Thank you! Why has nobody told me this before? I tried to learn Danish years ago after I went to Aarhus and fell in love with the place. The soft D had me defeated but nobody ever said about the bottom teeth. Now I try it, it works. You're a legend!
After hearing more Danish vocal samples that had words with the soft D, I came to the conclusion that the soft D in Danish is an approximant of the eth sound and an approximant of the D sound, or like maybe 30% to 38% of a normal D sound, whereas the eth sound ð is 60% to 80% of a D sound, the eth sound being a less obvious D sound, so, the soft D is basically a ‘dilute’ version of the eth sound, or, an even less obvious D sound than the eth sound and a less obvious eth sound, so to speak, and it’s probably a vestige of the eth sound, as Norse has the eth sound and also the thorn sound and the normal D and T sounds, so it would be very logical for this sound to be just that - I also noticed that there are a few different variations of this sound, so in words like hedder and sidder it is slightly more pronounced and one can kinda tell that it’s a D-based sound from those two words, but then in words like med and blød and ned etc it is extremely subtle and it’s not even easy to hear it well, and in words like these it can kinda sound a bit like an L-based sound sometimes when some ppl say those words, but maybe it’s not supposed to be that way, because when most speakers of Danish say it I don’t usually hear those L-like undertones! (In words like rødt the T is pronounced more like a normal D sound, by the way, so, rødt sounds more like reod in the standard Danish accent!)
From what I could hear from the main vocal technique used by most speakers of Danish, it kinda sounds like the technique used to speak Danish is kinda similar to the singing technique used by Shakira to get that specific sound, so spoken Danish with the standard Danish accent kinda reminds me of that style of singing used by Shakira, and it also reminds me a lot of the type of belting style used by the singer from the band Skáld that sang the songs Grótti and Hross and Santiano etc which has that bagpipe-like quality to it, so that sound projection and placement are probably similar to the sound projection and to the sound placement used by most speakers of Danish, so maybe one needs to speak in a ‘belted way’ and say the Danish words in ways that are similar to those singing techniques to get that Danish sound, as I noticed that when speakers of Danish speak in a quieter way that is more normal it doesn’t sound as Danish as when speaking in a belted way, because belting and speaking in a louder way makes those Danish nuances become more pronounced and more enhanced, and, it also seems to be easier to get that typical Danish sound when trying to speak in a higher pitch, and when fully engaging the diaphragmatic muscles, as Danish is spoken with some type of mavebevægelse aka stomach movement, and it has a certain rhythm and some interesting intonations, plus it has the glottal stops and the vowel-controlled Rs and the R-controlled vowels etc, which are all very important elements that contribute to the creation of that typical Danish sound - so, one has to listen to a lot of spoken Danish and observe the vocal techniques and sound projection / placement and intonations etc used by native speakers, and the tones and the level of loudness etc, and regularly trying to replicate the exact sounds, and trying many different sound placements and many different ways of projecting the sounds at different intensities and with different tones and intonations etc, until one gets that right combination which creates the right Danish sound / accent, and also working on maintaining that sound throughout the full sentences, so that everything sounds very natural, so, one also has to learn all the words very automatically, by revising each word at least thirty times actively over a longer period of time, and by also hearing each word fifty times or hundreds of times etc when spoken by natives in a more passive way, for example, while reading the Danish subtitles or while watching a video with words that one has learnt by heart and just focusing on the pronunciation and letting it ‘sink in’ instead of focusing on the actual subtitles, which is also a good way to also practice listening, and not just reading!
I am learning Danish and the other Norse / Germanic languages and the Celtic languages etc at the moment, and I must admit that Danish pronunciation is so complicated, as it’s done with powerful stomach moves and glottal stops aka the Danish stød and like a zillion nuances / variations of the vowel sounds, so it’s like one gets some real exercise while speaking Danish, and the Danish accent is almost as hard to imitate as the German accent, so I would say Danish and German are the Germanic languages with the most complicated phonology and accents - on the other hand, languages such as Norse and Gothic and Icelandic and Dutch and English and Welsh and Breton and Cornish have the accents that are the easiest to imitate (naturally very easy to imitate) and very easy pronunciations, except for the LL sound in Welsh which is one of the unusual sounds that aren’t easy to figure out how to do, like the soft D in Danish, which I am still not sure if it has an L sound in there or if it’s just an approximant of the eth sound (which is a less obvious D sound) or another approximant of D or a mix of both, as no one knows how to explain this sound correctly, like, what exactly they are trying to say to get the right sound, which is actually pretty subtle and not easy to hear in most words! So, one really has to practice accents and pronunciation a lot in languages like Danish and German if one wants to sound native and natural - and, I don’t really like to say that a language is hard, but Danish pronunciation and the Danish accent are definitely a real challenge, but, they sound so cool, so, even though learning Danish requires a lot more practice than most other Germanic languages, getting the right Danish accent and that typical Danish sound in the end is going to be very rewarding and it’s going to feel so good, as Danish is one of those super cool-sounding languages that are perfect to show off with, like Norse and Gothic and Icelandic and Faroese and English and Dutch and Norwegian and Welsh and Breton and Cornish etc, so, as one can imagine, being able to develop a native accent in Danish would feel so awesome! Another thing is, those teaching the sounds aren’t always explaining the sounds correctly, and sometimes say that one must say the er etc with flat A / schwa sound, but in truth, the ar / er / ir / or / ur / ør letter combinations in Danish (and in German) are not supposed to be pronounced with regular / normal / flat vowel sounds, but with R-controlled vowels / vowel-controlled soft Rs that can have very subtle R sounds sometimes tho they are still in there (some English words and some Faroese words also have some of those sounds with R-controlled vowels and vowel-controlled Rs, which can have different variations) tho in Danish words like er the R sound is more pronounced, so it sounds kinda like the German word der without the D sound, kinda like ear or euhr (I use uh for the schwa sound or some schwa-based sound) with a soft R sound under the vowel sound, these also being an essential element that contributes to the creation of that typical Danish sound - besides, Danish has a totally non-relaxed pronunciation, like English and Dutch and German etc, which is one of the things that give it that unique modern sound, and that means that when one speaks Danish the muscles involved in speaking are automatically tensed up 100 percent, tho it’s something one does subconsciously, so one may not be realizing that one is tensing up and placing the sound in a certain way, and each language has a different sound placement and a different way of projecting the sound actually, and, it’s naturally easy to do that in English (to figure out the right placement and in which way to do this tensing up of the muscles involved in speaking etc) and even in Dutch, so I can hear lots of ppl that sound like native speakers in English and Dutch, but for some reason, it’s not easy to find the right sound placement and the right way of tensing up in languages like Danish and German and the right way of protecting the sound in that outward way, which is also one of the reasons why their accents are not easy to imitate, having a very outward and open projection, whereas in Dutch and English the sound is projected in a more normal way and sometimes in a closed way as in Dutch, so, I haven’t heard anyone yet that can do the Danish accent and sound naturally and native-like, and even I cannot get the right Danish accent yet, even though I am naturally good at imitating accents and knowing how the sound is made, so, I should be able to do the Danish accent, but when it comes to actually trying to imitate it myself, it’s like even my Rs aren’t working anymore, so I don’t know what am I not doing right!
Great explanation! Thank you! Have you ever thought of doing a Podcast for people learning Danish? I listen to Podcast Italiano regularly to improve my Italian. I'm searching all over for something similar in Danish.
i am trying to learn danish for my girlfriend (who is danish, of course) and i've had issues pronouncing the r and soft d until i came across this channel. thank you so much!!!
Thank you so much! I'm a beginner and yesterday I heard about this soft D and I was terrified, to be honest, but after this video I know exactly how to pronounce it!
