12 AWESOME Danish Words We NEED In English
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- Опубліковано 13 бер 2023
- 12 AWESOME Danish Words We Need in English
#denmark #danmark #dansk
This video takes a fun look at the Danish language, and specifically at words you might hear around Denmark - that we need in English. Often enough we hear words that don't have a direct translation or a common use in English, but they should.
These are words for common feelings, actions, and situations that we all know and are quite commonplace, but the Danes have a vocabulary for them. These are some of the best Danish language words that we think other languages should adopt.
What do you think and which ones are your favorites?
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Just a small correction. "Overskue" and "Overskud" have the same meaning, but is used to describe "mental capacity" in different ways (Like you said).
Overskud = Your general mental capacity
Example: "Jeg har ikke OVERSKUD til det idag" = I don't possess the mental capacity today for that (general)
Overskue = Your current mental capacity
Example: "Jeg kan ikke OVERSKUE det lige nu" = I don't have the mental capacity to deal with that RIGHT NOW (Current)
Hope it makes sense :) Great video
hi guys.. cousin in danish for girl it's kusine and for boy it's fætter
@@hogfeldt79 Yeah I immediately thought about "fætter" and "kusine" as well when they talked about "mormor" and "farmor" being precise words. Norwegian has 2 words as well "fetter" and "kusine" but that is also heavily influenced by Danish, but in Swedish they have only 1 word like cousin: "kusin".
Btw "flagermus" is not directly "flying mouse". "flager" comes from "flagre" (flutter) so it is more like "fluttermouse" or "fluttering mouse" because they flutter around seemingly erratically.
"flying mouse" would be "flyvemus".
1) I love these comparisons between Denmark and lands beyond the best.
2) Say, I went and looked up the House Hunter's International Episode 137 #3 the one you said you two appeared in.
I saw this synopsis for it:
09/14/19: A Woman convinces her reluctant husband to move to La Safor Spain.
I don't think that is your episode.
Is it?
No pølser. And im not in All These so Called social network. What a joke🤪
et døgn [doyghn] = a full day + a full night, i.e. a 24 hour period, would be another very useful word in English.
Americans, like the english, can only count to 12... and then they start over again.....unless they are in the military then they can count to 24 😆😆😆😆
Yes!!!
@@AnetteEllegaardprofil 😊
Overskue and overskud is two different words.
Overskud is like surplus energy. If you have it one day you may go home after work and bake a cake just because, and on a day without overskud you may come home and take a nap on the couch because you just don’t have the energy to start preparing dinner.
Overskue kind of means to have the mental energy to deal with or keep track of several things at things, to see the big picture in a sense, so if you lack overskud you might not be able to overskue all the planning that go into a birthday party for instance.
It’s like “that’s enough, I can’t deal with anymore right now”
Hope that explanation is not too confusing 😊
Indeed overskue is having that full view of the big picture of something, like a general or architect seeing the entire plan/situation from a high place. It's the positive form of "overse" (overlook). It's not just an "overblik" (overview), it's that total awareness that inckudes the big picture and all the details.
Was about to write the same thing. Overskue : comprehend, and overskud : surplus (often used to describe one's current mental/social capacity)
Also "overskud" is a noun; "overskue" is a verb. So it would be "Jeg har ikke overskud til det" or "jeg kan ikke overskue det".
Love your videos, guys. ❤
The official definition of “træls”.
If you’re driving behind a huge gaggle of Hells Angels and suddenly the horn in the car malfunctions and turns on - that’s Træls.
🤣
Na, det var da traels... 😁
Overskue is actually a verb while overskud is a noun
The old viking word "træl", which means an enslaved person, actually exists in English as the word thrall. And it wasn't just people who were brought home from raids, it could also be the punishment for criminals. If you murdered someone you could be enslaved to the victims family, or if you stole from someone you could be enslaved to whomever you stole from. As far as I remember, all thralls could earn their freedom after years of servitude - and people enslaved from other countries could eventually become rightful citizens.
The early version of community service sentencing 😉
Great explanation😃
A træl's duties could be compared to that of a 'drudge' in medieval England or France - the jobs that didn't require much expertize or thinking and brought no prestige and are still called drudgework today.
