Do you have control over your basic Danish?

I often meet students who have lived in Denmark for a long time, who have attended public language schools, who have a large vocabulary, and with fine nuances, who speak at lot of Danish – but their communication is still noget right.

They have trouble understanding the Danes.

Or they have trouble expressing themselves.

Most frequently the reason for this trouble is that there are some fundamental linguistic elements that they do not master. Maybe their classes have been to fastpaced? Maybe there are some things that they have not been educated on?

The main concern are these two areas:

Grammar. It can be basic pronouns, like “hende” (her) or “ham” (him), ground rules for adjectives (the words we use when we describe things), ground rules for plural nouns (the words we use when we’re speaking of multiple items or things) etc.

Sound. It might be that they have never been taught the sound aspects of the Danish language. Maybe they don’t possess the qualities or attributes that are needed to understand Danish and speak it.

The Common European Framework of Reference for Language (CEFR) is a popular language tool in Denmark. Official and private language schools use it all over, when you apply for a job, you can inform the workplace on which linguistic level you are at. Etc.

The Common European Framework of Reference for Language describes the process of learning a language in 6 steps. First you get to level A; then you get to level B; and then you get to level C.

The Common European Framework of Referene for Language (CEFR) is listed below.

Listen to the sound of a good Danish book.

Do you feel a bit lost in the Danish language? When you wish to speak Danish, does the brain stay thinking in English?

A good support for your Danish speaking process could be an audiobook. To find a good Danish book that captures your attention and motivates you, and which you can listen to daily.

I recommend Sara Omar’s book; “Dødevaskeren” from 2017 and after that you can continue with her book “Skyggedanseren” from 2019.

The books are very relevant, and Sara Omar has won several awards for both.

The books are written in a realistic language, because they tell a real story.

Where do I find the book? At saxo.com you can get the book and the audiobook; https://www.saxo.com/dk/doedevaskeren_sara-omar_lydbog-download_9788740046045

Enjoy 🙂

Listen to the melody

A lot of people pass the language test 1, 2 and 3 – and still do not speak the Danish language. They would like to take part in everyday conversations. To understand the Danes and to express themselves without any problems. But it doesn’t work. How can it be?

Often the reason is a lack of understanding for what is actually means to learn to speak Danish.

When we become adults we forget what learning a language is about. We want it to be about words in a book that we should be able to say. And we read and read and read, and try and try and try. But it does not work.

This seems to be quite relevant for the Danish language. Danish is characterized by a big difference in spoken and written form. The Danes simply say something else than they write.

How do we do it then? How do we learn to speak Danish?

Let´s take your mother tongue as an example. How did you learn to speak that one? Was it by sitting and reading a book?

You started learning to master your mother tongue already when you were in your mom´s stomach. You listened to what was going on outside, and when you came out you continued to listen and you interacted with your surroundings.

Then one important day arrived. The day you started in school. Now you were going to learn something new; to read and to write.

You have to look at learning Danish the same way. You have to divide the language into two elements; the written form and the spoken form.

And what is the spoken form about? It is about dialogue and it is about sound. It is concretely about the melody of speech, which you have to start to listen to.

Sentences

Haven´t we all tried learning about word order and scratched our heads wondering; “Why on Earth is this useful to learn?” ?

The reason why you receive instruction in word order is that it teaches you how to put together sentences. And sentences are necessary for us to communicate with each other.

It is through sentences that we make contact and interact with people. And it is through sentences that we say things to other people that they are able to understand.

What characterises a sentence is that it starts with a subject, followed by a verb.

We don’t just say:

“Solen” = The Sun
(S)

But we say:

“Solen skinner” = The Sun is shining
(S)——(V)

We don’t just say:

“Det” = It
(S)

But we say:

“Det regner” = It is raining
(S)—(V)

The good thing about constructing sentences in Danish is that all you need to do is to start off with a subject, then add a verb, and the rest of the words will find their natural place.

“Solen skinner måske.” = The Sun is maybe shining.

“Solen skinner altid.” = The Sun is always shining.

“Solen skinner hver eneste dag.” = The Sun is shining every single day.

Even better it is that nearly all present tense verbs end with +er, regardless of who or what is performing the action.

You should give it a try. Get a verblist and start to write some sentences.