Learn some common noun prefixes in Danish
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Intro |
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| Antoni: What are some noun prefixes in Danish? |
| Anna Juul: And why are they useful to know? |
| Antoni: At DanishClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Sasha Lee is studying for her Danish exam with her classmate, Johan Juul. She sees an unfamiliar word and asks,"What does "uven" mean?" |
| Sasha: Hvad betyder "uven?" |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha: Hvad betyder "uven?" |
| Johan: Det betyder "enemy." |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha: Hvad betyder "uven?" |
| Antoni: "What does "uven" mean?" |
| Johan: Det betyder "enemy." |
| Antoni: "It means "enemy."" |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In linguistics, a prefix is a word or letter that is placed before the stem of a word. Adding a prefix to a word changes the meaning of that word. For instance, if you want to form the opposite of "happy," or |
| Anna Juul: lykkelig |
| Antoni: without having to use the word "sad," you do it by adding a prefix. In English, we do that by saying, "unhappy," or in Danish, |
| Anna Juul: ulykkelig. |
| Antoni: If you’ve noticed, the rules of adding a prefix in Danish is similar to English. In our example, we used the prefix, |
| Anna Juul: u, |
| Antoni: which is a prefix in Danish added to a noun to express the opposite or the lack of something. |
| Antoni: Another example of this prefix is the word "unsafe," |
| Anna Juul: utryg, |
| Antoni: which is is the opposite of "safe," |
| Anna Juul: tryg. |
| Antoni: In the dialogue, Sasha was asking about the word that has the same prefix, |
| Anna Juul: uven, |
| Antoni: which means "enemy" or "foe," and it's the opposite of "friend," or |
| Anna Juul: ven. |
| Antoni: Another Danish prefix that has a similar usage is: |
| Anna Juul: mis, |
| Antoni: which is equivalent to the English prefix mis-, as in "misunderstand," |
| Anna Juul: misforstå, |
| Antoni: which is the opposite of: |
| Anna Juul: forstå |
| Antoni: "understand." However, some prefixes can have more than one meaning or function. Let's take, for example, the prefix, |
| Anna Juul: be- |
| Antoni: which can be used to form verbs from nouns as in |
| Anna Juul: beordre |
| Antoni: meaning "to order," which comes from the noun |
| Anna Juul: ordre |
| Antoni: or "an order" in English or it also can be used to form adjectives from nouns as in the word, |
| Anna Juul: beskidt |
| Antoni: meaning "dirty." It's derived from the noun, |
| Anna Juul: skidt |
| Antoni: meaning "dirt." So, it's very important to memorize the prefixes and their functions, and they will help you to understand the meaning of words that you have never heard before. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you’ve learned that a prefix is a word or letter added before the stem of a word to form another word with a different meaning. |
| Expansion |
| Antoni: We’ve learned earlier about the prefix, |
| Anna Juul: u- or mis- |
| Antoni: which is added to a word to express lack or opposition. Another common prefix in Danish is |
| Anna Juul: sam, |
| Antoni: which came from the word |
| Anna Juul: sammen |
| Antoni: or "together." When you say, |
| Anna Juul: samtale, |
| Antoni: it means to have a conversation together. The root word here, by the way, is |
| Anna Juul: tale, |
| Antoni: which means "speech." Another common prefix is |
| Anna Juul: bi- |
| Antoni: which works similar to the English prefix "by-." It's used, for example, to form the word, |
| Anna Juul: biord |
| Antoni: meaning "adverb," which is formed from the prefix |
| Anna Juul: bi- |
| Antoni: and the word |
| Anna Juul: ord |
| Antoni: meaning "word" in English. Literally, it's a "by-word," hence we translate it as "adverb" in English. Let's have a look at our last prefix, |
| Anna Juul: gen- |
| Antoni: which is the equivalent of the English "re-" prefix, and carries the meaning of repetition. Let's have a look at an example, |
| Anna Juul: gensyn |
| Antoni: meaning "to meet someone again." The noun is formed from the prefix |
| Anna Juul: gen- |
| Antoni: meaning "re-," and the noun |
| Anna Juul: syn |
| Antoni: or "sight." Literally, |
| Anna Juul: gensyn |
| Antoni: means "resight," but it's used to express a repeated meeting with someone.’ |
| Cultural Insight |
| Antoni: Many prefixes used in Danish have their origins from other languages. Let’s take this word, for instance: |
| Anna Juul: astronom |
| Antoni: This means "astronomer," someone who studies heavenly bodies. In Danish, it uses the prefix |
| Anna Juul: astro, |
| Antoni: which originated from a Greek term that means "celestial body." Another word is |
| Anna Juul: kontrafaktisk |
| Antoni: or "contrafactual." This time, the prefix used is |
| Anna Juul: kontra, |
| Antoni: which came from a Latin word meaning "against" or "contrary to." |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Anna Juul: Farvel! |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Anna Maria Juul (Danish, Denmark), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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