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| Ulven | Friday 04th of March 2005 12:49:33 AM |
| DANISH GRAMMAR - I'm a beginner, so I welcome any help and corrections I can get, and I'll edit my posts accordingly. Tak skal du have:). ([i]lit.[/i] thanks shall you have) In English, actions are denoted by a different word (verb form) for each person committing that action. eg. I [i]am[/i], you [i]are[/i], he [i]is[/i], they [i]are[/i]. This is not so in Danish. In Danish, the pattern is much simpler; I [i]is[/i], you [i]is[/i], he [i]is[/i], they [i]is[/i]. The same goes not merely for present tense, but all tenses.; I [i]was[/i], you [i]was[/i], he [i]was[/i], they [i]was[/i]. Very convenient and leisurely for a learner indeed:). *Pronunciation of all Danish used in this post is listed at the bottom. --------------------present tense [b]VÆRE[/b] - to be [b]jeg er[/b] - I am [b]du er[/b] - you are [b]han/hon er[/b] - he/she is [b]det/den er[/b] - it is* [b]vi er[/b] - we are [b]I er[/b]- you are** [b]de er[/b] - they are (*[i]den[/i] and [i]det[/i] are both 'it', but are different gender and are used in different grammatical circumstances. **This 'I' form of 'you' is for more than one person/a crowd (it is plural). It is also a formal address, but formal usage of 'you' is extremely rare in Scandinavian languages. It is said to be more polite to use the informal 'du', which is a turn for the books:)) Example usages; [b]Jeg [i]er[/i] fra Australien[/b]- I am from Australia (fra=from) [b][i]Er[/i] vi venner?[/b]- Are we friends? (ven=friend, venner=friends) [b]Hon er min søster[/b]- She is my sister Notice here that this second sentence was a question, so the word order changed exactly the same way as in English. Even though there are subtle differences in word order between English and Danish, they are the same in the most fundamental sense. Example; [b]Hunden er sulten[/b]- The dogs are hungry (hunden=the dog, er=are, sulten=hungry) Most of this sentence is in the same order as English. But, there's one single exception... ------------[i]The word 'the' in Danish[/i] The placement of the word 'the'. The word for dog is [i}hund[/i]. To transform Danish words into the...(this), the...(that), the 'the' is [i]glued to the end[/i] of a word. And, the two main endings meaning 'the' in Danish are [i]en[/i] and [i]et[/i]. For [i]hund[/i], the ending is [i]en[/i]. So, hund=dog, hund[i]en[/i]=[i]the[/i] dog. Like if English was to write '[i]the dog[/i]' as 'dog[i]the[/i]'. ------------[i]The word 'a/an' in Danish[/i] But if the sentence was to be "[i]A[/i] dog is hungry", the word order remains as in English. As, 'a/an...(this)', 'a/an...(that)' does not pull the same stunt;) as it does with the word 'the'. So... A dog is hungry- [i]En[/i] hund er sulten The dog is hungry- Hund[i]en[/i] er sulten -------------------past tense [b]VÆRE[/b]- to be [b]jeg var[/b] - I was [b]du var[/b] - you were [b]han/hon var[/b] - he/she was [b]den/det var[/b] - it was [b]vi var[/b] - we were [b]I var[/b] - you were (Again, plural. And, too formal for common converstaion) [b]de var[/b] - they were Examples; [b]Var du der i vinteren?[/b] - Were you there in the winter? (Notice agian, the [i]er[/i], meaning 'the', at the end of the word for winter, [i]vinter[/i]. der=there, i=in). [b]Hvor var de i går?[/b] - Where were they yesterday? (hvor= where, i går=yesterday) --------------------future tense [b]VÆRE[/b] - to be [b]jeg vil være[/b] - I will be [b]du vil være[/b] - you will be [b]han/hon vil være[/b] - he/she will be [b]den/det vil være[/b] - it will be [b]I vil være[/b] - you will be [b]de vil være[/b] - they will be Examples; [b]Vi vil være stærk[/b] - We will be strong [b]Det vil være lykkelij på dens nu hjem[/b] - It (talking about an animal) will be happy at its new home [b]Sommeren vil være smuk, tror du?[/b] - The summer will be beauitiful, you think? (smuk=beautiful, tror=believe) [b]Jeg vil gerne ikke [i]være[/i] trist[/b] - I don't want [i]to be[/i] sad (vil=will, gerne=like, ikke=not) -----------[i]PRONUNCIATION[/i] Here is the pronunciation of all Danish in this post. Some points to note- 'eye' is not a phonetic transcription, it is the sound of the English word [i]eye[/i]. 'u' is like 'oo' in [i]book[/i], not 'u' in [i]nun[/i]. And 'uh' is like the 'ir' in [i]bird[/i]. [b]Tak skal du have![/b] - tak ska du he [b]VÆRE[/b] - ver [b]jeg er[/b] - y-eye e [b]du er[/b] - du e [b]han/hon er[/b] - hen/hon e [b]det/den er[/b] - dei/din e [b]vi er[/b] - vi e [b]I er[/b]- i e [b]de er[/b] - di e [b]Jeg er fra Australien[/b]- y-eye e fra austrelien [b]Er vi venner?[/b] - e vi venor [b]Hon er min søster[/b] - hon e min suhstor [b]Hunden er sulten[/b] - hunen e sulden [b]En hund er sulten[/b] - in hun e sulden [b]jeg var[/b] - y-eye [b]du var[/b] - du va [b]han/hon var[/b] - hen/hon va [b]det/den var[/b] - dei/din va [b]vi var[/b] - vi va [b]I var[/b] - i va [b]de var[/b] - di va [b]Var du der i vinteren?[/b] - va du der i vintorn [b]Hvor var de i går?[/b] - vor va di i go [b]jeg vil være[/b] - y-eye vil ver [b]du vil være[/b] - du vil var [b]han/hon vil være[/b] - hen/hon vil ver [b]den/det vil være[/b] - din/dei vil ver [b]I vil være[/b] - i vil ver [b]de vil være[/b] - di vil ver [b]Vi vil være stærk[/b] - vi vil ver sterk [b]Det vil være lykkelij på dens nu hjem[/b] - dei vil ver lekewli po dins nu y-eim [b]Sommeren vil være smuk, tror du?[/b] - somorn vil ver smu, tror du [b]Jeg vil gerne ikke være trist[/b] - y-eye vil gerne ige ver trist Nogle dansker her vem gør nogle rettelse, tusind tak skal du ha!:) Any Danes who make any correction here, many thanks to you!:) | |