It took me a while to figure it out, because it isn’t an actual D sound, so I was so confused about it, and couldn’t really understand what this sound really was for months! It’s nothing like a D sound, so it’s very confusing when it’s referred to as a soft D and even the ones that made the Danish ipa confused it with the eth sound ð which is used in Icelandic and Norse and in English words like then / the / this etc and in the Spanish word nada etc, which is a very different sound! It’s kinda like one of the Rs in Faroese that isn’t a true R sound, but a J sound, like the J in the French word je and like in the English word treasure, so I was very confused by this sound as well, and it took me a while to figure it out! But now I finally understand what these sounds are! And I think I just pronounced the Danish sound after watching this, but it’s not easy to hear it, so it’s a very subtle sound, but when some ppl pronounce it can sound stronger, I don’t know...
thank you so much! I have been frustrated with this sound for so long without realizing this was the problem! thanks to you I am one step to pronouncing brød correctly 😂
Recap 🤗🤞😊 Super useful and easy rules! Soft d never occurs at the beginning of the words. It is neither l nor th. ≧﹏≦ Tip of the tongue + bottom of front teeth When to say ‘Soft D’ ? 1 vowels followed by d or dd : Vowels are 💁: a, e i, o, u, y, æ, ø, å hvid, Frede, billeder, sidde, federe, hade, stod, ud, ad, mad, ud ,lyd, glad, blad, blod, ned, nehed, blød, side or the vowel after d: snyde "udsigten". Here we DO say the soft d, as the ds is not in the same syllable (ud-sigt-en)! sidder, hedder (double d would make the pronounciation of vowel shorter ) 2 When we have et in the end of the word : meget, Nettet, vejret, året, huset When Not use ‘soft d’ ? 1 When we have vowel and ds : sidse , bedst, tilfreds 2 dt . Just pronounce t sound. midt, hvidt, rødt, godt, fedt, sidste, Let us keep practising together 😎 🍀
this was so helpful!! I'm finally picking up danish again and realizing all the mistakes I made when I was learning it years ago haha, my teacher never explained how to actually /make/ this sound, we just repeated it and most people ended up using a regular L sound :o
Okay,let me just say thanks in advance and how this video might just save me from feeling hopeless about the soft d,as u may know, soft d is the death of so many eager danish learners. But with ur clear explanation I’m so close to cracking it, thank you thank you thank you! ❤️
Very good. Native dane here, who form the soft D at the front palate just behind the front teeth. Though more suttle than the british TH. I think the pronounciation behind the teeth is more safe for foreginers, as it is more distinct and easier to repeat.
Hi Vik, I find all kinds of theoretical approaches to learn a language kind of boring, school systems don't fit me. But your teachings i like a lot, not in the last place for your sense of humor. Next to your teachings, ik listen often to "learn Danish while you sleep, it works for me. Duolingo also works for me.Thank you so much, keep on with the good work!
Tausind tak skal du have! I must honestly thank you for your amazing work, you pronounce the words so well and distinguishable, many of the other speaker make a conjunction and for example instead of Jeg elsker dig say jelsker dig and it becomes impossible to pinpoint the exact pronunciation, I have kind of obsessively started learning Danish in the last three days and watched over 100+ videos, but your video on the silent d also includes reading rules, amazing work!
There are many more rules, by the way, but they're better learnt through experience. I try to keep my lessons informative while not overloading them with technical info about the language because it's not that that makes you able to speak. Sticking words together and dropping sounds is a sign of fluency, but I agree, it's hard to become fluent unless you know what you're saying!
I somehow ended up looking how to pronounce this soft D at 5am, but now my curiosity has been sated. Thank you very much! I might have to start learning Danish sometime now. :p
Thank you! This is the best explanation I found so far. You are explaining it exactly how I need it: tongue placement and the shape of the inside of the mouth.
Hej InDanish. Jeg er underviser i dansk som andetsprog og dansk er mit modersmål. Jeg er imponeret over din viden omkring dansk og dansk udtale, og jeg synes, du formidler det på en superpræcis måde. Godt gået.
It very easy to learn the Danish words, as Norse / Germanic languages are the easiest languages to learn and they use the Latin alphabet which is the easiest to read and use etc, whereas Russian is a category 5 language with words that are extremely hard to memorize and learn, that uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which is not easy to read and use, so it should be easy to learn the Danish words themselves, even though the Danish accent is not easy to imitate and the Danish pronunciation can be quite complicated, so, even though the pronunciation in Russian is easier than in Danish, because Russian uses normal / relaxed pronunciation and a more normal sound projection and placement, learning the words themselves and using / reading / typing the language etc are way easier in Danish and other Germanic languages - I recommend learning Danish together with the other prettiest languages ever created Norse / Gothic / Icelandic / Faroese / English / Dutch / Norwegian / Welsh / Breton / Cornish as they are equally gorgeous and way too pretty not to know, and, I recommend practicing the Danish accent and pronunciation a lot, as Danish has a very unusual sound projection and placement and things such as glottal stops aka the Danish stød, and it uses a 100% non-relaxed pronunciation like English and Dutch and German etc, which are some of the elements that give Danish that unique modern sound that sounds so cool, though it’s more similar to German when it comes to sound projection and placement, and that’s one of the reasons why getting the right Danish accent isn’t easy like getting the right neutral American accent and the right Dutch accent etc, Danish and German being the languages with the accents that are the hardest to imitate and the most complicated pronunciation of all Germanic languages!
I am learning Danish and the other Norse / Germanic languages and the Celtic languages etc at the moment, and I must admit that Danish pronunciation is so complicated, and it’s done with powerful stomach moves and glottal stops aka the Danish stød and like a zillion nuances / variations of the vowel sounds, so it’s like one gets some real exercise while speaking Danish, and the Danish accent is almost as hard to imitate as the German accent, so I would say Danish and German are the Germanic languages with the most complicated phonology and accents - on the other hand, languages such as Norse and Gothic and Icelandic and Dutch and English and Welsh and Breton and Cornish have the accents that are the easiest to imitate (naturally very easy to imitate) and very easy pronunciations, except for the LL sound in Welsh which is one of the unusual sounds that aren’t easy to figure out how to do, like the soft D in Danish, which I am still not sure if it has an L sound in there or if it’s just an approximant of the eth sound (which is a less obvious D sound) or another approximant of D or a mix of both, as no one knows how to explain this sound correctly, like, what exactly they are trying to say to get the right sound, which is actually pretty subtle and not easy to hear in most words! Another thing is, those teaching the sounds aren’t always explaining the sounds correctly, and sometimes say that one must say the er etc with flat A / schwa sound, but in truth, the ar / er / ir / or / ur / ør letter combinations in Danish (and in German) are not supposed to be pronounced with regular / normal / flat vowel sounds, but with R-controlled vowels / vowel-controlled soft Rs that can have very subtle R sounds sometimes tho they are still in there (some English words and some Faroese words also have some of those sounds with R-controlled vowels and vowel-controlled Rs, which can have different variations) tho in Danish words like er the R sound is more pronounced, so it sounds kinda like the German word der without the D sound, kinda like ear or euhr (I use uh for the schwa sound or some schwa-based sound) with a soft R sound under the vowel sound, these also being an essential element that contributes to the creation of that typical Danish sound - besides, Danish has a totally non-relaxed pronunciation, like English and Dutch and German etc, which is one of the things that give it that unique modern sound, and that means that when one speaks Danish the muscles involved in speaking are automatically tensed up 100 percent, tho it’s something one does subconsciously, so one may not be realizing that one is tensing up and placing the sound in a certain way, and each language has a different sound placement and a different way of projecting the sound actually, and, it’s naturally easy to do that in English (to figure out the right placement and in which way to do this tensing up of the muscles involved in speaking etc) and even in Dutch, so I can hear lots of ppl that sound like native speakers in English and Dutch, but for some reason, it’s not easy to find the right sound placement and the right way of tensing up in languages like Danish and German and the right way of protecting the sound in that outward way, which is also one of the reasons why their accents are not easy to imitate, having a very outward and open projection, whereas in Dutch and English the sound is projected in a more normal way and sometimes in a closed way as in Dutch, so, I haven’t heard anyone yet that can do the Danish accent and sound naturally and native-like, and even I cannot get the right Danish accent yet, even though I am naturally good at imitating accents and knowing how the sound is made, so, I should be able to do the Danish accent, but when it comes to actually trying to imitate it myself, it’s like even my Rs aren’t working anymore, so I don’t know what am I not doing right! Re the soft D in Danish, I must say that, after hearing more Danish vocal samples that had words with the soft D pronounced by many native and non-native speakers, I came to the conclusion that the soft D in Danish is an approximant of the eth sound and an approximant of the D sound, or like maybe 30% to 38% of a normal D sound, whereas the eth sound ð is 60% to 80% of a D sound, the eth sound being a less obvious D sound, so, the soft D is basically a ‘dilute’ version of the eth sound, or, an even less obvious D sound than the eth sound and a less obvious eth sound, so to speak, and it’s probably a vestige of the eth sound, as Norse has the eth sound and also the thorn sound and the normal D and T sounds, so it would be very logical for this sound to be just that - I also noticed that there are a few different variations of this sound, so in words like hedder and sidder it is slightly more pronounced and one can kinda tell that it’s a D-based sound from those two words, but then in words like med and blød and ned etc it is extremely subtle and it’s not even easy to hear it well, and in words like these it can kinda sound a bit like an L-based sound sometimes when some ppl say those words, but maybe it’s not supposed to be that way, because when most speakers of Danish say it I don’t usually hear those L-like undertones, and, in words like rødt the T is pronounced more like a normal D sound, by the way, so, rødt sounds more like reod in the standard Danish accent!
