Danish Isn’t As Hard As You Think
I became conversationally fluent in 6 months. Here’s why I think Danish is easier than people say.
Today, we're delving into the linguistic labyrinth known as Danish. With its glottal stops and unusual sounds (like ø and æ), Danish has a reputation as a difficult language to learn. Many say it sounds like ‘talking with a potato in your mouth.’
But fear not! Coming from English, I have found that learning Danish is actually easier than learning many other languages, including French and Spanish. In this post, I’ll explain why that is. I’ll also share my own experience and tips— after studying Danish 45 minutes a day for six months, I was able to have full (albeit slow) conversations with natives. With the right attitude, you can, too!
Though I was raised monolingual, I’ve been passionate about language-learning ever since I can remember. As a kid, I had fun experimenting with Latin, Greek, Russian, and Japanese. As an adult, I self-taught myself French while living in Bordeaux, and also studied Spanish when I lived in Buenos Aires.
There is something so fascinating about learning a new system of pronunciation, a new alphabet, a new way of distinguishing objects and emotions.
While Americans consider ‘squid’ and ‘octopus’ to be two completely different animals, the Danes call them the same thing—blæksprutte (lit. ‘ink spit’)—and don’t distinguish between them.
What’s easy about Danish?
Danish conjugations DON’T CHANGE based on the subject of the sentence.
If you’re learning French or Spanish, you must be sick of having to memorize hundreds of verb forms. It’s your lucky day! Danish verbs don’t change based on who is doing the action.
Let’s look at an example. This table shows the present-tense for the verb ‘to be’ in four different languages. Notice how in Danish, er is used for every single subject.
What about the past tense? Danish also just uses one word — var! And unlike Spanish and French, Danish doesn’t distinguish between competed and ongoing actions, making the past tense simple to use.
2. Danish tenses are simple and straightforward.
With some exceptions, Danish tenses are easy to quickly memorize. Let’s take the verb ‘to be,’ or at være, again. We already know er and var.
Here are some other tenses.
Simple, right? Again, they work with any subject!
3. Danish vocabulary has a lot of similarities to English, and long tricky words in Danish aren’t actually that hard once you break them down.
If you decide to learn Danish, you’ll run into a lot of similar-looking or sounding words. Musik is music. Familie is family. Kaffe is coffee. Telefon is telephone. And some words, like hotel, radio, station, and restaurant, are spelled the same in both languages.
Even scary long words are simple, once you break the word down into smaller, understandable chunks. Let’s take the word håndklædetørrer.
Hånd means ‘hand.’
Klæde means ‘cloth.’
It makes sense that håndklæde is ‘towel’!
Tørrer means ‘dry.’
Take all of these together and naturally, håndklædetørrer means ‘towel dryer.’
In the same way, hårtørrer can be broken down into hår (hair) and tørrer (dry) to mean ‘hairdryer.’ See how simple that is?
Here’s another word: madlavningsskole.
Mad is ‘food.’
Lavning is ‘making’ (Jeg laver = I make).
Skole is ‘school.’
So, the word madlavningsskole means ‘cooking school.’ Not too hard!
Tricky things about Danish
1. The genders of nouns
Like in Spanish and French, Danish has two genders. These genders play a role in determining the articles, adjectives, and pronouns used with nouns.
Generally, common gender nouns are living beings, such as humans and animals, as well as some nouns that denote objects. The neuter gender usually includes nouns that represent inanimate objects or abstract concepts. But these rules aren’t fixed, and often you’ll just have to memorize the gender of nouns.
Here’s some examples. Fun fact: in Danish, instead of using the word ‘the,’ you just add an ending (either –en or –et, depending on its gender) to the end of a noun.
2. The pronunciation (especially the soft D)
Pronouncing Danish words is difficult. Not only are there brand-new letters (ø, å, and æ), but often, Danes don’t even pronounce half the letters in a word.
It took me a long time to pronounce Danish words correctly (or understand when they are being spoken), and it still can be extremely frustrating. What might be helpful is that ø is pronounced like ‘eu’ in the French word ‘deux,’ å is pronounced like the long ‘o’ in ‘bore,’ and æ is a little like ‘ay.’
So how do I get better?
I know first-hand the physical and mental challenges that spring from learning a new language. I frequently worry that native speakers are judging my limited language abilities—I already created a post discussing my perilous journey learning French.
For learning any language, it’s important to find your ‘WHY.’ That way, if you feel unmotivated or stuck, you can remind yourself WHY you’re learning the language in the first place. As for me, I have a Danish boyfriend, so I wanted to be able to speak to him, his family, and his friends when I visited Denmark.
Duolingo is a great starting point. It’s free (or inexpensive, if you want no ads), and introduces you slowly to the vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. I got pretty far in Danish by competing the Duolingo tree, which took me about five months. Memrise is also a great alternative, and so is Clozemaster and Lingvist.
However, you can’t learn with Duolingo alone. I suggest Language Reactor. It’s a free Chrome extension that puts double subtitles on Netflix and Youtube videos—the original Danish, plus English translations—and allows you to hover over words for their meanings. This way, you can learn Danish without even thinking about it!
H.C. Andersen has written several fairytales such as the Little Mermaid (Den lille havfrue) that you can read and translate. Dansk i Ørene is a great podcast for beginner Danish, in which you can learn about different aspects of Danish culture in a slow and easy way. It’s also helpful to write down a couple of useful phrases and practice them again and again in front of a mirror.
But the best way is just plain immersion. Travel to Denmark, and try to speak with some locals! Trust me, they will be flattered by your efforts and excited to help you learn their language.
No matter what method you use, the quickest way to learn is to just surround yourself with your target language and to not get discouraged while making mistakes. With dedication, perseverance, and a sense of humor, you will go far!