And yes! in viking scandinavia it wasn't a permanent state, you could work your way out, but unless you could afford a træl you had to do the træls tasks yourself🤭
Yea, its the same word, it was transferred to english because vikings were in england and took the words with them.
thats also were words like: Slaugther, Ransack, Scathe, Gun (Yes, that is _most likely_ where the word gun came from, it just didnt mean the same thing. its derived from ""Gunnhildr" which means "battle-maiden". The reason for it being the name for firearms is most likely "Domina Gunilda" and "Gonnylyde" which was a ballista, and a _fictional_ cannon respectively.)
Even christian words like "Hell" come from norse languges, since before the germanification it was "Sheol".
So its not that english also had the word, its just that it was transfered to english when vikings raided england. over 100 words has the same type of origin, some of them are even pretty common, like the word "call" etc,
@@jensnobel5843 I've heard that same thing about old people (i.e. fishermen) with the Geordie accent and old people from Southern Jutland being able to understand each other.
The funny thing is, in Southern Jutland the word 'jeg' (I) becomes 'ah', and the indefinite articles 'en' and 'et' just becomes 'a' - making some of the most used words in Danish much more similar to English
The "lille fredag" is also used in Hungary with the same meaning🍻
Grear, maybe there is still hope for you in Hungary? 😂
Greetings from Denmark 😉
I also think the word veninde is quite unique
It's the female form of friend, formed in the same way as words like "actress". So it covers all the ways a female can be a friend, from an entirely non-romantic female friend group, all the way to a sex partner. It's literally the word "girlfriend", but formed almost as simply as the Spanish word "amiga" (male form is "amigo"), but by modifying a word that is only implicitly male ("ven").
Fun video.
Are you familiar with the word: "bjørnetjeneste" - or "bearfavour"?
I can best explain it by telling the story behind it:
A bear and a man were best friends.
One day the bear observed a moschito on the mans cheek.
The bear knew the moschito was going to bite his friend - so he swung his paw to kill the insect .......!
You can probably guess how that ended. ........
The only problem with "bjørnetjeneste" ( = a bad service something done in a good meaning ) is that many younger people (mainly) now mistakingly believes that it's a positive thing ( associating a bear with something big, warm and cudly, I suspect? ).
I think you're mixing 'overskue' with 'overskud' - the first - a verb - means ability to understand and cope with complex matters, and the latter - a noun - is about having a surplus of resources available.
I also think so
Agree, except I might say the verb at overskue is used to talk about one’s mental energy to deal with any matter, not just complex ones.
Fun fact: Kvajebajer was the first Danish word our kindergarten teacher learnt. Both me and my wife thought, that the other would pick up the kid in the afternoon. So I showed up 30 minutes late - with a large kvajebajer in hand.
In German the appendix is also called Blinddarm. It is simply because Danish, German etc. didn't just copy Latin but came up with their own words.
Another thing you could have added when talking about words used to describe families, are our words for cousin. In Danish you have two words for that. Fætter (male cousin) and Kusine (female cousin). We also have terms for in-laws that I personally think is easier to write and use. Father-in-law (svigerfar), mother-in-law (svigermor), sister-in-law (svigerinde) and brother-in-law (svoger). Then ofc, we go tthe terms for aunt and uncles, depending if it's your mother's siblings or father's siblings. Moster (mor's søster = mother's sister), Morbror (mor's bror = mother's brother), faster (far's søster = father's sister) and farbror (far's bror = father's brother). Sadly the terms Morbror and Farbror are not used that often, as it's not really rolling of the tounge the same way as Faster and Moster.
I love your video's and it's so nice to see you put so much effort into learning about our culture, language and country.
And we even have onkel [un-kel] = uncle as well 😊
And at least we have the "-el" part of the word in the "correct" order - as in ankel = ankle, svindel = swindle (noun) & saddel = sadle 😂
@@Bjowolf2 And Tante - your aunt-in-law - just as Onkel is your uncle-in-law (the ones who are married into the family) - And all these titles warries as you can be, farbror, morbror and uncle depending on the relation between you and your nephews and nieces =)
@@TainDK I think "onkel" is used in both cases in many families.
