r/danishlanguage • u/learningdanishxx • 23d ago
What are the most important things in Danish pronounciation?
What are the most important things in Danish pronunciation?
Hi! I’m currently learning Danish and I’ve realized that pronunciation is probably the hardest part for me 😭
I’m Dutch, so I’ve noticed that Danish sometimes has sounds or words that feel somewhat familiar because of Dutch, but the pronunciation can still be VERY different. I’m worried that I might accidentally apply Dutch pronunciation rules to Danish without realizing it.
I’m trying to focus on pronunciation from the beginning instead of developing bad habits and having to fix them later. I already know some of the basic pronunciation rules, like the soft d, but I feel like there are probably a lot of important things that beginners tend to miss.
So, for native Danish speakers or people who have learned Danish:
What would you say are the most important things to focus on when learning Danish pronunciation, and are there any common type of mistakes that i could avoid??
Any tips, corrections, or advice would be greatly appreciated! 🇩🇰❤️
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u/boeing0325 23d ago
Don’t pronounce every single word individually. Do it for practice when practicing the words by themselves. Actual spoken Danish is very blended together: sounds are skipped, words mix together, and over all it will sound very unnatural if you pronounce every single word individually! Speak to Danes and watch Danish content to hear how actual spoken Danish sounds
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u/learningdanishxx 23d ago
Thank youu🥹That makes a lot of sense. Are there any common sounds or parts of words that are usually skipped or blended together in spoken Danish? And is there a way to know when something should be skipped or reduced, or is it mostly something you learn by listening and getting used to it? 😭
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u/boeing0325 23d ago edited 23d ago
I don’t know if these depend on the dialect, but I’m from Amager, so I’ll share some of the spoken Danish from here.
Skip “er” most of the time if the pronoun is Jeg or Du. Jeg er sulten becomes Jeg sulten, and the Jeg turns into Jaa like a long German “yes” lmao. Du would become a longer Duu. Duu sulten
Swallow E’s. Gange becomes gangg, synge becomes syngg, spise becomes spiis, købe becomes køøb, gade becomes gaad, dage becomes daa. Drop a lot of final E’s and instead hold the previous vowel for longer.
The soft D is often dropped due to its unnatural difficulty in the middle of a fast flowing sentence. “Hvad er det?” becomes “Hva’ det?” “Vil du med mig?” becomes “Ve’ du me’ ma?”
You will mostly learn these by listening and getting used to it! Written Danish and spoken Danish are almost two different languages.
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u/Special_Onion3013 23d ago
Yeah, that's definitely Amager. Maybe not do that ;-)
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u/learningdanishxx 22d ago
HELPP how else do the pronounciations work thoo😭
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u/boeing0325 18d ago
It just allllll depends on the dialect... My grandma from Jylland calls Strøget "Strøyet" while I from Amager call it "Strøød." A lotttt of soft Ds here on Amager
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u/EmiliuzDK 15d ago
Depends on dialect and how fast we talk. The faster we talk the more we cut corners.
I'm from Aalborg and we usually cut words like :også into os
Sådan into sårn
Ikke into ikketc etc
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u/plantpotguitar 23d ago
Remember Danes can't understand each other's pronunciation either ❤️
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u/Poiar 23d ago
Only heavy Sønderjysk is hard, otherwise I hard disagree
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u/Uxmeister 22d ago edited 21d ago
A couple of Danish characteristics that contrast to Dutch pronunciation, besides the general observation of a much greater spelling-to-pronunciation gap (Dutch orthography encodes phonological rules such as long-vs-short vowel contrast much more regularly; Danish orthography reflects a long-extinct earlier language stage, though not as extreme as in English).
- in the combo vowel + <r>, the normally guttural /ʁ/ vocalises to a weak /ɐ/, i.e. it is not pronounced as a consonant unlike the common ‘Gooise r’ in Dutch
- syllable-initial <g> is always /g/, never /x/, but the combo vowel + <g> produces a rising or falling diphthong to (unfortunately) fairly complex rules. Typically <ag> is /ɛ̞ɪ̯/ as in ‘flag’ (identical lemma to English), but this converts to a falling diphthong /ɑʊ̯/ in compounds like ‘flagstang’ (flag pole); /flɑʊ̯sdaŋ/. In the digraph <ig> the /g/ is almost always omitted (‘ligeud’ (=rechtdoor) for instance elides to /liːəˈuð/).
