Learn how to ask about unknown items
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina: Hello and welcome back to DanishClass101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, season 1, lesson 9, What Do You Call a Danish in Danish? I’m Gina. |
| Anna: Hej! And I’m Anna. |
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to form a question and how to answer to it. |
| Anna: It's a valuable skill to be able to ask and have someone confirm your presumption about what something is, or who someone is. |
| Gina: Let’s get started! |
| Anna: The conversation takes place in a dormitory common room and is between Peter and William. |
| Gina: The speakers are friends, and they are speaking standard Danish. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Let's listen to the conversation. |
| Peter: Wow, er det wienderbrød? |
| William: Ja, det er det. |
| Peter: Er det en kanelsnegl? |
| William: Nej, det er det ikke. Det er en spandauer. |
| Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Peter: Wow, er det wienderbrød? |
| William: Ja, det er det. |
| Peter: Er det en kanelsnegl? |
| William: Nej, det er det ikke. Det er en spandauer. |
| Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Peter: Wow, er det wienderbrød? |
| Peter: Wow, is that Danish pastry? |
| William: Ja, det er det. |
| William: Yes, it is. |
| Peter: Er det en kanelsnegl? |
| Peter: Is that a kanelsnegl (cinnamon roll)? |
| William: Nej, det er det ikke. Det er en spandauer. |
| William:No, it is not. That is a spandauer (other specific kind of pastry). |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gina: So, Anna, before we look at the vocabulary for this lesson, let’s talk about Danish pastry and bread rolls. |
| Anna: Okay! Well, Denmark is famous worldwide for the Danish pastry, but Danish bread rolls are also very tasty. |
| Gina: Is it true that Danish pastry is not actually of Danish origin? |
| Anna: Yes, ironically that’s true. Danish pastry is of Viennese origin, which is why Danes literally call it Viennese bread, and not “Danish” like in other parts of the world. |
| Gina: Can you name some of the most popular pastries? |
| Anna: Danish pastries can have really strange names like Spandauer or bagerens dårlige øje, which means “the baker’s bad eye.” |
| Gina: That doesn’t sound very tasty... |
| Anna: (laughs) don’t worry! It’s just because this pastry is round-shaped with custard or jam in the middle. |
| Gina: So, a bad eye indeed… |
| VOCAB |
| Gina: Now let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is |
| Anna: er det |
| Gina: is it, is this, is that |
| Anna: (SLOW) er det, er det |
| Next: |
| Anna: wienerbrød |
| Gina: Danish pastry (lit. Viennese bread) |
| Anna: (SLOW) wienerbrød, wienerbrød |
| Next: |
| Anna: ja |
| Gina: yes |
| Anna: (SLOW) ja, ja |
| Next: |
| Anna: det er det |
| Gina: it is, that it is |
| Anna: (SLOW) det er det, det er det |
| Next: |
| Anna: nej |
| Gina: no |
| Anna: (SLOW) nej, nej |
| Next: |
| Anna: ikke |
| Gina: not, no |
| Anna: (SLOW) ikke, ikke |
| Next: |
| Anna: kanelsnegl |
| Gina: cinnamon roll (lit. cinnamon snail) |
| Anna: (SLOW) kanelsnegl, kanelsnegl |
| Next: |
| Anna: spandauer |
| Gina: name of a specific kind of pastry |
| Anna: (SLOW) spandauer, spandauer |
| Next: |
| 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: Let’s talk more about that Danish pastry. In Danish, “Danish pastry” is wienerbrød. |
| Gina: Which literally means “Viennese bread.” |
| Anna: The gender of the noun wienerbrød only becomes clear when the definite suffix -et is added. |
| Gina: So how do we say “the Danish pastry”? |
| Anna: Wienerbrødet. |
| Gina: Now we can tell that the noun is a neuter gender noun. |
| Anna: Exactly! Had it been a common gender noun, the definite suffix would have been -en. |
| Gina: Now let’s go to the next phrase. |
| Anna: Det er det. |
| Gina: This literally means something like “It is that.” When used as part of a longer sentence, it means “It is” or “That is.” |
| Anna: For example, in the sentence Det er det, vi er her for, it means “That is,” because the full sentence means “That is what we are here for.” |
| Gina: We'll return to this phrase later in this lesson. What’s next? |
| Anna: Next is the adverb ikke, which means “not” or “no.” |
| Gina: And it is used the same way in Danish as in English. |
| Anna: Yes, it’s very easy to learn. For example, Jeg har ikke set ham means “I have not seen him.” And Det er ikke bedre end før means “It's no better than before.” |
| Gina: There are more examples to come in the grammar section. |
| Anna: So what are we waiting for? |
| Gina: Good point! Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to form a question and how to answer it. |
| Anna: When forming questions in Danish, you usually start with the verb, then the subject, and then the object, if it’s applicable. |
| Gina: So forming questions in Danish is the same as in English. |
| Anna: Exactly. For example, if you want to ask “Do you play chess?” In Danish, that’s Spiller du skak? |
| Gina: The verb is in present tense and is followed by a personal pronoun and an object. |
| Anna: In this case skak, or “chess” in English. |
| Gina: What else is useful about this grammar point? |
| Anna: Well, being able to form questions makes it possible for you to have your presumption of what something or who someone is, confirmed. |
| Gina: Can you tell us more about this? |
| Anna: For example, if you want to ask and have someone confirm that you are at the right building, let’s say The Royal Theater, then you can ask Er det Det Kongelige Teater? |
| Gina: Which means “Is this The Royal Theater?” Can you give us an example with a person? |
| Anna: Sure, why don’t we use a celebrity. Er det Nikolaj Coster-Waldau fra "Game of Thrones"? |
| Gina: “Is that Nikolaj Coster-Waldau from “Game of Thrones”?” |
| Anna: (laughs), you wish. |
| Gina: (laughs) So how do we answer all these questions? |
| Anna: Well, you simply say ja or nej, which mean “yes” and “no,” but you can also use a phrase that we learned in a previous lesson. |
| Gina: I think I know which one. |
| Anna: I’m sure our listeners do, too. You can use Det er (...), which means “It is...," "This is...," or "That is..." |
| Gina: When confirming that someone’s presumption is correct, you can simply add the pronoun det, so the phrase becomes Det er det, which means “It is.” |
| Anna: Or when it’s incorrect, you can simply say nej, which means “no,” followed by Det er (...) and the correct answer. |
| Gina: Like we promised, we'll now return to the adverb from earlier. |
| Anna: Yes, like in English, you can add ikke, meaning "not", in order to express that you are almost certain in your presumption. |
| Gina: So the phrase becomes… |
| Anna: Er det ikke (...)? |
| Gina: Which means “Isn’t it (...)?,” “Isn’t this (...)?,” or “Isn’t that (...)?” Then you simply add the name of the object, item, phenomenon, or person, you are almost certain about, but want to have confirmed just in case. |
| Anna: You can also add ikke when saying that someone’s presumption is incorrect. For example, Det er ikke Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. |
| Gina: Which means “It's not Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.” |
| Anna: You can also simply add the pronoun det before adding ikke so the phrase becomes Det er det ikke, which means “It's not.” |
| Gina: Let’s hear that one again. Are you ready to repeat, listeners? |
| Anna: Det er det ikke. [pause] |
| Gina: “It's not.” |
Outro |
|---|
| Gina: Well, that’s all for this lesson. |
| Anna: Make sure to check out the lesson notes for more examples. |
| Gina: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Anna: Hej hej! |
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