There are four word describing sibling's of your parent's:
Faster = Father's Sister
Moster = Mother's Sister
Farbror = Father's Brother
Morbror = Mother's Brother
It gets a little complicated when it comes to the words Onkel and Tante.
Tante = Aunt-in-Law
Onkel = collective word for the male relatives.
There are no collective word for the female relatives, nor a unique word for Uncle-In-Law.
So when it comes to your parents' brothers you can either use the more specific words Farbror and Morbror or the less specific word Onkel. Since Onkel is the shortest of these, by both spelling and pronunciation, it naturally becomes they word of choice in most cases.
Dear Robe Trotters, thank you for your amazing content. It is very fulfilling to see my Danish culture through the eyes of foreigners - and laugh at it. One of my favourite Danish terms is "Curling Forældre", a fairly recent term that corresponds to "Helicopter parents", but I like the curling analogy way better: Imagine that life itself is a curling pitch and the stone is the child.
If you have seen at the Winter Olympics how the two sweepers (parents) are frantically working their brooms (or whatever they are called) to remove every conceivable object in front of the child, who is now gliding frictionless through life... until the inertia is gone, the parents are exhausted, and the child is now an incompetent young adult without any drive or initiative. All because it was 'curled' throughout childhood. Curling Forældre has become such as widely used term now that it is also used as a verb: "Hey man , don't curl your child". I think it is quite genius :-) Thanks again and God bless you both.
"Tude" kinda like extreme sobbing.
I like the words "huskekage", "nossebajer" and "dele håndmadder ud".
Ouch!
Did you know in Danish aunt and uncle is the the partner that married into the family. In Danish we have morbror and moster (mom’s søster), and farbror and faster (fars søster). Unfortunately the use is in decline.
The words ending in -bror just feel cumbersome. Faster and moster flow off the tongue, morbror and farbror not so much.
and svoger/svigerinde
@@DudeDastardly 🤣
I think the word "Træls" in some instances could be translated to "Bummer". "Det er godt nok træls" is more or less, "That's a bummer".
or "That sucks."
Just a small thing - Porno actually stems from french and/or Greek, so it's a borrowed word in both Danish and English :)
I think that you might have mixed up ‘overskue’ and ‘overskud’ 😊
Again: NO! They descriped the word overskue. Thats completely clear when you watch the video.
:
@@nikolaj-si1soThey used "overskue" as a noun. It's a verb and it was a mix up in usage, which is quite understandable.
Lillefredag comes from lillejuleaften, the evening the day before Christmas Eve, which is like a prelude to Christmas Eve which is the pinnacle of Christmas here.
I like many of your choices of words to bring to other languages but I think you didn't really did the proper honor towards "tudekiks", you don't hand out tudekiks to all and anyone crying, it is more like a statement towards someone excessively whining about something and blowing it out of proportions. Here is a situation for a tudekiks, you have an apointment with your friend at 4 o'clock but because you are a tidsoptimist you miss the bus at 3.30 and the next one doesn't depart until 4 o'clock, now you have to call your friend to tell you are late which is træls cause it bring additional things in your schedule which you did not plan on, you finally get to your friends place and after your initional apology for being late you start telling about missing the bus as if it is the end of the world and extinction of man kindof deal at which point the friend might hand you a verbal tudekiks to bring your mind back in line to actual reality.
An English expression that comes close to "tudekiks" is to ask: "Would you like some cheese with that whine?"
You are excactly right. You descripted the mening of the word perfect👍
Fun fact. Tarm is not just a intestine it is also the name of a town in jutland.
A good selection of terms. :)
Wrt. "lille fredag"; it's similar to "lillejuleaften", which is the day before juleaften. :) You can also extend it to "lille torsdag" or "lille lille fredag" or similar if you want to excuse your drinking earlier on in the week. (As some students might be likely to do.)