- the combo vowel + <v> (as well as the preposition ‘af’) often signifies a falling diphthong as per my last example, unless <v> is encompassed by vowels. That explains why ‘havn’ is /hɑʊ̯ʔn/ but ‘have’ (garden) is pronounced /hɛ̞ːvə/, for instance. You’ve noticed that compound verbs with prepositions work similar to Dutch; the diphthong rule to ‘af’ applies to things like ‘afslappe’, which is spoken /ˈɑʊslabə/ in the infinitive but converts to /ˌhɛ̞nslabɐˈɛ̞ː/ in inflected forms ‘han slapper af’ (‘he is relaxing’).
- short <i> and <u> tend to flatten to /e/ and /o/, respectively (ikke, at lukke), but unlike Dutch vowels they stay closed (it’s /eɡ̥ə/, not /ɛɡə/; /loɡə/, not /lɔɡə/.
- syllable final vowels aren’t lengthened unlike in Dutch (or German), so the pronoun du (=jij) is almost /duʔ/, not /duː/ if that makes sense
- the blødt d is softer than /ð/ in English, Spanish, Greek, Arabic etc., more like an approximant, hence the hot-potato sound
- before dental stops and fricatives, and the dental nasal (so, /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, and /n/ as well as the ‘blødt /ð/) <a> is raised to somewhere between /æ/ and /ɛ̞/; therefore ‘at’ = /ɛ̝tʰ/, ‘kat’ = /kʰɛ̝tʰ/ etc. whereas the orthographic <æ> is reliably /æ/, with spellings often etymological rather than phonematic, hence the parallel between gade /gæːðə/ (street) and stræde /sdʁɛ̝ːðə/ (usually more like an alley or small lane). That rule explains weird things like ‘han’ (=hij) spoken /hæn/ whereas ‘ham’ (=hem; object case) is spoken /ham/ as written.
- what sounds like a long, open /ɔː/ (like Engl. lawn, saw, etc) in how people pronounce <å> is actually an unrounded /ɔ̜ː/ and almost half closed, so written <å> and <o> are subtly distinct. The Saxon dialect of German (Dresden, Leipzig) curiously enough has a similar sound, it’s hard to describe.
- in the combos nasal + plosive, esp. <nd>, only the nasal is typically spoken, so ‘minde’ (=herinnering) is /mɪnə/, and ‘landmand’ (farmer) is /lænmæn/.
There are some engrained, ‘illogical’ pronunciations to highly common words. As a Dutch speaker, you’ll find it strange that the article ‘de’ (plural only) is always /di/, not /də/, whereas ‘det’ (maps over ‘het’ in Dutch; neutral) is /de/ with /t/ omitted. The vowel in both is short but closed.
The rules for the correct distribution of stød fill academic literature. It is more effective to memorise this by heart, and with the exception of a few minimal pairs, people will understand you without a problem. In my experience, if you get the stuff above right, most Danes will actually let you finish your sentence without switching to English.
The Babbel app has an extensive section on pronunciation, with spoken exercises. No product placement here 😀 You can switch your language of origin to Dutch. Het is niet goedkoop, maar binnen zo drie maanden kan je best wel de belangrijkste uitspraakregels leren. Succes!
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u/Kigger_kun_herinde 22d ago
If you are interested, I can send you a page with some "småord" and their pronunciation (on tuesday)
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u/AngsD 22d ago
So, I'm a Dane, I need to preface with that. I'm not trolling here. So.
You need to practice different ways of throwing up in your mouth. Of course, don't actually do that. But the motion of it, if it makes sense. The base movements of most of the complicated consonants and the stops use the back of your throat similar to when you're gagging.
When I teach pronounciation to foreign-born friends of mine, I usually explain this shortcut, and they get much closer in like a minute.
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u/bareenDude 22d ago
Apart from the fact that we only pronounce half of the letters and the vowels make different sounds depending on the context – which letters are omitted and what sound a vowel makes depends on the dialect.
