you is a textbook for language learning. A Danish textbook, perhaps. Now you have something to do! Something that can entertain you (at least until you get too bored and goes back to staring at those empty walls). With language learning as your only means of entertainment, you’d be a master in Danish in no time.

But that’s pretty unrealistic? you might think - and it is! This is an exaggerated example, but I think you get the idea, which is that:

By creating an environment with minimum distractions, you can focus on what’s important to you. Whether it being finishing art projects, working out, knitting, photographing, building a 1:1 scale lego-version of the death star, or, as this article is focusing on, learning a language.

If you are sitting in your room reading this I encourage you to take a look around. How many unfinished books, games or projects of any sort do you have lying around? Probably a lot. Unless you, unlike me, are super disciplined and finish anything you start - good job! Anyways, how many times have you been in the middle of doing something productive and suddenly your roommate sends you a funny video and now you find yourself on an one-hour YouTube binge. Or perhaps you thought to yourself “oh yeah, I should probably finish this soon… but look at this awesome new game I’d rather want to play!”. I know for a fact that this had happened to me a dozen of times. And to be honest, it can be stressful sometimes. So, how do we solve this issue?

With minimalism, of course. 

But what is minimalism? you ask me.

Minimalism can be different for many people. For some, it’s about owning only bare essentials like Fumio Sasaki, the author of the book Goodbye Things. For others, it’s about living in a space with only things that makes you happy, or, as Marie Kondo would say it, things that “sparks joy!” And that could be less than a hundred things or more than a thousand things. Heck, for some people it’s only about being emotionally detached from material possessions.

Personally, I’ve been trying to minimize my possessions by selling and donating things that doesn’t make me happy and is just serving as clutter. I’ve also started being more mindful of what I’m buying. Asking myself questions like: do I really need it, what will I be using it for and do I own something similar that I need to take care of or put to use first? With this mindset, I’ve minimized the clutter that would otherwise stop me from focusing on what is important to me. It even helped me be more environmentally friendly! I have not perfected my surroundings, nor will I probably ever get there, but I am doing my best and it is helping me focus.

With this article, I encourage you to be more aware of what you are surrounding yourself with. Now, I’m not telling you to get rid of your things, but simply try and be more aware, which in turn will hopefully help you focus on your goals and stay on track with learning those tricky foreign words and grammar rules! Perhaps you too can adopt the word minimalism and make it your own. 

If you are sold on the idea of implementing minimalism to your life, here’s a few tips on how to get started:

Clean your room and put everything back to their designated spots.

If some of your things have no designated spot, give them one.

If you can’t give some of your things a designated spot, read the two next points on this list.

Sell or donate things you haven’t touched in a long time.

Sell or donate things you never used or never will use again.

Good luck and happy studying!

If you want to learn more about minimalism, here’s some material that had helped me:

(FYI these are not sponsored. Just my own humble opinion)

https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/ - Blogpost about “what is minimalism” by the Minimalists. This blog has a lot of helpful and inspiring blog posts.

https://www.reddit.com/r/minimalism/ - Reddit forum for minimalists and those interested in the topic. Contain lots of inspiration!

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRealLeaf/videos - Youtube channel by Lefie who makes fun, sarcastic and important videos on minimalism and mindful living.

Goodbye Things by Fumio Sasaki (book/audiobook)

Yes! I am not sure what kind of content you’d be interested in and since there’s tons of YouTubers out there, I will just link to some popular Danish YouTube channels:

Illustreret Videnskab - a magazine about science. They have a YouTube channel with science related content.

Lakserytteren - a guy who’s super creative and makes a bunch of fun videos. I met this guy in real life and he’s super nice!

Morten Münster - a vlogger.

RobinSamse - a couple making gaming videos.

Astrid Olsen - a girl who makes fashion, beauty and lifestyle videos.

DR Nyheder - a newschannel who covers a lot of interesting topics from A to Z presented in a fun and documentary-like manner.

I did not know any youtube channels before just now. I just did a search on youtube (“study abroad in denmark”) and found these videos/channels that seem pretty interesting:

Study in Denmark - They seem to have a lot of short videos of students studying abroad in Denmark telling about their experience.