A good example for "følelsesporno", I feel, is how American TV often approaches reality TV. You can't have a contestant on a reality TV show without them having an emotional backstory of overcoming an illness, losing a loved one, almost going bankrupt, etc. - and the show will often play that up with strongly emotional music, and such. Comparing the US and UK versions of "Kitchen Nightmares" with Gordon Ramsay gives a good contrast of how emotional aspects can be played up a lot. Honestly, I find it pretty exhausting and manipulative in many cases. :)
Like in every series of the X-factor one singer gets a sore throat and has to see a doctor, then with only one day to rehease produces a winning performance.
Yes right. They are heavy on følelses porno in USA. Much more Common than here.
I think you’re missing out on ‘Pyt’. A very very important word.
7:00. And your fathers sister is your "faster", your mothers sister is your "moster"
Hi gents!
-Awesome as always. However, there's one term where you're mixing things a bit (Understandable, these words are very similar in spelling and pronounciation, and CAN mean similar things)
"Overskue" = "To overview". It can be used both litterally, so if you are standing on top of something, you can "Overskue" it. Ie, you have a good vantage-point and overview. But also used metaphorically (in the way you're also describing), to talk about whether you have the mental capacity to deal with something, or figure something out. "Jeg kan ikke overskue det" = "I don't have the mental capacity for this" or "I just can't deal with this right now".
"Overskud" = "Surplus" or "Excess". Litterally used, for instance, in business, when you are talking about the money a company has made "Vi havde 10 millioner i overskud i år." Or iin any other case where you have more than you need of somethiung. BUT, it can also be used to describe mental or physical energy, or just time. "So you could say "I don't have the 'Overskud' for this". Meaning you can see what effort this would take, and you just don't have the time or energy that is required. It's less Dramatic than saying "Jeg kan ikke overskue det". With "overskud", you pretty much DO know what a task would take, and you could definitely do it. But you don't have the energy or time, or resources to actually do it.
Just taught me (a Dane) a new danish word. Never heard of smølfespark before.
Being from Jutland I use træls almost every day. I is just a good comment on something that just happens around you.
The bus is late, it's træls
You drop some food, træls
Love these videos
My favorite English word is 'Skedaddle' I know it's kinda old fashioned by now, but it just as a nice ring to it. It feels good to say and it's often very applicable to the situation.
Nice video as always guys, I'm gonna skedaddle.
It's still used a lot in the US South, especially to little kids.
Skedaddle is an awesome word! I'm also very fond of "shenanigans" and "flabbergasted"
@@PrebenHollywoodTV Yes, "flabbergasted" is also a personal favorite of mine. But English has so many fantastic words, it's hard to keep track. Granted, there are words in Danish that don't exist in English, but many more the other way around. I guess that's what you can expect of a "language" that's really 3 or 4 languages in an overcoat 😀
@@PrebenHollywoodTV What about 'gobsmacked'? That's very descriptive.
@@jensnobel5843 I was under the impression that tailgating originally meant sneaking through a toll gate for free by driving right behind the car in front (who paid to open the gate), so you could get through before the gate closed. Admittedly I don't remember where I heard that explanation and cannot find any references to it now. I did find a reference to the word originating with truck drivers in the 50s, which offers up a different hypothesis. A tail gate is the gate at the back of a truck that you lower in order to load or unload it. Tailgating could then be construed as the car behind acting as the tail gate for the truck, i.e. stuck to the back of it. In both cases the meaning would indeed be the way it is used today rather than the opposite.
30 years ago "lille lørdag" was having sex on Wednesday. I worked with a very funny woman. On our way out to the parking lot, I joked: "Why are you walking so fast? Are you hurrying home for "lille lørdag"? She answered:" I don't need training, just for playing match on Saturday".
I laughed very much and I never forgot her answer. I still smile when thinking of the conversation.
I love the name for many of the acids in Danish. It like explains where we get the acid from like Mælkesyre (Milk acid) Myresyre (ant acid) Citronsyre (Lemon acid) Æblesyre (Apple Acid) Smørsyre (Butter acid) etc. In English it is a headache.
"Ant acid" being acid from the ant, not to be confused with antacid.
