en ordentlig satan, idiom

Direct translation A proper satan

Pronunciation [en ˈɒnˀli ˈsæːtan]

Meaning Something that is much bigger than usual. 

Use Might be said about huge snakes, spiders, sharks, warts, tumors, vegetables, cars... There’s a tendency to use it about something that make you a bit uncomfortable.

“Jeg åbnede køkkenskabet og så sad der sådan en ordentlig satan af en sølvfisk på væggen. Jeg skreg og smækkede skabslågen i igen.”

“I opened the kitchen cabinet and then I saw a huge silverfish sitting on the wall. I screamed and slammed the cabinet door shut”

Extreme Danglish

EF Education First made a survey of English skills around the world giving Danes a fifth place. Which would be okay if not for the fact that our arch enemy, Sweden, is better than us. So a Danish journalist (Flemming Mønster, in the article called Flaming Monster) wrote a witty reply mixing Danish and English called  Dårligst to english in Skandinavien: So have man denonde-lyneme heard that with! 

Have a read and see if you can decipher it!

{something} deler vandene, idiom

Direct translation {something} parts the waters

Meaning {something} creates (strongly) opposed opinions.

Pronunciation [ˈdeːˀlɐ ˈvann̩nə]

Use “Brasiliens nye præsident deler virkelig vandene. Nogen mener han kan redde Brasilien, andre er LGBT+-personer.” “The new president of Brazil really creates strong opinions. Some think he can save Brazil, others are LGBT+”

W

If you ever feel left out or forgotten, just remember that the Danish alphabet has 29 letters but we leave out W when we sing the alphabet song because the song is from before 1980 where W wasn’t considered its own letter, but no one has bothered changing the song, so children still sing a song ending in: “♫ There shall be 28 letters ♫”

Den #ende i #ende

(# symbolizes a number)

Direct translation The #th in #th

Danes don’t need to specifically say the month to refer to a date, they can just say two ordinal numbers:

Den tiende i fjerde → ‘the tenth in fourth’ → the 10th of April / April 10th Den 23. i tolvte → ‘the 23rd in twelfth’ → the 23rd of December / December 23rd

And so on... But most importantly this also makes these puns possible:

Hvornår har bageren fødsesdag?  Den ellevte i ellevte. ‘When is it the baker’s birthday?’ ‘The eleventh of November’ (Sounds like “the knead in knead”)

Hvornår har racerkøreren fødselsdag? Den anden i anden. ‘When is it the racing driver’s birthday?’ ‘The second of February.’ (Sounds like a roaring car engine)

at svede ud, idiom

Direct translation To sweat out

Meaning To forget

Pronunciation [ʌ sveːð̩ ˈuðˀ]

Use Informal use.

“Er det Dronningens fødselsdag i dag? Lort mand, det har jeg totalt svedt ud!” “The queen’s birthday is today? Oh shit, I totally forgot that!”

Wanna danify your name?

If your name ends in -a or -ah you can make it sound more Danish by replacing these endings with -e and pronounce them like [ə] (here’s how to do that). The result is often real danish names:

Mia → Mie Maria → Marie Helena → Helene Hannah → Hanne Susannah → Susanne

at være (lige) på trapperne, idiom

Direct translation To be (right) on the stairs

Meaning To be (right) about to arrive

Pronunciation [a væːɐ liːi pɔ ˈtʁɑbɐnə]

Use “Jeg glæder mig til Susses hindbærtærte uden fisk, hun må være lige på trapperne” “I’m looking forward to Susse’s raspberry pie without fish, she must be right about to arrive”

hjertesmertemusik, n. [ˈjæɐ̯.de.smæɐ̯.de.mu.siɡ]

Direct translation Heart pain music

Meaning Songs about heartbreaks and difficult love. The more emotional, the better they fit this term.

Use “Jeg ved ik’, jeg hører ikke så meget Christian Brøns, det er lidt for meget hjertesmertemusik for min smag”

“l don’t know, I don’t listen that much to Christian Brøns, it’s a bit too much heart pain music for my taste”

Famous Danish hjertesmerte song

(fellow Danes, feel free to link to your favorite hjertesmertemusik in this post)

10hi f9s, interjection [ˈtihi ˈfniːˀs]

Direct translation Teehee giggle

Use Written when you want to express that you are doing a small cute laugh. An instance of Danish netspeak. In ordinary text you would write tihi fnis but ti and ni is also the numbers 10 and 9, so they are substituted. The use of the expression peaked in the late 2000′s.

Faldt du i tønden?, idiom

Direct translation Did you fall into the barrel?

Meaning  This phrase has a literal and an practical meaning: Literal: Did you fall into the toilet? Practical: I think you spent a lot of time on the toilet (how come?)

Pronunciation [fald du i ˈtøn.n̩]

Use “Nåh, dér kom du endelig gamle jas. Faldt du i tønden?” “Må man nu ikke engang se en lille bitte TED-talk når man endelig har tid?”

