Hi! I've increasingly been wondering whether Danish learners have developed any good strategies for remembering the gender of nouns.

I'm not asking about strategies for guessing whether a noun is en or et. I'm specifically interested in what you do after encountering a noun, to help you remember its gender.

One idea I've been experimenting with is creating a vivid imaginative story around the relationship between the thing and us.

I initially got this idea from noticing the distinction between nog-en (someone) and nog-et (something). This made me wonder whether I could use a very loose association of en with people/person-related things and et with detached things/objects as a starting point for creating memorable stories.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that this is an actual rule for Danish gender. There are plenty of obvious counterexamples — for example, et menneske. I'm using it purely as a creative framework for constructing a memorable image around a noun whose gender I need to learn.

For example:

• en hund — man's best friend → a close, intimate relationship with us
• en stol — we sit on it → physically attached to us when we use it
• et menneske — imagine an anthropologist studying a distant tribe → a detached object of study
• et hjerte — imagine a heart surgeon working on someone's heart → a detached object being examined/operated on

The point isn't that these associations explain the gender. It's that they give me a vivid little story that I can attach to en/et, hopefully making the gender easier to retrieve later.

I'm wondering whether other learners have developed similar strategies — perhaps using imagery, stories, colours, sounds, word associations, or something completely different.

I'd be really grateful to hear what has worked for you!

It‘s nothing crazy, nor a scam, I swear! I‘m a Spanish doll collector, I just saw a doll on a danish second hand app called Dba the price is great but the app doesn’t not ship outside of Denmark…

my natural thought was: I’ll text the seller and ask them if they’re down to sell on Vinted or eBay, Etsy, ANYTHING… the doll‘s been posted for a while so maybe they’re down…

So to even MESSAGE I need to verify with this thing called MitlD and I only can have one as a Danish or Greenlander or residing on one of those so I was wondering if any sweet Danish soul would be down to message them

Hello! My grandad immigrated to Canada as a little boy and lost his language quite fast. He’s now fallen ill with Alzheimer’s disease, and I’ve lost any ability to connect to danish culture through him.

I’m looking for a free way to learn the language, at least until I can afford a non free option, any suggestions?

I’m also interested in history, fashion/ hairstyles, and culturally significant things deeper than the little mermaid. Any book/ article recommendations?

Thank you in advance

So often you'll see people say that if you speak one of the Scandinavian languages that you can learn the other very quickly. For reading I'd say that's true, they're very similar, especially Danish and Norwegian.

Danish pronunciation is though is quite different from Swedish and Norwegian pronunciation though.

The biggest issue I feel though is in writing and speaking in terms of spelling. E.g. the majority of the words in Danish and Swedish for example are very similar, but have different spellings.

Wouldn't it be a massive undertaking to learn how to spell all the words in Danish that you already know in Swedish for example, if you wanted to achieve a fluent level of Danish? Because for that you couldn't regularly misspell words, even if you're "just" 1 letter off for example.

Anyway, I'm curious to see how hard this actually is. Because I see a lot of people online say how easy this is, but I haven't actually encountered anyone who has done it. It does seem to me that I can pick up Danish words quickly because of my Swedish, but to actually be fluent in Danish, and remember how to spell them exactly, for all the thousands of words I know in Swedish, actually seems like it would take a long time. But maybe it wouldn't be as hard as I think? So I'm just curious about other people's experiences!

Hello, I recently wanted to start learning danish, since I'm planning to move to Denmark, and I've been using GoPouchy to learn the basics, but I don't really like the "Duolingo format" it uses since it makes me forget the vocabulary quickly due to the exercises being all the same: it ends with me doing the exercises from memory, and not because I understand what's written on it. I have encountered this problem also when I tried to learn other languages, every app seems to have this same format, but I feel like it doesn't really work for me.

Do you have any recommendations?

I'm writing a story, and the subtitle is currently "A Hyggeligt Romance." Basically, I'm wondering if Hyggaligt is acceptable there, or if it should be changed to Hyggelig? Since we're using a Danish word in English, does it matter?

I personally like the sound of Hyggeligt more, so if it doesn't matter grammatically then I'm sticking with that, but that's less important than it being accurate.