@@jensnobel5843lactic acid was first isolated from sour milk, which is indeed why it got the name lactic acid.
@@jensnobel5843 I'm not denying that different isomers can have different properties. No atoms are different in those isomers though. Both are 2-Hydroxypropanolic Acid/Lactic acid/Mælkesyre, but different versions of it. L-lactic acid is the only one present in human muscles while (sour) milk can have both L- and D-Lactic acid (L- still being the main one, from what I understand). If you come up with that Latin name you've forgotten, I'd love to learn about it. Could you be thinking of sarcolaic acid (from Greek though)? Honestly not sure how I committed the sin of simplification, please enlighten me.
Presize grandparents are also Norwegian. I am a morfar to my daughters kids. And will be a farfar if my son picks up pace 🤗🇧🇻
Since you brought swedish/Norwegian in to this... I am danish, but live in Norway. The norwegians have two words which I personally think every other language is missing, and that is:
1) "Romjul"
Which means the week between Christmas and New Year.
2) "Dugnad"
Which means doing voluntary work without getting paid. Typically in your childrens sportsclubs, at an event or in your housing association.
Both words makes so much sence
About "lille fredag", it is worth mentioning that the evening before Christmas eve (juleaften) is called Little Christmas eve (lille juleaften) and many families will actually make a little warm-up celebration before christmas eve. The idea then gets borrowed for thursday drinking - you are warming up for the "friday night celebrations", hence lille fredag.
I love these lists, they're so fun to watch XD
Some words I really like are "ildsjæl (fire soul)" which means a person who's passionate about something (often related to a cause or some kind of charity work) and "hjertebarn (heart child/child of my heart)" which is something that's very dear and means a lot to you (again often related to a cause eg "helping out at the local charity shop is my hjertebarn" but I think the closest I can think of in comparison is when people call a cause close to them their "baby")
As a Dane I have to confess I have never heard the words "tidsoptimist" and "tidspessimist" in my life.
Regarding the Danish words for grandparents, while they do eliminate some confusion, they can also cause it. For instance, one time we were visiting my mother's parents along with my mother's brother and his children, my cousins. My sister got into a shouting match with one of my cousins because he insisted my grandmother's name was "farmor" while my sister insisted it was "mormor".
On the subject of cousins, that's another family relation that Danish is more precise about than English. While English only has "cousin", meaning the child of one of your parents' siblings, Danish has "fætter" and "kusine", meaning the son or daughter of one of your parents' siblings, respectively. "Kusine" obviously shares a common origin with "cousin", but is used exclusively for female cousins in Danish, and there is no genderless term for that family relation.
You seem to be mixing up the words "overskud" (noun? concept?) and "overskue" (verb). "Overskud" literally means "surplus" (it is also the Danish word for profit), and is the word you would use in the example you give of "Jeg har ikke overskud til det i dag", in which case it is probably best translated as "energy", as in "I don't have the energy for that today". "Overskue" is used in a very similar phrase with broadly the same meaning, "Jeg kan ikke overskue det i dag". I say broadly, because there are nuances, but since the equivalent verb does not exist in English (as is your point), it is not easy to translate. The word itself means something like "having the mental capacity, focus and concentration necessary to keep track of all the individual details needed to accomplish a certain task". I don't know the correct grammatical terms for it (so I'll use some physics terms instead), but it is never used "kinetically" (I run/I am running), only "potentially" (I can run/I cannot run).
also there a variety for Aunt and Uncle.: Aunt: Faster (Fathers Sister) / Moster (Mothers Sister), Uncle: Farbror (Fathers Brother) / Morbror (Mothers Brother), granted not used so often every where. Not entirely sure how this works for the husband/wife of either of the above examples, they may be referred "generic" Onkel (Uncle) or Tante (Aunt)
_Tidsoptimist_ is in regular use in my world (probably because I am one), but I’ve never heard _smølfespark_ before.
I just want to add, that overskue is also frequently used in infinitive, like : "det er svært at overskue, hvad man skal". This is somewhat equivalent to using the related adjective "det er uoverskueligt", which is actually the form of the word I miss the most in day to day English.