“There you are old fella. You spent a lot of time out there.” “Are you not even allowed to watch a teeny tiny TED-talk when you finally’ve got some time?”

krudtugle, n. [ˈkʁod.uː.lə]

Direct translation Gunpowder owl

Meaning A very energetic person, often about children

Use “Zakarias har altid været en krudtugle, han elsker hoppeborge og at spurte tilfældigt rundt som en kat.” “Zakarias has always been a gunpowder owl, he loves bouncy castles and to race around randomly like a cat”

nummer sjok, n. [nɔ.mɐ ˈɕʌɡ]

Direct translation Sjokth place (lit. number sjok)

Meaning The last person to finish (in a competition); sometimes due to laziness. 

“At sjokke” means ‘to move about lazily’.

Use “Du skal ikke sætte dine penge på hesten Det Brune Lyn, den bliver altid nummer sjok. Men det er nok fordi at det er en pantomimehest.” “Don’t put your money on the horse The Brown Lightning it always finishes last. But that’s probably because it’s a pantomime horse.”

mudderkastning, n. [ˈmuðˀ.ɐ.kas.neŋ]

Direct translation Mud throwing

Meaning Unruly debate characterised by insults and offensive speech

Use “Der er en grund til at jeg ikke følger med i lokalvalget på Anholt, det hele ender bare i mudderkastning alligevel” “The reason I don’t keep up with the local election on Anholt is that it all just end up in insults anyway”

logik for burhøns, idiom

Direct translation Logic for cage chickens

Meaning Something that is very easy to understand

Pronunciation [lo.ˈɡiɡ fʌ ˈbuɐ̯.hœnˀs]

Use “Merete, hvis du ikke vander dine planter eller giver dem sollys i stedet for at gemme dem i dine køkkenskabe, så dør de altså. Det er da logik for burhøns.” “Merete, if you don’t water your plants or give them sunlight instead of hiding them away in your kitchen cupboards then they’ll die. That’s pretty standard knowledge.”

hold nu kæft!, exclamation [hʌl nu ˈkɛfd]/[ˈhʌlː nu kɛfd]

Direct translation Hold now gob (informal word for “mouth”)!

Meaning 1. Shut up! (first pronunciation, original meaning) 2. Wow / Oh my god (second pronunciation)

Use When using the second meaning, as the IPA describes, it’s important to only stress the first word and a bit important to make the [l] long.

1.  “Du kan godt lide Bjørn, jeg kan se det på dig, gå nu hen og kys ham, du vil jo gerne, du kan ikke vente til det bare er jer to, I skal sidde og snave hele-” “Hold nu kæft, Eva!” “You like Bjørn, I can tell by your look, go over to him and kiss him, you know you want to, you can’t wait until it’s just you two, you’re gonna be snogging all-” “Shut up, Eva!”

2. “Se dér! Nogen har bygget Hørsholms rådhustårn i legoklodser i én-til-én-skala!” “Hold nu kæft”  “Look! Someone has build the tower of Hørsholm town hall out of Lego pieces in one-to-one scale!” “Oh my god”

ildsjæl, n. [ˈil.ɕɛːˀl]

Direct translation Fire soul

Meaning One who is extremely passionate about something, often about big cooperative projects.

Use “Roskilde Festival søger 4-5 ildsjæle, der kan være med til at løfte festivalkonceptet til nye højder. For eksempel ved at få pølsevogne i campingområderne” “Roskilde Festival are looking for 4-5 passionate people who can help lift the festival concept to new heights. For instance by getting sausage wagons in the camping area”

Red tube

So, many of you may know that Redtube.com is a porn website. A lot of young Danes in public school didn’t. But some did, and they made a joke out of it to trick their classmates.

In Danish “red” [ʁæð] means ‘save’, so they spread the word that Youtube was to be closed down and the only way to save it was to go to Redtube.com [ˈʁæðˈtɕuːb].

I love on a knee, children’s joke

Danish children might ask eachother: “Hvordan siger man ‘jeg elsker på et knæ’ på engelsk?” (How do you say ‘I love on a knee’ in English?) 

The joke is that people will answer “I love on a knee” and on a knee sounds like onani which is the Danish word for masturbation (which of course is a very embarrasing thing to say).

samlebåndspop, n. [ˈsɑm.lə.bʌns.pʌb]

Direct translation Conveyor belt pop

Meaning Bland, average pop music that sounds like every other pop song. Pop music that sounds almost “factory made” hence the “conveyor belt” metaphor.

Use “Jeg er sgu ik’ så stor fan af Pinxxy, enten synger hun om kærlighed eller om at feste - ligesom alt det andet samlebåndspop, der spilles i radioen” “I’m not that big a fan of Pinxxy, either she sings about love or partying - just like all the other generic pop that’s on the radio”