From what I could hear from the main vocal technique used by most speakers of Danish, it kinda sounds like the technique used to speak Danish is kinda similar to the singing technique used by Shakira to get that specific sound, so spoken Danish with the standard Danish accent kinda reminds me of that style of singing used by Shakira, and it also reminds me a lot of the type of belting style used by the singer from the band Skáld that sang the songs Grótti and Hross and Santiano etc which has that bagpipe-like quality to it, so that sound projection and placement are probably similar to the sound projection and to the sound placement used by most speakers of Danish, so maybe one needs to speak in a ‘belted way’ and say the Danish words in ways that are similar to those singing techniques to get that Danish sound, as I noticed that when speakers of Danish speak in a quieter way that is more normal it doesn’t sound as Danish as when speaking in a belted way, because belting and speaking in a louder way makes those Danish nuances become more pronounced and more enhanced, and, it also seems to be easier to get that typical Danish sound when trying to speak in a higher pitch, and when fully engaging the diaphragmatic muscles, as Danish is spoken with some type of mavebevægelse aka stomach movement, and it has a certain rhythm and some interesting intonations, plus it has the glottal stops and the vowel-controlled Rs and the R-controlled vowels etc, which are all very important elements that contribute to the creation of that typical Danish sound, so, one has to listen to a lot of spoken Danish and observe the vocal techniques and sound projection / placement and intonations etc used by native speakers, and the tones and the level of loudness etc, and regularly trying to replicate the exact sounds, and trying many different sound placements and many different ways of projecting the sounds at different intensities and with different tones and intonations etc, until one gets that right combination which creates the right Danish sound / accent, and also working on maintaining that sound throughout the full sentences, so that everything sounds very natural, so, one also has to learn all the words very automatically, by revising each word at least thirty times actively over a longer period of time, and by also hearing each word fifty times or hundreds of times etc when spoken by natives in a more passive way, for example, while reading the Danish subtitles or while watching a video with words that one has learnt by heart and just focusing on the pronunciation and letting it ‘sink in’ instead of focusing on the actual subtitles, which is also a good way to also practice listening, and not just reading!
EXCELLENT!!! I was particularly happy to hear you explan how the glottal stop and the Danish stød are produced in different parts of the body. I had that feeling earlier today, but it was just a vague suspicion. It was very nice to hear it explained so clearly. Thank you very much!
I think another difference is that the Danish stød is not a true stop, but more like a type of "creaky voice". Rather than a complete cutting off of airflow at the glottis, the arytenoid cartilages of the larynx are drawn together and the vocal folds are compressed but also slackened, while air continues to be pushed through, so you get this slow, irregular rate of vibration instead of the typical modal voicing.
Thank you so much. You explained it so well. But now I'm wondering how that sound earned the name "soft D." It doesn't sound like it's related to a D at all. If anything, L is the soft D and that sound should have its own name.
IKR? It’s nothing like a D sound, so it’s very confusing when it’s referred to as a soft D and even the ones that made the Danish ipa confused it with the eth sound ð which is used in Icelandic and Norse and in English words like then / the / this etc and in the Spanish word nada etc, which is a very different sound! It’s kinda like one of the Rs in Faroese that isn’t a true R sound, but a J sound, like the J in the French word je and like in the English word treasure, so I was very confused by this sound as well, and it took me a while to figure it out! But now I finally understand what these sounds are! And I think I just pronounced the Danish sound after watching this, but it’s not easy to hear it, so it’s a very subtle sound, but when some ppl pronounce it can sound stronger, I don’t know...
Iam just practicing on duolingo, and the only word that i can't say is "Brød" and "Brødet" i tried billion times like a crazy person, but i just can't do it, please help me, do u guys have any tips or something? Lol
Silent D's in danish though, can have an S following it. Which might cause some confusion among foreigners if they are thinking soft D and not silent D. The name and surname Mads / Madsen are one example of this. Another is ridse or bedste.
I always thought that our D is the english TH said backwards !! But an awful lot of Danes have never pronounced the soft D but instead use an Y or I, just to confuse matters !
Please, I'm from Brazil and I'm going to Denmark this year, thank you very much for this video! I have a doubt, I was trying to do this sound and I've been always touching the back part tongue on back roof of mouth, for me it's how sounds to me, so... The back part of the tongue touches the back roof of the mouth?
It should be the middle of the tongue + the roof of the mouth. The tip of your tongue is behind your bottom front teeth and the sound is made when the middle of your tongue rises up to the roof. Your throat shouldn't be involved unless there's a glottal stop. For example, 'hedde' is pronounced [ˈheðə] but in the past tense 'hed' it's [ˈheðˀ] with the glottal stop. Hope this helps 🙃
Thank you @Júlio César S for asking this question and @InDanish for your reply! 🙂 I have myself also been wondering whether the middle of the tongue is meant to touch the roof of the mouth! I saw one video which said that the middle of the tongue is meant to go _close to_ the roof and upper teeth _without_ actually touching - but if I try this then it seems to sound nothing like what I actually hear when people say the soft D.
@@juliannewman2ndchannelmusi475 I think what people mean when they say that is that in most Danish dialects soft D is pronounced as an approximant (like L or R) and not a fricative (like S) or a stop (like hard D). [Some people pronounce it as a fricative, but this is much more rare.] So, there's not enough closure to stop airflow, and not enough to produce turbulence, but there can still be touching in certain places as long as the air flows freely around it.
That's a hilarious sound and I can't stop laughing by pronouncing it. Not to make fun of the language, all natural languages are goofy in their own right, it's only natural.
It still sounds like a bit like the Dutch L to me, which is pretty low in the mouth. It's extra suspicious that the Danish word 'mad' translates as meal (Eng), maal (Dutch) and Mahl (German). ;-)
My particular dialect of [Scandinavian-influenced] Minnesotan English also has a fully velar /L/ for the lateral consonant in non-onset positions, so it feels similar to that for me too; the main difference as far as I can tell is that for the soft D the airflow is down the middle of the mouth instead of being forced around the sides like for /L/, and also the articulation point seems to be a bit further forward - further back than regular /d/ but only sort of velar, not entirely.
Danish pronunciation is seriously rough (to me, as a German, pronouncing most letters just the way they appear) and especially this soft d gets to me - and mostly -rd and -nd combinations at the end of words... don't know if I'll ever get the hang of it no matter how often people try to explain it but at least for now I'm still trying.
People say the hardest thing in learning danish is learning the pronunciations, yet I seem to have no problem learning them. I wonder how much time it would take me to learn the language, + If I need help I have a friend who lives in denmark so I can use him as help
I wanted to ask something about the phrase "synes godt om", I have recently changed the language on my phone to Danish, the like icon translates to the phrase above, I dissected word for word and I don't understand. I have seen some example where "synes" is used as "think", for example: "Ve synes, det Engelsk er nem.", so I am a bit confused, hope this isn't a hassle to you!
