Learn how to ask and answer who someone is
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina: Hello and welcome back to DanishClass101.com. This is Absolute Beginner season 1, lesson 8, Get Acquainted with Your Friends’ Friends in Danish. I’m Gina. |
| Anna: Hej! And I’m Anna. |
| Gina: In this lesson you’ll learn how to ask and answer who someone is. |
| Anna: Asking and answering who someone is, is always good for networking when you’re in a foreign country. |
| Gina: Let’s get started! |
| Anna: The conversation takes place at a dormitory and is between Emma, William, and his American friend Peter. |
| Gina: The speakers are either friends or meeting for the first time, and they are speaking standard Danish. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Let's listen to the conversation. |
| Emma: Hej. Hvem er det? |
| William: Det er Peter. Fra USA. |
| Emma: Hej Peter. |
| Peter: Hej. Hvem er du? |
| Emma: Jeg er Williams veninde Emma. |
| Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Emma: Hej. Hvem er det? |
| William: Det er Peter. Fra USA. |
| Emma: Hej Peter. |
| Peter: Hej. Hvem er du? |
| Emma: Jeg er Williams veninde Emma. |
| Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Emma: Hej. Hvem er det? |
| Emma: Hi. Who's this? |
| William: Det er Peter. Fra USA. |
| William: This is Peter. From America. |
| Emma: Hej Peter. |
| Emma: Hi Peter. |
| Peter: Hej. Hvem er du? |
| Peter: Hi. Who are you? |
| Emma: Jeg er Williams veninde Emma. |
| Emma: I’m William’s friend Emma. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gina: Okay, Anna, let’s talk about introducing your friends to each other in Denmark. |
| Anna: Danes usually introduce themselves when meeting friends of friends or friends’ family members. |
| Gina: How about when you are someone’s "plus one" at a party? |
| Anna: If you are going to a party and don’t know anyone except the person you came with or invited you, you'll surely be introduced by that person. |
| Gina: So how should you introduce someone? |
| Anna: It’s common to say a person’s name and perhaps your relation. Do you know each other from school, or work, or somewhere else… |
| Gina: I see. So there’s plenty to small-talk about when getting to know each other from that point on, huh? |
| Anna: There sure is. |
| VOCAB |
| Gina: Now let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is |
| Anna: hvem er det? |
| Gina: who is it?, who is this?, who is that?, |
| Anna: (SLOW) hvem er det, hvem er det |
| Next: |
| Anna: det er |
| Gina: it is, this is, that is |
| Anna: (SLOW) det er, det er |
| Next: |
| Anna: fra |
| Gina: from |
| Anna: (SLOW) fra, fra |
| Next: |
| Anna: hvem er du? |
| Gina: who are you? |
| Anna: (SLOW) hvem er du, hvem er du |
| Next: |
| Anna: jeg er |
| Gina: I am |
| Anna: (SLOW) jeg er, jeg er |
| Next: |
| Anna: veninde |
| Gina: (female) friend |
| Anna: (SLOW) veninde, veninde |
| Next: |
| Anna: hvem |
| Gina: who |
| Anna: (SLOW) hvem, hvem |
| Next: |
| Anna: være |
| Gina: be |
| Anna: (SLOW) være, være |
| Next: |
| Anna: du |
| Gina: you |
| Anna: (SLOW) du, du |
| Next: |
| Anna: jeg |
| Gina: I |
| Anna: (SLOW) jeg, jeg |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gina: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What do we have first? |
| Anna: Fra USA. |
| Gina: This means “From America” or “From the United States of America.” |
| Anna: Danes usually say USA, but you can use USA and Amerika interchangeably. |
| Gina: Now what’s our next word? |
| Anna: Veninde. |
| Gina: This usually means means “female friend”. |
| Anna: The word indicates that your friend is female, so veninde only applies to female friends. |
| Gina: What about friends who aren’t women? |
| Anna: The Danish word for “friend” is ven, and it can apply to both male and female friends. |
| Gina: So why not just use that one word? |
| Anna: Most people do, but by using veninde you can specify the gender of the friend you are talking about. |
| Gina: Can you explain how the word does this? |
| Anna: Sure. Ven has been given the ending -inde, which can also be done to other nouns like skuespiller, which means “actor,” or sanger, which means “singer.” |
| Gina: So these will sound like… |
| Anna: Skuespillerinde and sangerinde. |
| Gina: And what's the last word we’re going to talk about? |
| Anna: Være. |
| Gina: This is probably the most important verb of all. “Be.” |
| Anna: But unlike English, the conjugation of the Danish være is very easy to learn. |
| Gina: The present tense form is always… |
| Anna: Er. |
| Gina: In past tense it’s always… |
| Anna: Var. |
| Gina: In present perfect tense it’s… |
| Anna: Har været, which uses the auxiliary verb have in present tense. |
| Gina: And as past particle its… |
| Anna: Havde været, which uses the auxiliary verb have in past tense. |
| Gina: Okay, listeners, try to repeat these after Anna. |
| Anna: Er… Var… Har været… Havde været... |
| Gina: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask and answer who someone is. We can call it an extension of the last lesson where we learned how to ask and answer what something is. |
| Anna: Yes, so this time we’ve simply changed the pronoun hvad in the phrase Hvad er det?, which means “What is it?” |
| Gina: Or rather replaced it, right? |
| Anna: Right. We’ve replaced hvad with hvem, which is the pronoun “who” in English. |
| Gina: So our new phrase is... |
| Anna: Hvem er det? |
| Gina: Which means “Who is it?,” “Who is this?,” or “Who is that?” |
| Anna: Danes don’t always like to directly ask Hvem er du?, which means “Who are you?” So it’s more common to ask someone else if they know who the person you don’t know is. |
| Gina: Sounds complicated. Why not just ask directly? |
| Anna: Well, if you ask Hvem er du? in just a slightly wrong tone, it can make you sound a little accusing. |
| Gina: So it can make you sound kind of offensive? |
| Anna: For some reason, yes. |
| Gina: But what if I want to be direct with someone I don’t know? |
| Anna: You can, if you want, but in that case, you should rather simply ask them their name. |
| Gina: I see. Let’s go back and have a closer look at the first phrase. |
| Anna: Hvem er det? is composed of the pronoun hvem, which means “who,” the verb er, which means “is,” and the pronoun det, which refers to the person you are asking about. |
| Gina: Isn’t it even more rude to refer to someone as det? |
| Anna: You do the same in English, and you usually use this phrase when the person you’re asking about can’t hear you. |
| Gina: (laughs) right. So how do we answer the question? |
| Anna: In the same way as when answering what something is. Det er (...) followed by who the person is. |
| Gina: What if you want to be more specific? |
| Anna: Then you can say Hvem er han? or Hvem er hun? which mean “Who is he?” and “Who is she?” |
| Gina: Can you use nouns to specify as well? |
| Anna: Yes, you can either add a noun with a definite article; a modifying noun in the genitive case where an -s is added to the first noun to show possession of a second noun; or a possessive pronoun followed by a noun. |
| Gina: Just like in English, right? |
| Anna: Right. For example, you can say Hvem er Williams venner?, which means “Who are William’s friends?" |
Outro |
|---|
| Gina: Indeed. Okay, listeners, that’s it for this lesson. You can find more examples in the lesson notes. |
| Anna: So make sure to check them out. |
| Gina: Until next time! Thanks for listening, bye! |
| Anna: Hej hej! |
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