Language/Danish/Grammar/Questions-and-Negations
Introduction
In this lesson, we will learn how to form questions and negations in Danish. Mastering these two sentence structures is essential for any beginner who wants to communicate in Danish. Understanding how to build interrogative and negative sentences will unlock many conversations and increase your confidence in speaking Danish.
Learning Danish grammar can be challenging for native speakers of English since their sentence structures differ vastly. In Danish, we especially use word order to convey the meaning of sentences, rather than using auxiliary verbs to form questions and negations like in English. However, fear not! With this guide, you will be able to master Danish's peculiar structures and speak with confidence.
Word Order in Questions
To form a question in Danish, you typically invert the position of the subject and the verb. Unlike English, we don't add an auxiliary verb in front of the subject to make a question. Let's look at some examples:
| Danish | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| Er du en studerende? | Ehr doo en stu-dehr-EN-deh? | Are you a student? |
| Spiser du morgenmad? | SPEE-ser doo MOR-gen-mahd? | Do you eat breakfast? |
| Arbejder I sammen? | AHR-beh-yer ee SAM-men? | Do you work together? |
| Har han en bil? | Hahr hahn en bil? | Does he have a car? |
Notice how we place the subject after the verb in questions. Also, when speaking, Danish speakers raise their intonation towards the end of the sentence to indicate that it's a question.
If the sentence contains an interrogative word such as "hvad" (what) or "hvor" (where), the word order slightly changes. The verb still goes in the second position, but the interrogative word goes at the beginning of the sentence. For example:
| Danish | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| Hvornår kommer du? | HVOHR-nohr KOH-mer doo? | When are you coming? |
| Hvor bor du? | Hvohr bohr doo? | Where do you live? |
| Hvad spiser I? | Hvahd SPEE-ser ee? | What are you eating? |
| Hvilken bog læser du? | HIHL-ken boh lE-sahr doo? | Which book are you reading? |
Notice how the interrogative word comes first in the sentence, followed by the verb and then the subject.
Word Order in Negations
To form a negative sentence in Danish, we use "ikke" after the verb. "Ikke" means "not." The word order is similar to English, but the position of "ikke" differs. Let's look at some examples:
| Danish | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| Jeg spiser ikke brød. | Yai SPEE-ser IK-keh broth. | I do not eat bread. |
| Vi har ikke tid. | Vee har IK-keh tiid. | We do not have time. |
| De arbejder ikke sammen. | Deh AHR-beh-yer IK-keh SAM-men. | They do not work together. |
| Han ser ikke film. | Hahn sehr IK-keh film. | He does not watch movies. |
Notice how we use "ikke" right after the verb to negate the sentence.
Interrogative and Negative Sentences in Combination
When forming a negative question in Danish, we apply both the rules for negations and questions. We invert the position of the subject and verb and place "ikke" after the verb. Let's look at some examples:
| Danish | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| Spiser du ikke brød? | SPEE-ser doo IK-keh broth? | Do you not eat bread? |
| Arbejder I ikke sammen? | AHR-beh-yer ee IK-keh SAM-men? | Do you not work together? |
| Har han ikke bil? | Hahr hahn IK-keh bil? | Does he not have a car? |
| Ser du ikke film? | Sehr doo IK-keh film? | Do you not watch movies? |
Notice how we invert the verb and subject positions, just like we do in questions, and then add "ikke" after the verb.
Conclusion
In this lesson, we learned how to form questions and negations in Danish by altering the word order and using specific words. Once you master these two sentence structures, you will be able to communicate more effectively in Danish. Keep practicing with exercises and speaking with native speakers to refine your skills in Danish grammar. In the next lesson, we will learn about numbers, dates, and time in Danish.