No hassle at all. Word for word, "synes godt om" means "think good about". Danes don't just like stuff, they either "think good about it" or "can suffer it", haha. That's another expression, if you've seen/heard it: "kan godt lide". So, "synes" is a verb and its infinitive and present forms are the same -- synes. It doesn't have your typical -er ending, so that's where the confusion arises. S endings are usually found in passive verbs, but then this one is not exactly passive. "Synes" is a derivative of the Old Norse verb "synast" (vise sig -- show oneself) and the closest meaning to that is "seem", which is also used. For example, "Tilværelsen synes uden mening" -- Life/existence seems meaningless. "Synes om" is a fixed expression that means "to like". You can drop "godt" in both "synes om" and "kan lide", but as someone on Duolingo pointed out, "'godt' makes it more personal and less ambiguous".
@@InDanish, very detailed reply which is greatly appreciated. I have now more insight on the phrase and I'm grateful for it, the other one to suffer for something or "kan lide" I will try to casually sprinkle all over my vocabulary. I don't know if you were joking and being serious or joking and not being serious, hahaha, because humour never excludes seriousness, when you said that Danes don't just like, temperament does reflect in the language, for example your beautiful phrase "Angst" is so charged that it can take on different semantics. Also the one who brought me to your language Søren Aabye Kierkegaard has written an entire book about that word or better said phenomenon as De Saussure has split those two. Also it is good that you got some historical language knowledge, I recently studied "Althochdeutsch", which is basically German spoken over a thousand years ago, but never heard of the verb, so I am grateful for that information. Derimod, has "Althochdeutsch" helped me greatly so far in learning your language, you say: min, din, hus. Which in was the same in Althochdeutsch, until the monophtong turned into a diphtong: Mein, Dein, Haus. In your language they stayed monophtongs.
Danish doesn’t have the verb that truly means to like (Norwegian Bokmål has å like / jeg liker, for example, which truly means to like, which is cognate with the English word) because the creator of Danish wanted to make Modern Danish slightly more different from Norwegian, as they used to be the same language like a century ago maybe, so Danish was slightly modified, and its pronunciation was modified a lot, but in the past the pronunciation was more normal, so, languages such as Middle Danish and Óld Danish have a more normal pronunciation, kinda like Norwegian when spoken in a more toned-down / normal way! Each language is a reflection of the ideas and visions that were included in the mind of its creator at that time, that he used, to make the newer language slightly different or more different etc from the previous language or languages that it is based on, as each language creator wanted to make the newer language different and the way he wanted it to be etc, plus all the pretty languages, including all the Germanic languages and the Celtic languages etc, are all inspired by nature, but languages such as Danish and English and Dutch and German etc were given very different types of pronunciation, where the words aren’t pronounced in a more ‘normal’ way like in Norse and Gothic and Icelandic, for example, so they have a non-relaxed pronunciation and very different ways of projecting the sound and different placements etc, which gives them that typical modern / cool sound with the bagpipe-like nuances, so speaking these languages is kinda similar to belting songs in chest voice with certain techniques! Now, the verb ‘kan godt lide’ literally means ‘can good súffęr’ and in English it has the exact meaning as when saying ‘I can stand it’ or ‘i cannot stand it’ etc, but in most other languages, the verb to suffer is used to express that feeling, and, in Danish, the fixed / phrasal combination of verbs and adjective etc is used more with the meaning, to like or dislike, even though that’s not what its literal meaning is, but, all Germanic languages have lots of phrasal verbs and fixed combinations of verbs with certain prepositions or adjectives etc that are used with a very different meaning from the meaning or meanings that each individual word has, and it may take some time for a learner to fully get used to it, and, it’s also similar with the verb synes, which isn’t really a reflexive verb, but it has an s ending because it sounds more natural with an s ending, as each Germanic language is an extremely logical language where everything or almost everything sounds right and where almost every word sounds exactly like the thing that it’s supposed to reflect, especially the verbs and the combinations of words from each phrasal verb or expression and the words related to nature etc, so, in most cases, I see and hear a verb or phrase etc, and I think, I couldn’t have come up with a better word for that, as Norse / Germanic languages are just so perfect and so well-constructed, as the developer of each Norse / Germanic language had a lot of natural artistic talent and a lot of skill and a good eye / ear for prettiness etc, and he knew exactly how to modify previous words and what new words to create etc, so that everything would have that perfect flow and harmony, and, Norse, which is the language that Icelandic and Danish and English etc were modified from the most, is one of the greatest works of art of all time!
By the way, if one wants to use in Danish a word that really means to like, one can just use the Norwegian word with a Danish pronunciation, honestly, because most Norwegian words also work in Danish, as Bokmål and Danish are still almost the same written language, so one can also use at like in Danish if one wants to use an actual cognate of the verb to like and if one feels like ‘synes godt om’ and ‘kan godt lide’ feel a bit odd to use that way - I kinda use them all interchangeably, so sometimes I use at like in Danish, and I pronounce it with a G sound instead of a K sound, so I pronounce it líge!
I know almost nothing about Danish. What I have is a question about genealogy. My Mother's Great Grandfather was from Denmark and came to the US in 1889. Apparently his Danish name was Jensen, but his name when he came across the US border was Thompson. I want to know how it would be possible for a border crossing name taker to so horribly mispronounce someone's name. I mean, obviously you don't know that, but is there a name in Danish that is close to Jensen that could possibly be phonetically pronounced as Thompson? I'm trying to understand how these things were possible. Would you be able to help me or do you know anyone else who could?
I unfortunately lost all of my teeth and can’t even pronounce the name Frede. I got Hedvig, I know how to speak using my bottom teeth, but maybe that’s why it never gets picked up in Duolingo.
It’s okay, it’s been awhile. I do notice the difference when I try it. I’ll just keep practicing! How would you pronounce Frede if you don’t mind me asking?
I meant it in a good way, you're really beautiful, anyways i wish you could came back with the lessons, it helps a lot, you're a good teacher, greetings from Brazil.@sh
Im 30 and my mom is danish. MY WHOLE LIFE IVE BEEN TRYING TO MATER THIS THANK YOU!
Thank you! Why has nobody told me this before? I tried to learn Danish years ago after I went to Aarhus and fell in love with the place. The soft D had me defeated but nobody ever said about the bottom teeth. Now I try it, it works. You're a legend!
I could not figure out just by watching and listening how this sound was being made. Your video is so clear and helpful. Thank you.
I've just started learning Danish and soft D was extremely hard to pronounce for me but after watching your video I'm enlightened thank you!
After hearing more Danish vocal samples that had words with the soft D, I came to the conclusion that the soft D in Danish is an approximant of the eth sound and an approximant of the D sound, or like maybe 30% to 38% of a normal D sound, whereas the eth sound ð is 60% to 80% of a D sound, the eth sound being a less obvious D sound, so, the soft D is basically a ‘dilute’ version of the eth sound, or, an even less obvious D sound than the eth sound and a less obvious eth sound, so to speak, and it’s probably a vestige of the eth sound, as Norse has the eth sound and also the thorn sound and the normal D and T sounds, so it would be very logical for this sound to be just that - I also noticed that there are a few different variations of this sound, so in words like hedder and sidder it is slightly more pronounced and one can kinda tell that it’s a D-based sound from those two words, but then in words like med and blød and ned etc it is extremely subtle and it’s not even easy to hear it well, and in words like these it can kinda sound a bit like an L-based sound sometimes when some ppl say those words, but maybe it’s not supposed to be that way, because when most speakers of Danish say it I don’t usually hear those L-like undertones! (In words like rødt the T is pronounced more like a normal D sound, by the way, so, rødt sounds more like reod in the standard Danish accent!)
