A Danish Vocabulary List For Learners
If you don’t know where to start learning Danish, we made a Danish vocabulary list for you. You can use this as your personal list for vocabulary recap every week. The Danish words are listed by how often they are used. We also provide you with detailed grammatical information, and part of speech. We also provide you with IPA phonetic spelling, so you always know how to pronounce words correctly. Each entry comes with a bilingual sample sentence, so you can see them being used in context. They also provide you with bilingual reading practice.
MostUsedWords Frequency Dictionaries can be downloaded as ebooks from our website. They are also available as paperbacks on Amazon. These dictionaries provide vocabulary in various levels of fluency: beginners, intermediates, advanced, and near-fluent vocabulary for learners. These links above are affiliate links. Meaning, we might get a small commission if you make a purchase through these links, at no extra cost to you.
How Many Words Should You Know To Achieve Fluency At Different Levels?
Beginner – 250 to 500 words should suffice if you are just beginning to learn a language. You'll be able to hold basic conversations and navigate in tourist situations after just one week of studying. 500 words is enough to get you through everyday life in most languages.
Conversational – With only 1,000 to 3,000 words, you can communicate in almost all languages. You can then ask people about their day and tell them how you are doing.
Advanced – You will become more fluent in a language by learning between 4,000 and 10,000 words. This will allow you to use more specific vocabulary to discuss professional topics, current events, opinions and other complex topics. The 5000 most common Danish words bundle will allow you to take your language skills up a notch.
Fluent – With around 10,000 words in your vocabulary, you can speak about almost any topic with ease. Additionally, you can recognize unfamiliar words with enough knowledge.
Native – Word counts in different languages are not the same, so it can be difficult to estimate how many words native speakers know. An estimate of the number of words a native English speaker could know ranges between 10,000 and 65,000+
Danish Vocabulary List
The Foundation
These are the most commonly used words you can find in the Danish vocabulary. This is the key on how you can construct the most basic sentences or answers to basic questions.
Ja means “yes”
ingen means “no”
forstår du? means “do you understand?”
Jeg forstår det ikke means “I don’t understand”
Jeg ved ikke means “I don’t know”
jeg er faret vild means “I'm lost”
Jeg har ingen ide means “I have no idea”
jeg taler ikke dansk means “I don’t speak Danish”
Introduce Yourself
Maybe you found yourself in a situation where you need to meet and chat with someone you don’t know. Here are some ways to introduce yourself to them:
Mit navn er… means “my name is…”
Jeg er… means “I’m…”
Hvad hedder du? means “what is your name?”
Jeg er fra… means “I am from…”
What’s Up
These are ways to ask someone what’s going on with their lives or a specific situation. You can use these Danish words and phrases to start small talks:
Hvordan har du det? means “how are you?”
hvad så? means “what’s up?”
hvordan går det? means “how‘s it going?”
hvad laver du? means “what are you doing?”
hvad sker der? means “what is happening?”
Etiquette Words
Etiquette can bring you to places around the world! Learn these polite Danish words:
selv tak! means “you’re welcome!”
Vær venlig means “please”
undskyld mig means “excuse me”
undskyld means “sorry”
tak skal du have means “thank you”
Velsigne dig means “bless you”
Essential Questions
These are the key questions you might use any time to any context:
hvad? means “what?”
WHO? means “who?”
hvornår? means “when?”
hvor? means “where?”
hvorfor? means “why?”
hvilken? means “which?”
hvordan? means “how?”
Danish Pronouns
Pronouns are essential to make our sentences clearer, less awkward, and smoother. It is important to consider the gender of the noun to address them accordingly:
jeg means “I”
du means “you”
han means “he”
hun means “she”
vi means “we”
de means “they”
Greetings
It’s a nice thing to know how to greet other people. You can start with a simple hej!:
hej means “hello”
god morgen means “good morning”
god eftermiddag means “good afternoon”
god aften means “good evening”
godnat means “good night”
Saying Goodbye
It is polite to say "goodbye" and let the other person know you are leaving before you go:
farvel means “goodbye”
vi ses senere means “see you later”
vi ses means “see you”
uvidíme means “see you tomorrow”
Pas på! means “take care!”
hav en god dag! means “have a nice day!”
Vi ses snart! means “see you soon!”
hav en god tur! means “have a good trip!”
Days of the Week
Talking about specific times or dates, you should know how to say the days of the week:
Søndag means “Sunday”
Mandag means “Monday”
Tirsdag means “Tuesday”
Onsdag means “Wednesday”
Torsdag means “Thursday”
Fredag means “Friday”
Lørdag means “Saturday”
Other Time Words
Of course you can’t miss the general terms used to address the time! Here are some:
forgårs means “day before yesterday”
i går means “yesterday”
år means “year”
dag means “day”
måned means “month”
århundrede means “century”
time means “hour”
i dag means “today”
uge means “week”
daggry means “dawn”
i morgen means “tomorrow”
morgen means “morning”
midnat means “midnight”
middag means “noon”
minut means “minute”
nat means “night”
overmorgen means “day after tomorrow”
sekunder means “seconds”
eftermiddag means “afternoon”
Nuclear Family
Addressing your family member is necessary, isn't it? You should know how to address them in your target language so that when you speak to them or talk about them with others, they would know who you are talking about:
far means “father” or “dad”
matka means “mother”
mor means “mother” or “mom”
bror means “brother”
søster means “sister”
søn means “son”
datter means “daughter”
tæt familie means “close family”
Personality and Emotions
With these Danish words, you can describe your feelings and other people’s character:
glad means “joyful”
sjov means “funny”
alvorlig means “serious”
genert means “shy”
modig means “brave”
helt vildt means “crazy”
indhold means “content”
lykkelig means “happy”
bekymret means “worried”
nervøs means “nervous”
rolig means “tranquil”
berolige means “calm”
begejstret means “excited”
Start Learning Today!
Although we provided you with a general Danish vocabulary list in this article, it isn’t enough to achieve a level of actual fluency in the language. Learn more with MostUsedWords Frequency Dictionaries! Each dictionary follows the same layout. The only thing that differs is the range of vocabulary. You can download them as ebooks on our website, or as paperbacks on Amazon.
Each of the dictionaries contains English translations of the Danish words, accompanied by example sentences to know the right use of words in context. Each word also has IPA phonetic spelling as pronunciation guide, as well as a detailed part of speech information!
You can expand your vocabulary by learning new words through context. Reading can help you to understand the flow and grammar since this mimics natural language learning and will help you learn new vocabulary by allowing you to use context. You'll be able to retain words quicker if you are exposed to them repeatedly.