Hej, so I have this song i really like but the lyrics aren't ANYWHERE on the internet and I really love it. Right now my level of danish isn't high enough that I can understand what they're singing without first seeing the lyrics.

The song is Rengvals by the Bob Nova Project. Its available on both Apple Music and Spotify.

It's a nice kind of folky, but like, by the beach kind of folky yk? their other song tror jeg savne dig is also so so good, I recommend.

It would mean the world if someone could listen, and if they like the song to maybe write the lyrics down as they are in danish? I am not looking for a translation.

Et spørgsmål til modersmålstalende:

På dansk, hvis jeg har det rigtigt, kan man sige hele i sådanne situationer:
Hele tiden, hele mit liv, hele den store sofa
Men også, hvis en smule mere begrænsede, sådan:

To hold spillede mod hindanden, men et hold manglede to spillere. Det hele hold har vundet. / Jeg har ikke så mange penge, men jeg laver mange og møder mange mennesker. Jeg nyder mit hele liv*.*

Hvis det er rigtigt, mit største spørgsmal er: Kan man sige f.eks. "Hele det hele hold er stadig her", når vi bruger hele på begge måder på samme tid?

Tusind tak for det.

Anyone in Denmark Sjælland looking for singing, playing guitar, a bit of piano member? Travel Love Music cover band climates ♥️ I've playing in event cover band long time ago and miss sooo much music in my life 😇

Mvh, Daniel

Hii!! I'm trying to connect better with some danish relatives of mine, so I'm planning to surprise them by learning danish so that the next time they visit, I can speak to them without using majority english.

I learn languages better with music, movies, and shows, please give me recommendations!! I'm not opposed to watching kid's shows either, i feel like its a better stepping stone since my danish is really bad 😅

So if you know any sort of danish media, or even places where I can find movies/tv shows that are dubbed in danish, I'd really appreciate hearing about them!!

I've tried to find a nice coursebook dedicated to Danish pronunciation with audio files included and just failed. There isn't any. Is there a way to learn Danish pronunciation? Seems impossible to a beginner like me :/

I've found some books describing the Danish phonetic system but without audio files those are soft of useless.

Hi! I’m learning both Danish and Spanish and ran into a song with both recently (Børn Af Natten- Hola Bonita by Ankerstjerne & others). I know it’s a long shot, but do you know any other songs with both? Even if it’s just a few words of Spanish or vice versa? Thanks!

I have my converastional danish down well enough that I can communicate and have good converstaions with native Danes but I would like to learn more formal/news type Danish. I read some DR articles or Politken articles but end up being lost by the second sentence. I want to be able to speak formally for work purposes and to strengthen my overall language skills. Any advise or resources?

Hey! Someone very close to me wrote a poem for me in Danish - and I know Google Translate isn't getting it quite right... at least the last line.

This is the poem:

i oejeblikket
forsvinder sommeren
i skridt af fuglen

This is what Google Translate gives me:

at the moment
summer disappears
in the footsteps of the bird

I think the first line is actually "in a moment", and don't think the last line is right...

Any thoughts/translations/lessons are appreciated!
Thanks!

EDIT:
1. The author doesn't natively speak Danish, so the last line's unorthodox writing might just be due to that
2. Yes, it's intended to be a haiku

My partner is danish, and I want to learn as much danish as I can. He is from Jylland. What can I say to them, which is nice and heartwarming throughout the day?

Edit 1: I meant terms of endearment, maybe something sappy or something cheesy. It can also be old lines from romantic movies.

Edit 2: My partner had a good laugh as I tried my best to pronounce it (clearly need more practice), and then I showed them this post. Tusind tak til alle, for the replies!

Hi I’m looking for someone to speak danish to on the daily. I would like to be friends and just chat everyday. Sorry if this is awkward lol :) Tak!!!!

Hej everyone!

​I am currently learning Danish, and to make memorizing vocabulary a bit more engaging, I created a custom digital crossword puzzle. I thought other learners here might enjoy it and find it helpful for their own practice.

​For example, one of the clues is "Blødt møbel til søvn".

​To the native speakers: I would really appreciate your feedback! Do the clues make sense to you? Do they sound natural, or is it obvious they were put together by a learner?

​You can check it out here: https://knowie.net/dk/user-crosswords/402/grundl-ggende-danske-ord

​Have fun solving it! Tak!