So for example the classic “rødgrød med fløde”
In Amager: “rø’d grø’d mæ fløø’d”
In Aarhus: Røy grøy med fløye”
In Næstved: Rø’ød grø’ød mæ flø’ed”
In Stege: “Rø grø me fløø’e”
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u/PlutoPine327 20d ago
As a german living in Denmark :
Pronunciation comes with communication.
Some d’s are d’s, some are not.
Sometimes we just forget half of a word exist so we don’t actually sound that half of it out.
Sometimes letters are silent, but not always.
Danish language is a mess lol
A lot of the language you learn through listening.
It’s really something you have to practice to learn.
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u/KingRothgar 20d ago
You don't have to get your pronunciations correct to be understood. Mispronounciations just have to follow a pattern Danes will recognize from one of the few commonly known foreign accents.
We aren't as used to hearing Danish spoken by foreigners as English speakers are and thus, the amount of, and types of "wrong" pronunciations we expect are limited to the few foreign accents we've most commonly been exposed to (like swedish or German).
If a Dane can't place your pronunciation (or mispronounciation) into a pattern they recognize, they'll get confused and switch over to english to avoid the much feared awkward silence.
So to get Danes to speak Danish to you as a beginner or just to make it easier to learn it a trick might be to emulate an accent first and then work towards native pronunciation?
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u/Jale89 20d ago
I believe that it's more important to get through the sentence than to get every word perfectly correct. A lot of auditory comprehension is based on context, so although you might mispronounce the word vejret and make it sound like været (same sounds, but without the stød), if it's in a grammatically correct and fluid sentence, it won't be as bad as if you are tripping over every word.
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u/horsecock_horace 17d ago
What I've noticed most when speaking to people who can't pronounce soft D is that the closest they get is an L sound instead.
This is super hard for Danes to understand because we think of it as a totally different letter, since the sounds aren't similar to our ears. If you can't do soft D do hard D instead, since at least that conveys how the word is spelled and we can go from there.
Some words like "noget" has a soft D sound despite not having the letter D, here a hard D or T is fine. Making an L sound makes it sound like "nogle" instead which can create confusion
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u/YallaBeanZ 17d ago
As a Dane I’m glad I don’t have to learn Danish as an adult, but rather picked it up and memorized it growing up, before I even knew what I was doing. If it’s any comfort, no one will be bothered or have any trouble understanding you, if you don’t get it right. I work with a Dutch guy and he only recently started (forced him self) to break away from the “English trap” and speak a little bit of Danish - despite having studied it for a couple of years. He probably hasn’t noticed it yet, but his pronunciation and flow, is improving day by day.
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u/Beautiful-Chance9802 22d ago
I'd say the best you can do is listen to a LOT of natural Danish. The more Danish you hear, the better you'll become at noticing all those tiny pronounciation nuances that are difficult to consciously learn from pronounciation rules alone - with enough listening your own pronounciation will naturally become better when you start talking.
Also, if your goal is to get as close to a native pronounciation as possible, absolutely work on it from the beginning! But i'd also try not to put too much pressure on yourself to achieve the "perfect" pronounciation. Danish pronounciation is genuinely difficult, even for very advanced leaners, and having an accent doesn't mean you haven't learned Danish well - So aim high, but don't let perfectionism take the fun out of it.:) Embrace your accent and focus on becoming comfortable and understandable rather than trying to sound perfectly Danish❤️
If you wanna look into taking on some Danish listening practice I actually host a podcast called Dansk for Begyndere, specifically with comprehensible Danish for learners (danskforbegyndere.dk)
Good luck on your Danish journey! You're already doing great🇩🇰
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u/Impossible_Tone1108 22d ago
Many, or even most people will disagree. But I would just stick with English. Though I would practice understanding Danish. I wouldn't worry much about speaking it. I'm also Dutch and live 6 years in Denmark. I understand most Danish and can speak it casually but I stick with English anyways. Practically all know it and I'm better at expressing myself in it. With some people I speak English and they respond in Danish and that works also fine for me.
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u/gavats 23d ago
apart from the mastery of blødt d and guttural r, stød is also another hurdle. for instance hun vs hund