To say that something is "overskueligt"/"uoverskueligt" means that it is easy/difficult to envision all the necessary steps to achieve a clearly/too loosely defined aim. It is a little different from manageable (which would translate "overkommelig"), but the two words are sometimes used interchangeably. Other times the best translation would be "well defined" or "clear".
@@kokoshneta That one I do know. In all probability, many Danish words are distributed geographically. It is actually quite wild for a country/language as small as ours to have such a wide variety of dialects.
By the family names, the childs parents siblings. Like Faster is the father sister (far søster) or Moster, moms sister (mor søster) and for the males morbror or farbror. Thanks for great content 🥰♥️ We hope to keep you here for a Long time 😉😉
I also miss a word for oldemor in English. great grandmother seems so lazy. I mean "great" is just the term you add to all the previous generations, and stating with grandmother is just too early. In Danish the equivalent of "ge´reat" is "tip" so the grandmother of your grandmothe in Danish is tipoldemor.
And we have kusine for female cousins and fætter for male cousins.
@@Matt-lc8qt Yeah - it took me quite a long time to wrap my head around that cousin could be male cousins too! It is so clearly related to kusine, that is only for girls here!
We also have uncle (onkel) and aunt (tante) who are married into the family. Example: Your mother's sister (moster) or father's sister's (faster) husband is your uncle (onkel). And your father's brother or mother's brother's wife is your aunt (tante).
Just thought of a couple of nice, direct words: Tyktflydende (thick-flowing) = viscous, and the opposite: Tyndtflydende (thin-flowing.)
I just became a Bedstemor last year - in reality I’m Farmor but because my sons father and I split up almost 25 years ago, I told him that if his wife wanted she could use ‘Farmor’ because I would like to be ‘Bedste’ ;)
In reality my grandson will be the one to chose my name in time, so I’ll be ok with any :)
Træls is extremely broad, and extremely versatile xD. It can be used to describe almost anything negative, whether it be an emotion or an event.
Cousin in Danish is kusine (female) or fætter (male)
Aunt can be either moster (mom’s sister) or faster (dad’s sister) or tante which is the unrelated aunt that is married to one of your relatives (just like onkel)
The same with uncle. Morbror (mom’s brother) farbror (dad’s brother) or onkel who is a male spouse of either of your parent’s siblings (moster, morbror, faster, or farbror)
I guess it’s a lot to learn and remember but it really is a lot easier to have specific words for how exactly people are related to you.
When English speakers talk about their family I often get confused 😅
Grandmother, grandfather, cousins, second cousins, aunts, uncles etc. on mom’s side or dad’s side or a mix. I always get lost 😂
I was a bit disapointed not to see any of these being menchoned, but I also see that farbror and morbror are propably used a lot less now a day, because they just don't flow as well when saying them, as onkel, and moster and faster.
Hi guys, love your videos! I'm danish, but an expat in Thailand myself, so it's fun to see other expats reacting to home... Personally I'm a time pessimist, and I think that's because my dad is the ultimate time optimist (we were an hour+ late for everything always)... When I was a kid we were never on time for anything, and it REALLY annoyed me! Especially because we have a HUGE family, so when you arrived late for a biirthday or something, you had to go around greeting 100 people... Much easier to just be there first and everyone has to come greet you... Also, my dad was an airline pilot before he retired, and I am extremely sure that there have been delayed flights due to his time optimism 😂
With how precise the danis language is, i also like how in my personal opinions, how "unprecise" i feel our language is at the right times like our word for girl/boyfriend where we just use kæreste
If you drink too much on "Little Friday" you might end up "bagstiv" on Friday morning, which is essentially another word for a hangover that applies to feeling like shit on a day you're actually supposed to do something as a result of drinking the day before. "Tømmermænd" or your regular hangover is the one you can get away with on a Saturday/Sunday.