From what I could hear from the main vocal technique used by most speakers of Danish, it kinda sounds like the technique used to speak Danish is kinda similar to the singing technique used by Shakira to get that specific sound, so spoken Danish with the standard Danish accent kinda reminds me of that style of singing used by Shakira, and it also reminds me a lot of the type of belting style used by the singer from the band Skáld that sang the songs Grótti and Hross and Santiano etc which has that bagpipe-like quality to it, so that sound projection and placement are probably similar to the sound projection and to the sound placement used by most speakers of Danish, so maybe one needs to speak in a ‘belted way’ and say the Danish words in ways that are similar to those singing techniques to get that Danish sound, as I noticed that when speakers of Danish speak in a quieter way that is more normal it doesn’t sound as Danish as when speaking in a belted way, because belting and speaking in a louder way makes those Danish nuances become more pronounced and more enhanced, and, it also seems to be easier to get that typical Danish sound when trying to speak in a higher pitch, and when fully engaging the diaphragmatic muscles, as Danish is spoken with some type of mavebevægelse aka stomach movement, and it has a certain rhythm and some interesting intonations, plus it has the glottal stops and the vowel-controlled Rs and the R-controlled vowels etc, which are all very important elements that contribute to the creation of that typical Danish sound - so, one has to listen to a lot of spoken Danish and observe the vocal techniques and sound projection / placement and intonations etc used by native speakers, and the tones and the level of loudness etc, and regularly trying to replicate the exact sounds, and trying many different sound placements and many different ways of projecting the sounds at different intensities and with different tones and intonations etc, until one gets that right combination which creates the right Danish sound / accent, and also working on maintaining that sound throughout the full sentences, so that everything sounds very natural, so, one also has to learn all the words very automatically, by revising each word at least thirty times actively over a longer period of time, and by also hearing each word fifty times or hundreds of times etc when spoken by natives in a more passive way, for example, while reading the Danish subtitles or while watching a video with words that one has learnt by heart and just focusing on the pronunciation and letting it ‘sink in’ instead of focusing on the actual subtitles, which is also a good way to also practice listening, and not just reading!
I am learning Danish and the other Norse / Germanic languages and the Celtic languages etc at the moment, and I must admit that Danish pronunciation is so complicated, as it’s done with powerful stomach moves and glottal stops aka the Danish stød and like a zillion nuances / variations of the vowel sounds, so it’s like one gets some real exercise while speaking Danish, and the Danish accent is almost as hard to imitate as the German accent, so I would say Danish and German are the Germanic languages with the most complicated phonology and accents - on the other hand, languages such as Norse and Gothic and Icelandic and Dutch and English and Welsh and Breton and Cornish have the accents that are the easiest to imitate (naturally very easy to imitate) and very easy pronunciations, except for the LL sound in Welsh which is one of the unusual sounds that aren’t easy to figure out how to do, like the soft D in Danish, which I am still not sure if it has an L sound in there or if it’s just an approximant of the eth sound (which is a less obvious D sound) or another approximant of D or a mix of both, as no one knows how to explain this sound correctly, like, what exactly they are trying to say to get the right sound, which is actually pretty subtle and not easy to hear in most words!
So, one really has to practice accents and pronunciation a lot in languages like Danish and German if one wants to sound native and natural - and, I don’t really like to say that a language is hard, but Danish pronunciation and the Danish accent are definitely a real challenge, but, they sound so cool, so, even though learning Danish requires a lot more practice than most other Germanic languages, getting the right Danish accent and that typical Danish sound in the end is going to be very rewarding and it’s going to feel so good, as Danish is one of those super cool-sounding languages that are perfect to show off with, like Norse and Gothic and Icelandic and Faroese and English and Dutch and Norwegian and Welsh and Breton and Cornish etc, so, as one can imagine, being able to develop a native accent in Danish would feel so awesome!
Another thing is, those teaching the sounds aren’t always explaining the sounds correctly, and sometimes say that one must say the er etc with flat A / schwa sound, but in truth, the ar / er / ir / or / ur / ør letter combinations in Danish (and in German) are not supposed to be pronounced with regular / normal / flat vowel sounds, but with R-controlled vowels / vowel-controlled soft Rs that can have very subtle R sounds sometimes tho they are still in there (some English words and some Faroese words also have some of those sounds with R-controlled vowels and vowel-controlled Rs, which can have different variations) tho in Danish words like er the R sound is more pronounced, so it sounds kinda like the German word der without the D sound, kinda like ear or euhr (I use uh for the schwa sound or some schwa-based sound) with a soft R sound under the vowel sound, these also being an essential element that contributes to the creation of that typical Danish sound - besides, Danish has a totally non-relaxed pronunciation, like English and Dutch and German etc, which is one of the things that give it that unique modern sound, and that means that when one speaks Danish the muscles involved in speaking are automatically tensed up 100 percent, tho it’s something one does subconsciously, so one may not be realizing that one is tensing up and placing the sound in a certain way, and each language has a different sound placement and a different way of projecting the sound actually, and, it’s naturally easy to do that in English (to figure out the right placement and in which way to do this tensing up of the muscles involved in speaking etc) and even in Dutch, so I can hear lots of ppl that sound like native speakers in English and Dutch, but for some reason, it’s not easy to find the right sound placement and the right way of tensing up in languages like Danish and German and the right way of protecting the sound in that outward way, which is also one of the reasons why their accents are not easy to imitate, having a very outward and open projection, whereas in Dutch and English the sound is projected in a more normal way and sometimes in a closed way as in Dutch, so, I haven’t heard anyone yet that can do the Danish accent and sound naturally and native-like, and even I cannot get the right Danish accent yet, even though I am naturally good at imitating accents and knowing how the sound is made, so, I should be able to do the Danish accent, but when it comes to actually trying to imitate it myself, it’s like even my Rs aren’t working anymore, so I don’t know what am I not doing right!
Mange tak ! My dad is Danish and mastering the pronunciation has always been my greatest struggle.
The best explanation of soft D I ever saw (not that I saw many, but this one actually makes sense).
My tongue hurts now lol BUT OMG thank you so much for this video!! It helped me finally understand how to pronunce the soft D
Thanks, that is the best pronunciation lesson I have seen yet
This is so easy now! I've been tying my tongue in knots all week. Thank you!
Great explanation! Thank you! Have you ever thought of doing a Podcast for people learning Danish? I listen to Podcast Italiano regularly to improve my Italian. I'm searching all over for something similar in Danish.
i am trying to learn danish for my girlfriend (who is danish, of course) and i've had issues pronouncing the r and soft d until i came across this channel. thank you so much!!!
Thank you so much! I'm a beginner and yesterday I heard about this soft D and I was terrified, to be honest, but after this video I know exactly how to pronounce it!
It took me a while to figure it out, because it isn’t an actual D sound, so I was so confused about it, and couldn’t really understand what this sound really was for months! It’s nothing like a D sound, so it’s very confusing when it’s referred to as a soft D and even the ones that made the Danish ipa confused it with the eth sound ð which is used in Icelandic and Norse and in English words like then / the / this etc and in the Spanish word nada etc, which is a very different sound! It’s kinda like one of the Rs in Faroese that isn’t a true R sound, but a J sound, like the J in the French word je and like in the English word treasure, so I was very confused by this sound as well, and it took me a while to figure it out! But now I finally understand what these sounds are! And I think I just pronounced the Danish sound after watching this, but it’s not easy to hear it, so it’s a very subtle sound, but when some ppl pronounce it can sound stronger, I don’t know...
thank you so much! I have been frustrated with this sound for so long without realizing this was the problem! thanks to you I am one step to pronouncing brød correctly 😂
Recap 🤗🤞😊
Super useful and easy rules!
Soft d never occurs at the beginning of the words. It is neither l nor th.
≧﹏≦ Tip of the tongue + bottom of front teeth
When to say ‘Soft D’ ?
1 vowels followed by d or dd :
Vowels are 💁: a, e i, o, u, y, æ, ø, å
hvid, Frede, billeder, sidde, federe, hade, stod, ud, ad, mad, ud ,lyd, glad, blad, blod, ned, nehed, blød, side
or the vowel after d:
snyde
"udsigten". Here we DO say the soft d, as the ds is not in the same syllable (ud-sigt-en)!
sidder, hedder (double d would make the pronounciation of vowel shorter )
2 When we have et in the end of the word :
meget, Nettet, vejret, året, huset
When Not use ‘soft d’ ?
1 When we have vowel and ds :
sidse , bedst, tilfreds
2 dt . Just pronounce t sound.
midt, hvidt, rødt, godt, fedt, sidste,
Let us keep practising together 😎 🍀
this was so helpful!! I'm finally picking up danish again and realizing all the mistakes I made when I was learning it years ago haha, my teacher never explained how to actually /make/ this sound, we just repeated it and most people ended up using a regular L sound :o
Best explanation yet of the soft D. Wish I'd found you a few years ago when I began learning Danish!
