Learn about which expressions to use when you're catching up with an old friend
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina: Hello and welcome back to DanishClass101.com. This is Absolute Beginner season 1, lesson 6, Seeing an Old Friend in Denmark. I’m Gina. |
| Anna: Hej! And I’m Anna. |
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn which expressions to use when catching up with an old friend. |
| Anna: It can be difficult to know what to say to someone you haven’t seen for ages. |
| Gina: Right! So let’s get started! |
| Anna: The conversation takes place on the street and is between Troels and Alan. |
| Gina: The speakers are old friends, and they are speaking standard Danish. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Let's listen to the conversation. |
| Troels: Hej Alan! Længe siden. |
| Alan: Hej Troels. Ja, det må du nok sige. |
| Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Troels: Hej Alan! Længe siden. |
| Alan: Hej Troels. Ja, det må du nok sige. |
| Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Troels: Hej Alan! Længe siden. |
| Troels: Hi Alan! Long time, no see. |
| Alan: Hej Troels. Ja, det må du nok sige. |
| Alan: Hi Troels. Yes, you can say that again. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gina: Anna, what can you tell us about Danes and physical greetings? |
| Anna: When you haven’t seen each other in a while, you either hug, shake hands, or don’t have physical contact at all. |
| Gina: It depends on who you are, right? |
| Anna: Exactly. Especially, when running into an old friend you haven’t had any contact with since last time you met, it can sometimes be difficult to know what to do. |
| Gina: What about family members you only meet at occasional family get-togethers? |
| Anna: Usually people shake hands or hug, or even both. Again, it really depends on who it is and how close you are. |
| Gina: What about when meeting for the first time? |
| Anna: Then it’s customary to shake hands, but don’t be surprised if some Danes go straight for a hug. |
| Gina: So don’t be a stranger, huh? |
| VOCAB |
| Gina: Now let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is |
| Anna: længe siden |
| Gina: long time no see |
| Anna: (SLOW) længe siden, længe siden |
| Next: |
| Anna: det må du nok sige |
| Gina: you can say that again |
| Anna: (SLOW) det må du nok sige, det må du nok sige |
| Next: |
| Anna: hej |
| Gina: hi, hello |
| Anna: (SLOW) hej, hej |
| Next: |
| Anna: ja |
| Gina: yes |
| Anna: (SLOW) ja, ja |
| Next: |
| Anna: måtte |
| Gina: may, can, must, have to, be bound to |
| Anna: (SLOW) måtte, måtte |
| Next: |
| Anna: du |
| Gina: you |
| Anna: (SLOW) du, du |
| Next: |
| Anna: nok |
| Gina: enough, probably |
| Anna: (SLOW) nok, nok |
| Next: |
| Anna: sige |
| Gina: say, tell |
| Anna: (SLOW) sige, sige |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gina: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Anna: Yes, the first word is du. |
| Gina: This is the personal pronoun “you” found in the second-person singular case. |
| Anna: It’s very easy to use, because it works the same way in Danish as "you" does in English. |
| Gina: Can you tell us more about this pronoun? |
| Anna: It’s important to change du to De, if one day you have to address the Queen of Denmark or other members of the royal family. |
| Gina: So, are we talking about a formal “you” here? I thought spoken Danish didn’t have formality levels. |
| Anna: That’s right! It doesn’t, but using formal personal pronouns is the only way of clearly expressing formality in Danish. |
| Gina: I see. But it’s not something you should worry too much about, is it. |
| Anna: No. You can use du with everyone except royalty or elderly people, of course. |
| Gina: Great. What’s next? |
| Anna: Nok. |
| Gina: This word usually means “enough” or “probably,” but depending on its position, it can either be an adjective or an adverb. |
| Anna: Besides being used to indicate probability, nok can also be used to say “please.” |
| Gina: Can you give us an example? |
| Anna: For example, Vil du ikke nok? becomes “Won’t you, please?” in English. |
| Gina: Great. And the next word? |
| Anna: Sige. |
| Gina: This is the verb “to say” or “to tell” in English, but be careful when using it with some nouns. |
| Anna: A rule of thumb is, whenever you can only use the verb “to tell” to express something in English, you should use the verb fortælle in Danish, instead of sige. |
| Gina: For example… |
| Anna: “To tell a story” is at fortælle en historie. Or “to tell a joke” is at fortælle en vits. |
| Gina: Excellent. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say “long time no see” and answer that question. |
| Anna: Yes, what you say when you reunite with an old friend. |
| Gina: Tell us the phrases the Danes use most often. |
| Anna: Længe siden and Ja, det må du nok sige. |
| Gina: The first phrase means “Long time no see.” |
| Anna: The phrase is composed of længe which is an adverb and means “for a long time” or just “long.” The other component is siden which usually means “since.” |
| Gina: But depending on whether it’s used as a preposition, an adverb, or a conjunction in a sentence, it can also mean “ago,” “afterwards,” or “later on,” isn’t that right, Anna? |
| Anna: Yes, that’s right! |
| Gina: So how do we reply to this? |
| Anna: We can reply by using the second phrase, Ja, det må du nok sige. |
| Gina: This means “Yes, you can say that again.” |
| Anna: Notice how the word nok is used in this phrase. |
| Gina: Since both the Danish and English versions are fixed expressions, the word is equivalent to “again” in this case. |
| Anna: Exactly. |
| Gina: So what else can you tell us about these phrases? |
| Anna: Well, if you’d like, you can add Det er, which means “It is,” in front of længe siden to create a longer version that carries the same meaning as Længe siden on its own. |
| Gina: So another way of saying “Long time no see” in Danish is... |
| Anna: Det er længe siden. |
| Gina: Which literally means something like “It’s been long,” right? |
| Anna: Yes, but since Danes like to keep expressions short, many people only say Længe siden. |
| Gina: So what about the reply? |
| Anna: You can use even shorter sentences than Ja, det må du nok sige to reply. |
| Gina: Like “Yes, it is”? |
| Anna: You got it! “Yes, it is” in Danish is Ja, det er det or even just Ja, det er. |
| Gina: Great! But let’s hear the most commonly used phrases again. |
| Anna: Længe siden. Ja, det må du nok sige. |
Outro |
|---|
| Gina: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. |
| Anna: Don’t forget to check the lesson notes! They will help you practice what we learned. |
| Gina: Until next time! |
| Anna: Vi ses! |
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