Learn how to ask others to take a photo and to ask if you can take a photo in this Danish lesson
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| INTRODUCTION |
| How many times have you been on a trip with your camera, trying to immortalize an epic moment? In Denmark there are many amazing landscapes, buildings and people to tempt your camera that you won’t put it away! I know you don’t want to jeopardize your marvelous album in Denmark. That’s why we’ll be devoting this lesson to more photo phrases. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to ask someone to take your picture: |
| Kan du tage et billede af mig? |
| But what to do if you want to take someone else’s picture? Sometimes with people that you don’t know this request can be bothersome, and that’s why you must be as nice as you can. |
| “Excuse me, can I take your picture, please?” in Danish is: |
| Undskyld mig, må jeg tage et billede af Dem? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Undskyld mig, må jeg tage et billede af dem? |
| Once more: |
| Undskyld mig, må jeg tage et billede af dem? |
| You definitely know the meaning of Undskyld mi, so let’s explain the rest of our phrase. |
| Må is a form of the verb that can mean “may” “must” and “can”. |
| (slow) Må. |
| Må. |
| Next comes jeg, which means “I.” |
| It’s followed by a form of the verb “to take” |
| (slow) Tage. |
| Tage |
| After that comes, billede which means “picture”. |
| And in the end we have af Dem. The first word af means “of”, and this is followed by Dem which is the polite pronoun meaning “you”. |
| (slow) Af dem. |
| Af dem. |
| The whole request is |
| (slow) Undskyld mig, må jeg tage et billede af Dem? |
| Undskyld mig, må jeg tage et billede af Dem? |
| ・ |
| In situations that don’t call for politeness, such as if you’re asking to take a young person’s photo, you can ask |
| Må jeg tage et billede af dig? |
| (slow) Må jeg ta-ge et bi-lle-de af dig? |
| Må jeg tage et billede af dig? |
| The only thing we changed was the word Dem which is the polite pronoun for “you” to dig, the more informal “you”, also translated as “thee”. |
| (slow) Dig. |
| Dig. |
| Once again the whole question is |
| Må jeg tage et billede af dig? |
| ・ |
| Other situations where you’ll need permission to snap are museums, art galleries, churches and shops. |
| “Can I take pictures in here?” in Danish is |
| Må jeg tage billeder herinde? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Må jeg tage billeder herinde? |
| And once again: |
| Må jeg tage billeder herinde? |
| The first part of the question is translated as “may I take”. |
| (slow) Må jeg tage. |
| Må jeg tage. |
| Now instead of et billede, we use the plural “pictures”. |
| (slow) Billeder. |
| Billeder. |
| And lastly we have the composite that means “in here” |
| (slow) Herinde. |
| Herinde. |
| So the whole question is |
| (slow) Må jeg tage billeder herinde? |
| Må jeg tage billeder herinde? |
| For the more general question “Can I take pictures here?” simply change herinde to her. Like this: |
| Må jeg tage billeder her? |
| Once more |
| (slow) Må jeg ta-ge bi-lle-der her? |
| Må jeg tage billeder her? |
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