Okay,let me just say thanks in advance and how this video might just save me from feeling hopeless about the soft d,as u may know, soft d is the death of so many eager danish learners. But with ur clear explanation I’m so close to cracking it, thank you thank you thank you! ❤️
Aww glad I could help ☺️
Very good. Native dane here, who form the soft D at the front palate just behind the front teeth. Though more suttle than the british TH. I think the pronounciation behind the teeth is more safe for foreginers, as it is more distinct and easier to repeat.
Thanks Vik! I was pronouncing "ved" as "vil" cuz it sounded so much like vil to my untrained ear. I gave you a like and saved this video.
Thanks from the Amazon. Your explanation is simple, clear and objective . Just what i needed. GOD bless you!
The soft D is quite difficult for a Swede like me 😢
But i practise every day!
Thank you very much, it was a great help !
Best teaching I've had about this d and et matter! Mange tak!
Thank u! Such an useful video!!! Hey, u have a wonderful smile - don't be afraid to use it more often!
Smiles are a means of manipulation, so we’d better exercise caution 😉
Thank u so much for your videos❤️ I finally started understanding how to pronounce soft D 😄
Hi Vik, I find all kinds of theoretical approaches to learn a language kind of boring, school systems don't fit me. But your teachings i like a lot, not in the last place for your sense of humor. Next to your teachings, ik listen often to "learn Danish while you sleep, it works for me. Duolingo also works for me.Thank you so much, keep on with the good work!
Tausind tak skal du have! I must honestly thank you for your amazing work, you pronounce the words so well and distinguishable, many of the other speaker make a conjunction and for example instead of Jeg elsker dig say jelsker dig and it becomes impossible to pinpoint the exact pronunciation, I have kind of obsessively started learning Danish in the last three days and watched over 100+ videos, but your video on the silent d also includes reading rules, amazing work!
There are many more rules, by the way, but they're better learnt through experience. I try to keep my lessons informative while not overloading them with technical info about the language because it's not that that makes you able to speak. Sticking words together and dropping sounds is a sign of fluency, but I agree, it's hard to become fluent unless you know what you're saying!
Thank you! The best explanation I could get.
wow! this is actually so helpful!! Thank you so much, now i can say 'jeg hedder' phrase in a right way :D
There goes my most favorite Danish soft D video!!! Excellent Video!! Tusind tak :)
I somehow ended up looking how to pronounce this soft D at 5am, but now my curiosity has been sated. Thank you very much! I might have to start learning Danish sometime now. :p
Thank you! This is the best explanation I found so far. You are explaining it exactly how I need it: tongue placement and the shape of the inside of the mouth.
I find your language very fascinating.
Hej InDanish. Jeg er underviser i dansk som andetsprog og dansk er mit modersmål. Jeg er imponeret over din viden omkring dansk og dansk udtale, og jeg synes, du formidler det på en superpræcis måde. Godt gået.
No one:
Me: Repeating this words over and over at midnight and laughing at my own drunk pronounciation
Ur channel is the best！
Danish is pretty hard to learn for russian speaker
It very easy to learn the Danish words, as Norse / Germanic languages are the easiest languages to learn and they use the Latin alphabet which is the easiest to read and use etc, whereas Russian is a category 5 language with words that are extremely hard to memorize and learn, that uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which is not easy to read and use, so it should be easy to learn the Danish words themselves, even though the Danish accent is not easy to imitate and the Danish pronunciation can be quite complicated, so, even though the pronunciation in Russian is easier than in Danish, because Russian uses normal / relaxed pronunciation and a more normal sound projection and placement, learning the words themselves and using / reading / typing the language etc are way easier in Danish and other Germanic languages - I recommend learning Danish together with the other prettiest languages ever created Norse / Gothic / Icelandic / Faroese / English / Dutch / Norwegian / Welsh / Breton / Cornish as they are equally gorgeous and way too pretty not to know, and, I recommend practicing the Danish accent and pronunciation a lot, as Danish has a very unusual sound projection and placement and things such as glottal stops aka the Danish stød, and it uses a 100% non-relaxed pronunciation like English and Dutch and German etc, which are some of the elements that give Danish that unique modern sound that sounds so cool, though it’s more similar to German when it comes to sound projection and placement, and that’s one of the reasons why getting the right Danish accent isn’t easy like getting the right neutral American accent and the right Dutch accent etc, Danish and German being the languages with the accents that are the hardest to imitate and the most complicated pronunciation of all Germanic languages!
I am learning Danish and the other Norse / Germanic languages and the Celtic languages etc at the moment, and I must admit that Danish pronunciation is so complicated, and it’s done with powerful stomach moves and glottal stops aka the Danish stød and like a zillion nuances / variations of the vowel sounds, so it’s like one gets some real exercise while speaking Danish, and the Danish accent is almost as hard to imitate as the German accent, so I would say Danish and German are the Germanic languages with the most complicated phonology and accents - on the other hand, languages such as Norse and Gothic and Icelandic and Dutch and English and Welsh and Breton and Cornish have the accents that are the easiest to imitate (naturally very easy to imitate) and very easy pronunciations, except for the LL sound in Welsh which is one of the unusual sounds that aren’t easy to figure out how to do, like the soft D in Danish, which I am still not sure if it has an L sound in there or if it’s just an approximant of the eth sound (which is a less obvious D sound) or another approximant of D or a mix of both, as no one knows how to explain this sound correctly, like, what exactly they are trying to say to get the right sound, which is actually pretty subtle and not easy to hear in most words!
Another thing is, those teaching the sounds aren’t always explaining the sounds correctly, and sometimes say that one must say the er etc with flat A / schwa sound, but in truth, the ar / er / ir / or / ur / ør letter combinations in Danish (and in German) are not supposed to be pronounced with regular / normal / flat vowel sounds, but with R-controlled vowels / vowel-controlled soft Rs that can have very subtle R sounds sometimes tho they are still in there (some English words and some Faroese words also have some of those sounds with R-controlled vowels and vowel-controlled Rs, which can have different variations) tho in Danish words like er the R sound is more pronounced, so it sounds kinda like the German word der without the D sound, kinda like ear or euhr (I use uh for the schwa sound or some schwa-based sound) with a soft R sound under the vowel sound, these also being an essential element that contributes to the creation of that typical Danish sound - besides, Danish has a totally non-relaxed pronunciation, like English and Dutch and German etc, which is one of the things that give it that unique modern sound, and that means that when one speaks Danish the muscles involved in speaking are automatically tensed up 100 percent, tho it’s something one does subconsciously, so one may not be realizing that one is tensing up and placing the sound in a certain way, and each language has a different sound placement and a different way of projecting the sound actually, and, it’s naturally easy to do that in English (to figure out the right placement and in which way to do this tensing up of the muscles involved in speaking etc) and even in Dutch, so I can hear lots of ppl that sound like native speakers in English and Dutch, but for some reason, it’s not easy to find the right sound placement and the right way of tensing up in languages like Danish and German and the right way of protecting the sound in that outward way, which is also one of the reasons why their accents are not easy to imitate, having a very outward and open projection, whereas in Dutch and English the sound is projected in a more normal way and sometimes in a closed way as in Dutch, so, I haven’t heard anyone yet that can do the Danish accent and sound naturally and native-like, and even I cannot get the right Danish accent yet, even though I am naturally good at imitating accents and knowing how the sound is made, so, I should be able to do the Danish accent, but when it comes to actually trying to imitate it myself, it’s like even my Rs aren’t working anymore, so I don’t know what am I not doing right!