Pamela Space - In this video she talks about how she went from her home country to study abroad in Denmark.

Tara E. - In this video she talks about how she packed for studying abroad in Copenhagen. She has a bunch of other interesting videos on how to study abroad in Denmark.

I also know this blog of a guy who moved to Denmark. He has a lot of interesing blogposts relevant to those who wants to learn the Danish language! Here’s a link:

Learn Danish - The Blog. The Journey. The Expat.

I just wanted to let you know that I am still active. I’ve just been really busy lately. But I am here and ready to help you! Hopefully, I will write and release a new lesson very soon.

Let me know if you have any requests on lessons, vocabulary, etc.

Check out this lesson at danishwithemi.com

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In this lesson you will learn how to say what you like and what you dislike. In English you have the verbs “to like” and “to dislike”. In Danish it’s different. Grammatically, liking something in Danish is something you can do (to be able to = at kunne). To show you what I mean I will give you an English translation, but with the Danish grammar applied: “I can like candy”. In Danish the sentence is: “Jeg kan lide slik”. It sounds odd (in English), but it is correct in Danish.

Fun fact: the Danish verb “at lide” means “to suffer”, so it’s important to remember to say “kan lide”!

To like/dislike a thing

If you like/dislike a thing the structure is as follows:

Jeg kan lide [noun] = I like [noun]

Jeg kan ikke lide [noun] = I dislike [noun] / I don’t like [noun]

Example sentences:

Jeg kan lide katte = I like cats

Jeg kan lide sodavand = I like soda

Jeg kan ikke lide lakrids = I dislike/don’t like liquorice

Jeg kan ikke lide musik = I dislike/don’t like music

To like/dislike someone

If you like/dislike someone the structure is as follows:

Jeg kan lide [pronoun/name] = I like [pronoun/name]

Jeg kan ikke lide [pronoun/name] = I dislike/don’t like [pronoun/name]

Example sentences:

Jeg kan lide hende = I like her

Jeg kan lide Mikkel = I like Mikkel

Jeg kan ikke lide dig = I dislike/don’t like you

Jeg kan ikke lide Anna = I dislike/don’t like Anna

To like/dislike an activity

If you like/dislike an activity the structure is as follows:

Jeg kan lide at [activity] = I like to [activity]

Jeg kan ikke lide at [activity] = I dislike/don’t like to [activity]

Example sentences:

Jeg kan lide at danse = I like to dance

Jeg kan lide at spise = I like to eat

Jeg kan ikke lide at synge = I dislike/don’t like to sing

Jeg kan ikke lide at spille fodbold = I dislike/don’t like to play football

To love/hate

If you really like or really dislike something you can, just as in English, say that you love or hate something. The verbs are:

At elske = To love

At hade = To hate

The verb “at elske” (to love) is just a regular verb. Unlike “kan lide” and “kan ikke lide”, you don’t say “kan elske” or “kan hade” unless you specifically talk about being able to love or hate something/someone.

Example sentences:

Jeg elsker sport = I love sport

Jeg elsker min familie = I love my family

Jeg hader dårlig mad = I hate bad food

Jeg hader skumfiduser = I hate marshmallows

Check out this lesson at danishwithemi.com

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There’s been quite a lot of lessons so far, so it’s about time to look into adjectives. We do use them every day after all. There are certain rules for adjectives in Danish and they depend on whether a noun is in its indefinite or definite form and whether it’s an en-noun or an et-noun. Let’s jump right into it.

Indefinite (a/an)

There are three different endings for the adjective used to describe a noun in its indefinite form. The ending is either none, -t or -e and it depends whether it’s an en-noun, an et-noun or plural. As a reminder, nouns in its indefinite form is when you talk about any noun (e.g. an apple, a cat).

En-noun: En god sang = A good song

Adjectives that describes an en-noun in indefinite form has no ending.

Et-noun: Et godt æble = A good apple

Adjectives that describes an et-noun in indefinite form has -t endings.

Plural: Gode sange = Good songs

Gode æbler = Good apples

Adjectives that describes noun in plural in indefinite form form has -e endings.

