Learn how to ask "Why?"
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| Hej, jeg hedder [name]. Hi everybody! I’m [name]. |
| Welcome to DanishClass101.com’s “Dansk på 3 minutter”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Danish. |
| In the last lesson, you learned how to ask "Who" questions in Danish. |
| In this last lesson, you are going to learn how to ask questions with the interrogative word "Why?" |
| Imagine your boss is giving you a call because you are not at work today... He will certainly ask you Hvorfor er du ikke på arbejde i dag? |
| [slowly] Hvorfor er du ikke på arbejde i dag? |
| So let’s break down this question. |
| First we had- |
| Hvorfor, which is the basic translation of "Why" in Danish. |
| er is the present tense of the verb at være. |
| du is the word for “you”. |
| Then ikke which is "not”. |
| Then på arbejde means “at work” |
| And finally i dag which is "today" |
| All together, it is Hvorfor er du ikke på arbejde i dag? |
| So in Danish, Hvorfor is the exact translation of "Why", and it’s used to ask the reason for something. |
| So for example, if your boss is asking you "Why are you late today?" he will say Hvorfor er du forsinket i dag? |
| Here, he uses "Why" in order to get explanations and reasons. |
| Let’s look at some other uses for hvorfor. |
| If someone says something you don’t agree with, you can tell them hvorfor tror du det? “Why do you think that?” |
| [slowly] Hvorfor tror du det? |
| Or if you are upset about the train being late you can ask someone, hvorfor er toget forsinket? “Why is the train late?” |
| [slowly] hvorfor er toget forsinket? |
| The answer to these questions could then easily be... |
| Jeg ved ikke hvorfor. “I don’t know why.” |
| [slowly] Jeg ved ikke hvorfor. |
| Now it’s time for [name]’s Insights. |
| A famous expression in Denmark is Hvorfor ikke? which means, as in English, "Why not?" |
| You can use it to accept a proposition if you agree but that you are not really keen to do it. Or, if it was not planned in advance. |
| For example if a friend asks you suddenly "Do you want to go to the cinema tonight?" |
| You can answer Hvorfor ikke? "Why not?" |
| Before ending this lesson, Let’s review all the ways to translate "Why" in Danish- |
| - Hvorfor is the basic translation of "Why," as in Hvorfor er du forsinket? "Why are you late?" |
| - Jeg ved ikke hvorfor. which is "I don’t know the reason.” |
| Finally, Hvorfor ikke? is "Why not?" |
| This lesson is the last of this Absolute Beginner video series. |
| But it’s hopefully not the last you learn about the Danish language! To take your language ability to the next level, check out DanishClass101.com, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Danish. |
| Hav det godt! |
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