Learn about compounding in Danish
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Intro |
|---|
| Antoni: What is compounding in Danish? |
| Anna Juul: And how does it work? |
| Antoni: At DanishClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ben Lee, a college student, is happy about his score on a group project. He says to his friend, Nanna Nielsen, "It's a success!" |
| Ben: Det er en succes! |
| Dialogue |
| Ben: Det er en succes! |
| Nanna: Det er en kæmpesucces! |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben: Det er en succes! |
| Antoni: "It's a success!" |
| Nanna: Det er en kæmpesucces! |
| Antoni: "A great success!" |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you will be learning about Danish compound words. Compound words, or, |
| Anna Juul: sammensatte ord |
| Antoni: are words that have been formed by putting two or more full words together. Sometimes, these compounds can get quite lengthy. This leads one to wonder what the longest word in Danish is. We will get to that later. In the meantime, let's look at some compound words in Danish and discuss the basic rules and patterns that regulate their formation. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: First, let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Ben Lee says "It’s a success!" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Anna Juul as Ben Lee: Det er en succes! |
| [Recall 2] |
| Antoni: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Nanna Nielsen says "A great success!" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Anna Juul Nanna Nielsen: Det er en kæmpesucces! |
| Antoni: Forming compound words in Danish is just as simple as it is in most languages. All you need to do is place two words side by side. In our dialogue, you may have noticed that both Ben and Nanna mention the word “success.” Ben mentions the word as it is, which is, |
| Anna Juul: succes |
| Michael: On the other hand, it seems that Nanna added another word to “success,” and came up with the word, |
| Anna Juul: kæmpesucces |
| Michael: Unless you see this word written, you won’t easily recognize it as a compound word, but it actually is. It’s the combination of the words, |
| Anna Juul: kæmpe |
| Michael: which literally means “giant,” and of course, |
| Anna Juul: succes |
| Antoni: or “success.” The result is a compound word that means “great success.” The unique thing about Danish is that it has no open compound words. This is a bit tricky when translating English compound words to Danish. For instance, the open compound English word “first aid,” is translated in Danish as, |
| Anna Juul: førstehjælp |
| Michael: with no space between the words. The same is true with the word “badminton player,” which, in Danish, is, |
| Anna Juul: badmintonspiller |
| Antoni: Again, with no space separating the two adjoined words. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: So far, you've learned about compound words in Danish. These are formed when two or more words are combined. Let's look at some more examples of Danish compound words. I'm going to ask you to listen to the native speaker naming three compound words while I translate them. Let’s start with the word, |
| Anna Juul: flyvemaskine |
| Antoni: This word literally means “flying machine,” as the word, |
| Anna Juul: flyve |
| Michael: means “to fly,” and the word, |
| Anna Juul: maskine |
| Antoni: means “machine.” You guessed it. The word refers to “airplane,” which is basically a machine that flies. Next, we have the word, |
| Anna Juul: støvsuger |
| Antoni: which literally means “dust sucker.” The word, |
| Anna Juul: støv |
| Antoni: means “dust,” and the word, |
| Anna Juul: suger |
| Antoni: which means “to suck.” That gives us the word “vacuum cleaner.” And finally, we have the word, |
| Anna Juul: svømmetur |
| Antoni: This compound word is the Danish word for “a swim.” It combines the verb, |
| Anna Juul: svømme |
| Antoni: which means “to swim,” and the noun, |
| Anna Juul: tur |
| Antoni: which means “trip.” So, when you’re going on a trip to the beach, you say, |
| Anna Juul: Jeg tager en svømmetur. |
| Antoni: “I’m going for a swim.” |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Antoni: There are instances when attaching one word to another is not enough to form a compound word in Danish. In some cases, a linker is necessary. The function of a linker is to secure a smooth transition when pronouncing a compound word. One of the most common linker is, |
| Anna Juul: e |
| Antoni: This particular linker is used in compound words that describe living beings. You will observe it in compound words like |
| Anna Juul: drengecykel |
| Antoni: “boy’s bicycle,” the word consists of the words |
| Anna Juul: dreng |
| Michael: meaning "boy" and, |
| Anna Juul: cykel |
| Michael meaning "bicycle," and the linker |
| Anna Juul: e |
| Michael: in between. The next word is, |
| Anna Juul: dommedag |
| Antoni: “judgment day.” The two words linked with the linker |
| Anna Juul: e |
| Michael: are, |
| Anna Juul: dom |
| Michael: meaning "judgment," and |
| Anna Juul: dag |
| Michael: meaning "day." |
| Another linker for Danish compound words is, |
| Anna Juul: s |
| Antoni: You will see this attached when the first word of the compound word ends in, |
| Anna Juul: -hed |
| Antoni: such as in the word, |
| Anna Juul: kærlighedserklæring |
| Antoni: or “love declaration." Here the first word, |
| Anna Juul: kærlighed |
| Michael: means "love," and the second word |
| Anna Juul: erklæring |
| Michael: means "declaration." Both are linked with an |
| Anna Juul: s. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Antoni: As a Germanic language, Danish is capable of forming compound words out of necessity. In theory, it’s possible to create Danish compound words with no limit as to the number of words. However, the longest Danish compound word ever recorded is only 51 words long. It’s the word, |
| Anna Juul: Speciallægepraksisplanlægningsstabiliseringsperiode |
| Antoni: which means “a period of stabilising the planning of a specialist doctor's practice.” You won’t find this word used, however. It was first cited in the Danish version of the Guinness Book of World Records in 1993, and today, you will only encounter it online when reading text that talks about it being the longest Danish word. Another curious compound word is |
| Anna Juul: storby |
| Antoni: It consists of the adjective |
| Anna Juul: stor |
| Antoni: meaning “big”, and the noun |
| Anna Juul: by |
| Antoni: meaning “city”. To say “a big city” in Danish, you can say |
| Anna Juul: en stor by |
| Antoni: which is literally the same. The interesting thing is that there is no equivalent word in English to say this as a compound word |
| Anna Juul: storby |
| Antoni: It is a very specific word that exists in the Danish language to define a city that has more than 1 million habitants. So by saying |
| Anna Juul: en storby |
| Michael: You implicitly say that it is a big city with more than 1 million habitants. |
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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