I am more of a time pessimist myself lol. Especially if I'm going somewhere new and have to get there myself. I'll be going super early because I have to have time to figure out how to get somewhere. At my best friend's last residence, the first time I had to drive there myself, I had trouble finding the correct gravel road leading to the right house. I left home an hour early and I arrived on time. Much to the amusement of my friend. 😆
Compound words are incredibly fun in Danish, because gramatically it allows for pretty much anything. One word we came up with in my family to describe our late dog sneaking around for crumbs and scraps was a "panelsniger" (she was sneaking along the panels).
You guys should study Old Norse (vikings language). There you will learn that aproxx 1/3 of the english language originates fra Old Norse and therefore danish. And maybe take a look at Danelaw. 🙂
Only about 5% of modern English vocabulary is of Old Norse origin.
@@Bjowolf2 I read a comment by an Englishman living in Norway who, while learning the language, discovered the many words that were similar to English but with different pronunciations and said that he imagined the Vikings visiting the British Isles and leaving behind many of their words but mispronouncing them slightly, then returning to Scandinavia laughing their head off at what they'd done.
@@peterc.1618 Knowing the Norwegian sense of "humour" that sounds like a very plausible hypothesis 😂
@@peterc.1618 Not true.
@@ThePsychophant Reputable (academic) sources say 5%. Old English and Old Norse were closely related languages so they would already have had many words in common.
Hi guys. I love your videos and i'm very impressed with your knowledge about danish society etc. I think that you know much more about DK than many native danes. It is so interesting to see your perspective of DK. About the word "overskue", i'm afraid that you mixed it up with the word "overskud" in your example. Overskud translates to surplus and overskue means overview. I can clearly see that these words are easily mixed up but the meaning is somewhat different.
You’re quite right, I also enjoy Robe Trotting’s very entertaining videos! 😊 But yeah, I can definitely see how those two words could get mixed up, seeing how they’re often used in the same or similar situations: “overskue” means to survey or less literally “be able to cope” with a situation. And “overskud” either means “lots of energy”, like when you’ve got the “get-up-and-go” to make a certain effort or keep going in some context - but in a rather more literal sense, “overskud” means a seller’s profit when you sell something or just a surplus of some kind. We have to admit, they sound almost identical, especially in my dialect, which is Fynsk!
Ja, jeg tænkte fuldstændig det samme.
"skue" [skoo-e] ( German "schauen") is actually the cognate of the Old English verb scéawian
1. to look 2. to look at observe gaze behold see ...
( maybe it's time the E speaking folks started to use some of our very old mutual words again? 😉 )
So "at overskue" = to "overview" / "overlook" - to get a good look across the whole thing / problem / situation.
overskud = "over-shot" = surplus / extra energy etc.
With the example they used yeah they used the wrong word, but a small change to the phrasing and they use the right word and with the right meaning "Jeg kan ikke overskue det her i dag"
@@michs342 True! 👍
A little comment to enlighten you about the origin of "lille fredag". In Denmark we celebrate Christmas in the evening on the 24. of December. We call that "juleaften" - Christmas Eve. The day before it's called "lillejuleaften" - little Christmas Christmas Eve. Tradition holds that we either gather the family for a small cosy evening on the olden days. Now it's more often spent on having a real extra Christmas Eve if you are s family with divorced parents. That way you can spend Christmas at both parents - every year 😉
as a danish person the way you say frday sounds like fridag that means day off and that always makes me laugh.
Have you made a video about danish expressions ? ex. Ingen ko på isen - - Kaste en hvid pind efter - - At stille træskoene - - and so on.
At "Tude" is probably closer to weeping (or crying out loud). grab a "Tudekiks" is likely something you would say to someone who was mad about losing game night with friends, or yell at the losing team's fans at a sports game.
We have a common saying which is "Tør øjnene of tag en kiks", or "Dry your eyes and grab a biscuit" which is closer to an encouragement like "You can do it! Next time will be better"
Around here we call Thursday drinking "Friday Eve".
I like your prononciation of "kvaje". It's spot on. I didn't know about "smølfespark. To me, that's called a begmand (by man). Thanks for sharing
00:14 Kvajebajer/Kvajekage
01:19 Smølfespark
02:07 Lillefredag
03:48 Tidsoptimist/Tidspessimist
06:17 Farmor/Mormor
08:03 Følelsesporno
10:01 Træls
10:59 Overskue
11:55 Tudekiks
13:56 Blindtarm
Well done guys. That was not an easy task but you’ve explained it well.