Definite (the, my, his, hers, etc)

There is only one ending for adjectives used to describe a noun in its definite form. The ending is -e. As a reminder, nouns in its definite form is when you talk about a specific noun (e.g. the apple, my cat, his shirt, etc).

En-noun: Den gode sang = The good song

Adjectives that describes an en-noun in definite form has -e endings.

Et-noun: Det gode æble = The good apple

Adjectives that describes an et-noun in definite form has -e endings.

Plural: De gode sange = The good songs

De gode æbler = The good apples

Adjectives that describes noun in plural in definite form has -e endings.

Summary table

Below is a summary table of all of the above examples.

Example sentences

Det er en god sang = It is a good song

Jeg køber tre røde æbler = I am buying three red apples

Drej til højre efter det gule hus = Turn right after the yellow house

Det er et sødt billede = It is a cute picture

Han er en hurtig fodboldspiller = He is a fast football/soccer player

Min mors hvide bil = My moms white car

Vil du have et hvidt stykke chokolade? = Do you want a white piece of chocolate?

De tre små killinger = The three small kittens

Der er mange forskellige mennesker = There are many different people

Du bagte nogle dårlige småkager = You baked some bad cookies

Final note: There are some adjectives that does not follow the rules stated above. To avoid leaving you feeling overwhelmed, these exceptions will be covered in another lesson.

Check out this lesson at danishwithemi.com

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Easter vocabulary

Basket = kurv

Bunny = kanin

Chick = kylling

Chocolate = chokolade

Easter = påske

Easter bunny = påskehare

Easter egg = påskeæg

Easter egg hunt = påskejagt

Easter monday = 2. påskedag (literally: second easter day)

Easter sunday = påskedag (literally: easter day)

Egg = æg

Good friday = langfredag

Hare = hare

Maundy thursday = skærtorsdag

Palm sunday = palmesøndag

Spring = forår

Easter traditions in Denmark

Besides the usually egg hunt and eating a lot of chocolate eggs there are a few other easter related traditions in Denmark.

Påskefrokost: Literally means “easter lunch”. It’s a social gathering where you celebrate easter with alcohol and lots of food. Usually celebrated with either your friends, family or co-workers. At a påskefrokost you eat a lot of different dishes. On the table you would usually see eggs, fish, bread, meat balls, dessert with lemon, etc. People will usually drink easter beer which is known as “påskebryg” in Danish.

Gækkebrev: A letter cut into a creative pattern (google it and you’ll see) with a small rhyme written inside. Instead of writing your name at the end of the letter (e.g. “yours sincerely, [name]” or “from [name]”) you replace your name with dots (e.g. “from …….”). It is now up to the receiver to guess who send it! If the receiver guesses who send the letter, the sender owes them an easter egg. If the receiver do not guess it, they owe the sender an easter egg.

Check out this lesson at danishwithemi.com

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Is it mine? Is it yours? Is it Marie’s? Let’s extend on our knowledge about possessions and possessive pronouns in Danish. First, a quick recap of the possessive pronouns that we saw in Lesson 6:

What’s the difference between “min/mit/mine”, “din/dit/dine” and “dens/dets” you might wonder. Let’s look at the difference:

Min/mit/mine

Min is used when the object you are talking about is an en-noun (e.g. “en kat”).

Example sentence: Det er min kat = It is my cat

Mit is used when the object you are talking about is an et-noun (e.g. “et fjernsyn”).

Example sentence: Det er mit fjernsyn = It is my television

Mine is used when the object you are talking about is in plural (e.g. “bøger”)

Example sentence: Det er mine bøger = It is my books

Din/dit/dine

Din is used when the object you are talking about is an en-noun (e.g. “en kat”).

Example sentence: Det er din kat = It is your cat

Dit is used when the object you are talking about is an et-noun (e.g. “et fjernsyn”).