Re the soft D in Danish, I must say that, after hearing more Danish vocal samples that had words with the soft D pronounced by many native and non-native speakers, I came to the conclusion that the soft D in Danish is an approximant of the eth sound and an approximant of the D sound, or like maybe 30% to 38% of a normal D sound, whereas the eth sound ð is 60% to 80% of a D sound, the eth sound being a less obvious D sound, so, the soft D is basically a ‘dilute’ version of the eth sound, or, an even less obvious D sound than the eth sound and a less obvious eth sound, so to speak, and it’s probably a vestige of the eth sound, as Norse has the eth sound and also the thorn sound and the normal D and T sounds, so it would be very logical for this sound to be just that - I also noticed that there are a few different variations of this sound, so in words like hedder and sidder it is slightly more pronounced and one can kinda tell that it’s a D-based sound from those two words, but then in words like med and blød and ned etc it is extremely subtle and it’s not even easy to hear it well, and in words like these it can kinda sound a bit like an L-based sound sometimes when some ppl say those words, but maybe it’s not supposed to be that way, because when most speakers of Danish say it I don’t usually hear those L-like undertones, and, in words like rødt the T is pronounced more like a normal D sound, by the way, so, rødt sounds more like reod in the standard Danish accent!
From what I could hear from the main vocal technique used by most speakers of Danish, it kinda sounds like the technique used to speak Danish is kinda similar to the singing technique used by Shakira to get that specific sound, so spoken Danish with the standard Danish accent kinda reminds me of that style of singing used by Shakira, and it also reminds me a lot of the type of belting style used by the singer from the band Skáld that sang the songs Grótti and Hross and Santiano etc which has that bagpipe-like quality to it, so that sound projection and placement are probably similar to the sound projection and to the sound placement used by most speakers of Danish, so maybe one needs to speak in a ‘belted way’ and say the Danish words in ways that are similar to those singing techniques to get that Danish sound, as I noticed that when speakers of Danish speak in a quieter way that is more normal it doesn’t sound as Danish as when speaking in a belted way, because belting and speaking in a louder way makes those Danish nuances become more pronounced and more enhanced, and, it also seems to be easier to get that typical Danish sound when trying to speak in a higher pitch, and when fully engaging the diaphragmatic muscles, as Danish is spoken with some type of mavebevægelse aka stomach movement, and it has a certain rhythm and some interesting intonations, plus it has the glottal stops and the vowel-controlled Rs and the R-controlled vowels etc, which are all very important elements that contribute to the creation of that typical Danish sound, so, one has to listen to a lot of spoken Danish and observe the vocal techniques and sound projection / placement and intonations etc used by native speakers, and the tones and the level of loudness etc, and regularly trying to replicate the exact sounds, and trying many different sound placements and many different ways of projecting the sounds at different intensities and with different tones and intonations etc, until one gets that right combination which creates the right Danish sound / accent, and also working on maintaining that sound throughout the full sentences, so that everything sounds very natural, so, one also has to learn all the words very automatically, by revising each word at least thirty times actively over a longer period of time, and by also hearing each word fifty times or hundreds of times etc when spoken by natives in a more passive way, for example, while reading the Danish subtitles or while watching a video with words that one has learnt by heart and just focusing on the pronunciation and letting it ‘sink in’ instead of focusing on the actual subtitles, which is also a good way to also practice listening, and not just reading!
Merci beaucoup !
tusind tak, du er meget hjælpsom og humoristisk.
EXCELLENT!!! I was particularly happy to hear you explan how the glottal stop and the Danish stød are produced in different parts of the body. I had that feeling earlier today, but it was just a vague suspicion. It was very nice to hear it explained so clearly. Thank you very much!
I think another difference is that the Danish stød is not a true stop, but more like a type of "creaky voice". Rather than a complete cutting off of airflow at the glottis, the arytenoid cartilages of the larynx are drawn together and the vocal folds are compressed but also slackened, while air continues to be pushed through, so you get this slow, irregular rate of vibration instead of the typical modal voicing.
What a great explanation!!! It's so easy to understand now hahahahh
Thank you so much. You explained it so well. But now I'm wondering how that sound earned the name "soft D." It doesn't sound like it's related to a D at all. If anything, L is the soft D and that sound should have its own name.
IKR? It’s nothing like a D sound, so it’s very confusing when it’s referred to as a soft D and even the ones that made the Danish ipa confused it with the eth sound ð which is used in Icelandic and Norse and in English words like then / the / this etc and in the Spanish word nada etc, which is a very different sound! It’s kinda like one of the Rs in Faroese that isn’t a true R sound, but a J sound, like the J in the French word je and like in the English word treasure, so I was very confused by this sound as well, and it took me a while to figure it out! But now I finally understand what these sounds are! And I think I just pronounced the Danish sound after watching this, but it’s not easy to hear it, so it’s a very subtle sound, but when some ppl pronounce it can sound stronger, I don’t know...
thank you so much i kept saying L but now i understand
4:11 timestamping for practice hehe, Thank you so much 💗
Iam just practicing on duolingo, and the only word that i can't say is "Brød" and "Brødet" i tried billion times like a crazy person, but i just can't do it, please help me, do u guys have any tips or something? Lol
YES!!! thank you! Perfectly explained and so easy now!!!
Very helpful. Thanks!
i know I'm about a year too late, but i love the content youve made! it's sad you stopped, but hopefully you're still doing well
Excellent! I love this - straight and clear and to the point. This is what you need when you start learning Danish.
Rigtig fin video. Og jeg er vild med den underspillede humor.
Your videos are amazing. Just saying! -Jacob
Very informative in a short format!
wtffff that skill of english 😳😳😳 anyway thanks for awesome information thanks a lot, peace from Argentina ✌️💚
i have no idea how to speak hedder
Thank you!
Thank you so much ,clearful accent
Silent D's in danish though, can have an S following it. Which might cause some confusion among foreigners if they are thinking soft D and not silent D. The name and surname Mads / Madsen are one example of this. Another is ridse or bedste.
Yayy I could now pronounce skildpadde
This is amazing. I wish I had fallen on your channel ever since. Tusind tak to you.
I always thought that our D is the english TH said backwards !! But an awful lot of Danes have never pronounced the soft D but instead use an Y or I, just to confuse matters !
Perfect teaching✨
That was impressive! Many thanks.🙂
this helped me so much thank you
Please, I'm from Brazil and I'm going to Denmark this year, thank you very much for this video! I have a doubt, I was trying to do this sound and I've been always touching the back part tongue on back roof of mouth, for me it's how sounds to me, so... The back part of the tongue touches the back roof of the mouth?
Or I would say this sounds like a very strong and closed Z sound for me in the very back part of mouth, almost in throut.
It should be the middle of the tongue + the roof of the mouth. The tip of your tongue is behind your bottom front teeth and the sound is made when the middle of your tongue rises up to the roof. Your throat shouldn't be involved unless there's a glottal stop. For example, 'hedde' is pronounced [ˈheðə] but in the past tense 'hed' it's [ˈheðˀ] with the glottal stop. Hope this helps 🙃
Thank you @Júlio César S for asking this question and @InDanish for your reply! 🙂 I have myself also been wondering whether the middle of the tongue is meant to touch the roof of the mouth! I saw one video which said that the middle of the tongue is meant to go _close to_ the roof and upper teeth _without_ actually touching - but if I try this then it seems to sound nothing like what I actually hear when people say the soft D.
@@juliannewman2ndchannelmusi475 I think what people mean when they say that is that in most Danish dialects soft D is pronounced as an approximant (like L or R) and not a fricative (like S) or a stop (like hard D). [Some people pronounce it as a fricative, but this is much more rare.] So, there's not enough closure to stop airflow, and not enough to produce turbulence, but there can still be touching in certain places as long as the air flows freely around it.
@@brandonmadsen9591 Thanks!! :)
thanks yo..
MANGE TAK! 🇩🇰😁❤
I've been doing it wrong all this time! 🤯 I've been just barely touching my top front teeth with my tongue...but now I know.
Du er dygtig og sjov. Mange tak! 👍🏽
So helpful! Thank you!
Miss you
Wow du er dygtig. Jeg synes det er svært at udtale dansk for mig. Læse og lytte er ikke svært.😅
Спасибо большое за помощь!!
Great work!
I came here and I think I got it instantly but maybe I’m wrong. I can do the French r and Spanish r easily enough I just wanted to try something else.
Den “glottal stop” hedder faktisk Stød :)
That's a hilarious sound and I can't stop laughing by pronouncing it. Not to make fun of the language, all natural languages are goofy in their own right, it's only natural.
