Fifty in Danish is halvtreds. It's short for halvtredsindstyve, which works out as "two and a half times twenty". Sixty is tres, three twenties, eighty is firs, four twenties, and seventy and ninety are the halves in between. Danes don't think about any of this when they count, and after a while you won't either. You will, however, need to hear it, and hearing is where Danish makes its learners work.
That's the short answer to how to learn Danish. The grammar is among the friendliest in Europe for English speakers, and the gap between spelling and sound is among the widest. So read and write from day one, but give listening at least as much time as grammar, learn every noun with its en or et, and talk to Danes as early as your nerves allow.
Where Danish is spoken
Danish is the language of Denmark and the mother tongue of roughly six million people. It's also used in the Faroe Islands and Greenland, both part of the Danish realm, and by the Danish minority in Southern Schleswig, just across the German border. Danish is one of the EU's official languages.
It's a North Germanic language. Written Danish and Norwegian Bokmål are so close that a Norwegian reads a Danish newspaper without effort, and Swedes aren't far behind. The spoken language is another matter: Swedes and Norwegians often say spoken Danish is the hardest of the three to follow. If you're still choosing, our guides to Norwegian and Swedish make the comparison. The alphabet has 29 letters, with æ, ø and å after z.
Why Danish grammar is the easy part
Verbs don't change for the person: jeg er, du er, hun er, vi er, "I am, you are, she is, we are". The past is var for everyone. Nouns are either common (en bil, a car) or neuter (et hus, a house), and "the" goes on the end: bilen, huset. Put an adjective in front and the article moves forward instead: den store bil, det store hus. The verb comes second in a statement, so "today I'm tired" becomes i dag er jeg træt, today am I tired. That's most of the beginner grammar, and it fits on a postcard.
The vocabulary helps too: hus, mand (man), bog (book), vinter, sommer. Watch the false friends. Frokost is lunch, not breakfast. Gift means married, and also poison. Rolig means calm.
Why it's hard to learn Danish by ear
Danish spelling is conservative, and the spoken language has moved a long way from it. Consonants soften or fade after vowels: the d in mad (food) is a weak sound close to the "th" in "this", and the h in hvad (what) is silent. Endings get swallowed. There are far more vowel sounds than vowel letters. And there's stød, a catch in the throat that can be the only difference between two words, as in hun (she) and hund (dog), where the d is silent and the stød does all the work. Rødgrød med fløde, a red berry pudding with cream, is the phrase Danes ask foreigners to say when they want to enjoy themselves.
Numbers add a layer of their own. Units come before tens, as in the old English "one-and-twenty", so 21 is enogtyve. Above forty, the tens run on twenties:
| Number | Danish | Logic |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | halvtreds | two and a half twenties |
| 60 | tres | three twenties |
| 70 | halvfjerds | three and a half twenties |
| 80 | firs | four twenties |
| 90 | halvfems | four and a half twenties |
So 76 is seksoghalvfjerds. Write prices and phone numbers out in Danish words for a week and the puzzle turns into a habit.
Danish from the page, and the ear left until later
Danish is often taught from the page. Learners spend months reading words they can't recognise when a Dane says them, because listening was treated as something to add once the grammar was finished. Some textbooks also present the formal pronoun De as if it were in daily use, when Danes say du to nearly everyone and keep De for the royal family and very formal situations. Get used to real speech early. Danish television with Danish subtitles is the cheapest teacher there is, and if you watched Borgen or The Killing in translation, watch them again in the original.
First Danish words
- Hej: hi, and hej hej is bye
- Godmorgen: good morning
- Tak, mange tak: thanks, thanks a lot
- Ja, nej: yes, no
- Undskyld: sorry, excuse me
- Jeg forstår ikke: I don't understand
- Taler du engelsk?: do you speak English?
- Hvad hedder du?: what's your name? The answer starts jeg hedder
- Farvel, vi ses: goodbye, see you
- Skål: cheers
- Tak for mad: thanks for the meal, said to whoever cooked when you're done
A realistic first month
In the first week, learn the alphabet, the greetings and the words above, and listen to a few minutes of Danish speech every day without trying to understand all of it. You're teaching your ear where words begin and end.
In the second week, collect forty nouns with en or et and their definite forms, plus the present tense, which ends in -r for everyone: jeg taler, du taler, hun taler.
In the third week, learn the numbers to a hundred and use them for real: prices, times, your phone number. Start putting a time or place first and the verb second.
In the fourth week, write short messages to a Danish speaker or another learner and ask for corrections. By then you're partway through A1, and the gap between what you can read and what you can hear has started to close.
How Qlango helps you learn Danish
Qlango teaches Danish from A1 to B2, the level where you can take part in a meeting, follow the news and hold a conversation without either side straining. Lessons are short, and spaced repetition times each review for the moment a word is about to slip. Sentence-building exercises drill the verb-second word order until it feels normal. In the chat you can write to other learners, with message translation when you're stuck and AI help to draft a reply, and a weekly learning plan and streaks keep the habit going. When you add the course, you choose the language you learn through, and the table of languages and levels shows every option.
Danish questions, answered briefly
Is Danish hard to learn?
The grammar is easy and the listening is hard. The US Foreign Service Institute's difficulty ranking for English speakers puts Danish in its easiest group, at around 24 weeks of full-time study, alongside Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish. That's why it shows up in discussions of the easiest languages to learn, at least on paper.
What does it cost to start?
Nothing: the Qlango course is free to start, and Danish television and radio online cost nothing either. Premium brings offline lessons and an AI teacher that answers questions about any word or sentence, without a limit.
Should I learn Danish, Norwegian or Swedish?
The one spoken where you live, work or have family. They're close enough that the second comes much faster than the first.
The next time someone cooks for you in Denmark, tak for mad is what to say as you stand up. Begin Qlango's A1 course this week, and write out one price a day in Danish words until halvfjerds stops looking like a riddle.
