Learn how to ask, "Where is the bathroom?"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| In this lesson, we’ll cover an extremely important phrase: “Where is the bathroom?”. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| To ask “Where is the bathroom?” Danes use this sentence: Hvor er badeværelset? This is used mostly when visiting someone at home, a private space. |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Hvor er badeværelset? |
| Once more: |
| Hvor er badeværelset? |
| The phrase hvor er is equivalent to the expression “where is” and is very useful. |
| (slow) Hvor er. |
| Hvor er |
| And as mentioned before, badeværelset is “the bathroom.” |
| But in Danish, the most commonly used question would be Hvor er toilettet? meaning “Where is the toilet?” especially if you are looking for it at a restaurant or shop. |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Hvor er toilettet? |
| Once more: |
| Hvor er toilettet? |
| The word, toilettet, means “the toilet.” |
| (slow) Toilettet. |
| Toillettet. |
| Let’s hear the whole question one more time. |
| (slow) Hvor er toilettet? |
| Hvor er toilettet? |
| ・ |
| If you are looking for the ladies’ room, just take the phrase we learned before, Hvor er toilettet? and add dame to the beginning of the word toilettet. It will sound like this: |
| Hvor er dametoilettet? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Hvor er dametoilettet? |
| Once more: |
| Hvor er dametoilettet? |
| Dametoilettet can be translated as “ladies’”. It is formed by adding “dame” to the word toilettet. Dame is the Danish word for “lady.” |
| (slow) da-me-toi-le-ttet. |
| dametoilettet. |
| Let’s repeat the whole question. |
| (slow) Hvor er dametoilettet? |
| Once more: |
| Hvor er dametoilettet? |
| If you are looking for the men’s room, just replace the word dametoilettet meaning “ladies’” with herretoilettet meaning “mens’”. |
| Hvor er herretoilettet? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Hvor er herretoilettet? |
| Hvor er herretoilettet? |
| Herre means “gentleman.” |
| (slow) Herre. |
| Herre. |
| Let’s hear it one more time: |
| (slow) Hvor er herretoilettet? |
| Hvor er herretoilettet? |
| As in other countries, you might see words on the door to the toilet or indicating the way. In English they are usually “Ladies’” and “Gents’” |
| As we’ve heard, the word for “lady” is dame. |
| And for “gentleman,” it was herre. |
| So the words on the sign for “ladies’”would be Damer. The plural form of dame. |
| (slow) Da-mer. |
| Damer. |
| And the word for the “gents’” is herrer. The plural of herre. |
| (slow) Herrer. |
| Herrer. |
| In Denmark, it may not always be simple to find a toilet. Especially if you are on the street you will definitely want to ask: “Where is the nearest toilet?”. In Danish, that is translated as: |
| Hvor er det nærmeste toilet? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Hvor er det nærmeste toilet? |
| Once more: |
| Hvor er det nærmeste toilet? |
| The new words in this sentence are det nærmeste. Altogether in English, this is “the nearest”. |
| (slow) Det nær-mes-te. |
| Det nærmeste. |
| Let’s hear the whole sentence again. |
| Hvor er det nærmeste toilet? |
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