It still sounds like a bit like the Dutch L to me, which is pretty low in the mouth. It's extra suspicious that the Danish word 'mad' translates as meal (Eng), maal (Dutch) and Mahl (German). ;-)
My particular dialect of [Scandinavian-influenced] Minnesotan English also has a fully velar /L/ for the lateral consonant in non-onset positions, so it feels similar to that for me too; the main difference as far as I can tell is that for the soft D the airflow is down the middle of the mouth instead of being forced around the sides like for /L/, and also the articulation point seems to be a bit further forward - further back than regular /d/ but only sort of velar, not entirely.
Tak!!! ✨✨✨
This was really, really helpful.
My tongue cannot do that, but I will try
Danish pronunciation is seriously rough (to me, as a German, pronouncing most letters just the way they appear) and especially this soft d gets to me - and mostly -rd and -nd combinations at the end of words... don't know if I'll ever get the hang of it no matter how often people try to explain it but at least for now I'm still trying.
Thanks for this! Mange tak. 🙂
People say the hardest thing in learning danish is learning the pronunciations, yet I seem to have no problem learning them. I wonder how much time it would take me to learn the language, + If I need help I have a friend who lives in denmark so I can use him as help
That’s great! You’re lucky.
I wanted to ask something about the phrase "synes godt om", I have recently changed the language on my phone to Danish, the like icon translates to the phrase above, I dissected word for word and I don't understand. I have seen some example where "synes" is used as "think", for example: "Ve synes, det Engelsk er nem.", so I am a bit confused, hope this isn't a hassle to you!
No hassle at all. Word for word, "synes godt om" means "think good about". Danes don't just like stuff, they either "think good about it" or "can suffer it", haha. That's another expression, if you've seen/heard it: "kan godt lide".
So, "synes" is a verb and its infinitive and present forms are the same -- synes. It doesn't have your typical -er ending, so that's where the confusion arises. S endings are usually found in passive verbs, but then this one is not exactly passive.
"Synes" is a derivative of the Old Norse verb "synast" (vise sig -- show oneself) and the closest meaning to that is "seem", which is also used. For example, "Tilværelsen synes uden mening" -- Life/existence seems meaningless.
"Synes om" is a fixed expression that means "to like". You can drop "godt" in both "synes om" and "kan lide", but as someone on Duolingo pointed out, "'godt' makes it more personal and less ambiguous".
@@InDanish, very detailed reply which is greatly appreciated. I have now more insight on the phrase and I'm grateful for it, the other one to suffer for something or "kan lide" I will try to casually sprinkle all over my vocabulary. I don't know if you were joking and being serious or joking and not being serious, hahaha, because humour never excludes seriousness, when you said that Danes don't just like, temperament does reflect in the language, for example your beautiful phrase "Angst" is so charged that it can take on different semantics. Also the one who brought me to your language Søren Aabye Kierkegaard has written an entire book about that word or better said phenomenon as De Saussure has split those two.
Also it is good that you got some historical language knowledge, I recently studied "Althochdeutsch", which is basically German spoken over a thousand years ago, but never heard of the verb, so I am grateful for that information. Derimod, has "Althochdeutsch" helped me greatly so far in learning your language, you say: min, din, hus. Which in was the same in Althochdeutsch, until the monophtong turned into a diphtong: Mein, Dein, Haus. In your language they stayed monophtongs.
Danish doesn’t have the verb that truly means to like (Norwegian Bokmål has å like / jeg liker, for example, which truly means to like, which is cognate with the English word) because the creator of Danish wanted to make Modern Danish slightly more different from Norwegian, as they used to be the same language like a century ago maybe, so Danish was slightly modified, and its pronunciation was modified a lot, but in the past the pronunciation was more normal, so, languages such as Middle Danish and Óld Danish have a more normal pronunciation, kinda like Norwegian when spoken in a more toned-down / normal way!
Each language is a reflection of the ideas and visions that were included in the mind of its creator at that time, that he used, to make the newer language slightly different or more different etc from the previous language or languages that it is based on, as each language creator wanted to make the newer language different and the way he wanted it to be etc, plus all the pretty languages, including all the Germanic languages and the Celtic languages etc, are all inspired by nature, but languages such as Danish and English and Dutch and German etc were given very different types of pronunciation, where the words aren’t pronounced in a more ‘normal’ way like in Norse and Gothic and Icelandic, for example, so they have a non-relaxed pronunciation and very different ways of projecting the sound and different placements etc, which gives them that typical modern / cool sound with the bagpipe-like nuances, so speaking these languages is kinda similar to belting songs in chest voice with certain techniques!
Now, the verb ‘kan godt lide’ literally means ‘can good súffęr’ and in English it has the exact meaning as when saying ‘I can stand it’ or ‘i cannot stand it’ etc, but in most other languages, the verb to suffer is used to express that feeling, and, in Danish, the fixed / phrasal combination of verbs and adjective etc is used more with the meaning, to like or dislike, even though that’s not what its literal meaning is, but, all Germanic languages have lots of phrasal verbs and fixed combinations of verbs with certain prepositions or adjectives etc that are used with a very different meaning from the meaning or meanings that each individual word has, and it may take some time for a learner to fully get used to it, and, it’s also similar with the verb synes, which isn’t really a reflexive verb, but it has an s ending because it sounds more natural with an s ending, as each Germanic language is an extremely logical language where everything or almost everything sounds right and where almost every word sounds exactly like the thing that it’s supposed to reflect, especially the verbs and the combinations of words from each phrasal verb or expression and the words related to nature etc, so, in most cases, I see and hear a verb or phrase etc, and I think, I couldn’t have come up with a better word for that, as Norse / Germanic languages are just so perfect and so well-constructed, as the developer of each Norse / Germanic language had a lot of natural artistic talent and a lot of skill and a good eye / ear for prettiness etc, and he knew exactly how to modify previous words and what new words to create etc, so that everything would have that perfect flow and harmony, and, Norse, which is the language that Icelandic and Danish and English etc were modified from the most, is one of the greatest works of art of all time!
By the way, if one wants to use in Danish a word that really means to like, one can just use the Norwegian word with a Danish pronunciation, honestly, because most Norwegian words also work in Danish, as Bokmål and Danish are still almost the same written language, so one can also use at like in Danish if one wants to use an actual cognate of the verb to like and if one feels like ‘synes godt om’ and ‘kan godt lide’ feel a bit odd to use that way - I kinda use them all interchangeably, so sometimes I use at like in Danish, and I pronounce it with a G sound instead of a K sound, so I pronounce it líge!
Mange tak min kære ven
Thanks for the vid. Greetings from Ukraine.
Selv tak 🇺🇦
how are you doing now?
I know almost nothing about Danish. What I have is a question about genealogy. My Mother's Great Grandfather was from Denmark and came to the US in 1889. Apparently his Danish name was Jensen, but his name when he came across the US border was Thompson. I want to know how it would be possible for a border crossing name taker to so horribly mispronounce someone's name. I mean, obviously you don't know that, but is there a name in Danish that is close to Jensen that could possibly be phonetically pronounced as Thompson? I'm trying to understand how these things were possible. Would you be able to help me or do you know anyone else who could?
Arrrghhhh it's difficult!
I'm fond of Danish!!!But speaking frankly I'll never learn it...too difficult (
Don't give up!
@@InDanish I Will try!Thank's))
I unfortunately lost all of my teeth and can’t even pronounce the name Frede. I got Hedvig, I know how to speak using my bottom teeth, but maybe that’s why it never gets picked up in Duolingo.
Sorry to hear that 😢
It’s okay, it’s been awhile. I do notice the difference when I try it. I’ll just keep practicing! How would you pronounce Frede if you don’t mind me asking?
4:11
With all respect, but i gotta say you're so cute. You look like a cartoon character. Thanks for the lesson!
🥲
I meant it in a good way, you're really beautiful, anyways i wish you could came back with the lessons, it helps a lot, you're a good teacher, greetings from Brazil.@sh
mange tak, please how to pronounce "lidt"
Mange tak!
Danish soft d,close to English th
Imagine billeded(soft) billeeugheugh
Are you still here?
I'll see myself out ;-;
Is it like to pronounce an L sound but the tongue si down
i cannot pronounce brød to save my life please help
Which part of it?