Example sentence: Det er dit fjernsyn = It is your television

Dine is used when the object you are talking about is in plural (e.g. “bøger”)

Example sentence: Det er dine bøger = It is your books

Dens/dets

Dens is used when the owner of an object is an en-noun. Let’s say that the object is a toy and that the owner is a cat. You could then say: “It is the cat’s toy”. But you could also replace the word “cat’s” with “its” and the sentence then becomes: “It is its toy”. Since a cat in Danish is an en-noun (en kat), the word “its” translates to “dens” (and not “dets”) in Danish. The sentence in Danish is then:

Det er dens legetøj = It is its toy

Dets is used when the owner of an object is an et-noun. Let’s say that the object is a garage and that the owner of the garage is a house (yes, this example is weird). You could then say: “It is the house’s garage”. But you could also replace the word “house’s” with “its” and the sentence then becomes: “It is its garage”. Since a house in Danish is an et-noun (et hus), the word “its” translates to “dets” (and not “dens”) in Danish. The sentence in Danish is then:

Det er dets garage = It is its garage

‘s

To show possession in English ‘s is used. For example: “It’s my mom’s car”. The concept of adding an s at the end of the word is the same in Danish. However, the apostrophe is omitted. The sentence in Danish would then be: “Det er min mors bil”

Example sentence: Det er Marias hun = It is Maria’s dog

Sin/sit/sine

Sin/sit/sine wasn’t part of the table above because they are quite special. Their grammatical purpose was already covered in Lesson 6, but for good measure I will leave the same explanation here:

In English there’s no difference between the pronoun used when the subject of a sentence is owning the object of a sentence versus when the subject of a sentence is not owning the object of a sentence. This sounds like gibberish, but let’s look at an example sentence:

He eats his burger.

In this example sentence you can’t tell whether he is eating his OWN burger or some other guy’s burger. This is something you will have to know from context of the sentence.

In Danish there’s a clear distinction between whether (as in this example) he is eating his own burger or someone else’s. Let’s look at the same example but in Danish:

Han spiser sin burger. (since the pronoun “sin” is used we can tell that he is eating his own burger)

Han spiser hans burger. (since the pronoun “hans” is used we can tell that he is eating someone else’s burger)

Sin is used when the object of the sentence is an en-noun (e.g. “en far”).

Example sentence: Hun besøger sin far = She visits her dad

Sit is used when the object of the sentence is an et-noun (e.g. “et æble”).

Example sentence : Hun spiser sit æble = She eats her apple

Sine is used when the object of the sentence is in plural (e.g. “katte”)

Example sentence: Hun kæler for sine katte = She pets her cats

Check out this lesson at danishwithemi.com

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In this lesson we are going to learn how to tell time in Danish.

The 24-hour clock

In Denmark the 24-hour clock is used (which is referred to as the “military time” in the US). The 24-hour clock is divided into 24 hours, ranging from midnight at 00:00 to midnight at 24:00 (or rather 23:59, which is the last minute of the day before it changes to 00:00 again). The minutes stays the same (ranging from 0 to 59).

Let’s try and convert some 12-hour clock times into 24-hour clock times:

12:00 a.m. = 00:00

01:02 a.m. = 01:02

08:59 a.m. = 08:59

09:00 a.m. = 09:00

12:00 p.m. = 12:00

02:30 p.m. = 14:30

07:00 p.m. = 19:00

10:45 p.m. = 22:45

Keep in mind that the 24-hour clock system is used primarily in written language and on digital clocks like phones and computers. In spoken language it gets slightly different. Let’s look into how.

Spoken time

As I just mentioned, the 24-hour clock system is used in written language and digitally. If you see a physical clock (e.g. on people’s wristband or hanging on the wall) it is going to be the 12-hour clock system. The same applies for spoken Danish. If you asked someone what time it is and, let’s say the time is 02:00 p.m., they wouldn’t say “it’s 14 o'clock”. Instead, they would say “it’s 2 o’clock”.

Well, how would I know whether it’s a.m. or p.m. then? you might ask me, and my answer to that is: it’s all about context. You will most likely see that’s it’s bright outside and therefore it’s 02:00 p.m. and not a.m and vice versa. You MAY experience that someone would say “14” rather than “2”, because they would look directly at the digital clock and let you know what the time is digitally (AKA military time).

Half past

Let’s say that the time is 04:30 p.m. (16:30). In spoken English you would say “half past four”. In spoken Danish it’s different and, instead, you would say “halv fem”, which literally translates to “half five”. So, instead of talking about the 30 minutes as past four, in Danish you would talk about the 30 minutes as to five. Let’s look at some examples:

01:30 a.m. (01:30): Den er halv to (2) = It’s half past one (1)

08:30 a.m. (08:30): Klokken er halv ni (9) = The time is half past eight (8)

04:30 p.m. (16:30): Klokken er halv fem (5) = The time is half past four (4)

07:30 p.m. (19:30): Den er halv otte (8) = It’s half past seven (7)

This way of thinking about the 30 minutes is of course different and will take some getting used to.

Quarter to/past

Unlike the tricky half hour system that we just learned about, the quarter minute system is the same in English and Danish. Phew! This means that it’s only a matter of translating. Let’s look at some examples:

02:15 a.m. (02:15): Klokken er kvart over to (2) = The time is quarter past two (2)

09:15 p.m. (21:15): Den er kvart over ni (9) = It’s quarter past nine (9)

02:45 a.m. (02:45): Klokken er kvart i tre (3) = The time is quarter to three (3)

09:45 p.m. (21:45): Den er kvart i ti (10) = It’s quarter to ten (10)

Minutes

We learned about the half hour and the quarters. What about the minutes? Essentially, it’s the same as in English and is just a matter of translating. However, since the half hour system is slightly different, so is the minutes close to the half hour (e.g. 25 and 35). Let’s look at some examples:

07:05 a.m. (07:05): Fem (5) minutter over syv (7) = Five (5) minutes past seven (7)

07:10 a.m. (07:10): Ti (10) minutter over syv (7) = Ten (10) minutes past seven (7)

07:17 a.m. (07:17): Sytten (17) minutter over syv (7) = Seventeen (17) minutes past seven (7)

07:20 a.m. (07:20): Tyve (20) minutter over syv (7) = Twenty (20) minutes past seven (7)

07:25 a.m. (07:25): Fem (5) minutter i halv otte (8)  = Twenty five (25) minutes past seven (7) (note: it’s okay to directly translate and say “femogtyve minutter over syv” instead)

07:35 a.m. (07:35): Fem (5) minutter over halv otte (8) = Twenty five (25) minutes to eight (8) (note: it’s okay to directly translate and say “femogtyve minutter i otte” instead)

07:40 a.m. (07:40): Tyve (20) minutter i otte (8) = Twenty (20) minutes to eight (8)

07:43 a.m. (07:43): Sytten (17) minutter i otte (8) = Seventeen (17) minutes to eight (8)

07:55 a.m. (07:55): Fem (5) minutter i otte (8) = Five (5) minutes to eight (8)

Example sentences

Hvad er klokken? = What’s the time?

Undskyld, ved du hvad klokken er? = Excuse me, do you know what time it is?

Klokken er kvart i fem = The time is quarter to five

Den er syv minutter over syv = It’s seven minutes past seven

Vi mødes kvart over tre = We meet quarter past three

Timen starter klokken otte i morgen = The class starts at eight tomorrow

Hvornår kan du være der? = When can you be there?

Jeg kan være der klokken tolv = I can be there at twelve o’clock

Lesson summary

This lesson contained a lot of information, so let’s have a quick recap:

In Denmark the 24-hour clock system is used, meaning that the clock ranges from 00:00 to 23:59 and is used in written language and digitally.

In spoken language the 12-hour clock system is used (without a.m. and p.m.), which requires you to think about the context (e.g. whether it’s dark or bright outside).

If the time is half past five (5:30) it translates to “halv seks” in Danish (literally “half six” in English). I.e. in Danish the half hour is to something and not past something.

“Quarter past” translates to “kvart over” in Danish. Example: quarter past four (4) = kvart over fire (4).

“Quarter to” translates to “kvart i” in Danish. Example: quarter to four (4) = kvart i fire (4).

If the time is twenty five minutes past three (03:25), the time would be “fem minutter i halv fire” in Danish (literally “five minutes to half four” in English).

If the time is twenty five minutes to four (03:35), the time would be “fem minutter over halv fire” in Danish (literally “five minutes past half four” in English).