Thank you 😊
Try this one. "Overspringshandling" I think you will dig it.
I love my job so much. I call sunday little monday.
Lille Fredag is an extrapolation from lillejuleaften, the 23rd of December. It's almost Christmas, but not quite. ...and then just adapted to the weekend in stead of Christmas.
People working weekends in multiple service jobs tends to get two-three days of in the middle of the week, hence "Lill-Lördag". They had their weekend in the middle of the week. Overskue could be explained as: "I can't mentally process that at the moment"
We also have the specific terms for our aunts and uncles. Your dads brother is your farbror, his sister is your faster - their wife and husband would be your aunt and uncle - so aunt and uncle is not related by blood. The same for your moms side with morbror and moster, and their significant other would be aint and uncle as well
I went to a great danish alcohol rehab and to this day i only drink every other day - thank you
Also in the same category of family terms. We often use "moster" (mom's sister) or "faster" (fathers sister) in stead of "tante" (aunt). We also use "fætter" and "kusine" which is gender based and not just cousin
Følelsesporno can also mean overly display of emotions or oversharing or of course like stated in the video.
It's often used to criticize movies etc. that have way too many emotions on display, thus being as low quality as if it had way too much naked skin on display. Such movies often being criticized in English as a tearjerker.
I personally think of Træls as translated would be Bummer, like "What a bummer" = "Det er træls"
Smøflesparket is also good beheind the ear at a cold day 👌
Lille fredag, “lil Friday or small Friday” correct it’s Thursday excuse for beers
Little Friday is probably taken from our Little Christmas Eve (Lille Juleaften), which is the day before Christmas Eve.
To help you out. Overskue means to not have the total overview. In danish it is also orker or magter which is the same word. i know right 3 words for the same word and meaning, the 3 words express how serious it is from mild to terrible, with orker or magter beeing the max way you feel when you are out of energy and would rather be free but do it anyway because you said yes or made an apointment about it. So it is a mental state of tireness or borring or both but it needs to be done, and you do it. Kinda like annoyance grades. When you have an apointment but you are tired or don't really want to make that apointment because you are so tired but you know you have to do it anyway then you say I don't orker det or magter det or if there are to many thoughts about not going to make the apointment you can't overskue it because you are thinking about excuses not to going. But usually you end up going anyway but you fine think it and how long time it will take etc. overskud is to have mental capacity to do what you set your mind to do. Close words :) Hope it helps. And Skål or Cheers :)
First-time comment on your channel. Nice one, you guys!
I have added a few examples below for your perusal.
*Hensynsbetændelse* ("inflammation of one's regard/consideration for other people"). It literally promotes the idea of one's sense of caring or concern for other people being an organ (like a spleen), which is under stress for lack of self-care. When you say in Danish that someone suffers from "hensynsbetændelse", it means that the person in question is neglecting their own mental health whilst being excessively accomodating to other people.
*Pjæktarmen* (to coin an English equivalent, "malingitis" (portmanteau of "malingering" and "-itis"). If someone is thought by friends or colleagues to be shirking from work or school (e.g., "pjække"), you might hear the sarcastic expression, "Han har ondt i pjæktarmen" ("He has malingitis").
*"Uheld"* ("accident", a medical euphemism referring to involuntary bowel movement, where a patient has soiled themselves). It sounds almost biblical, such as the expression of "knowing someone" in the biblical sense.
ON SWEARING: The Denmark-based British comedian Conrad Molden once pointed out to his audience that while conventional swearing in English is usually blasphemous because the most popular phrases take the Lord's name in vain (e.g., "Jesus H. Christ", "god damn it", etc.), in Danish, he points out, "things get satanic" (e.g., "fandeme", "satans", "for helvede", "allerhelvedes", etc.).
Just præsis! Lets celebrate that with a beer... 🍻
Love you guys, keep up the good work 👏 😊
I usually use the feelings porno to describe a movie wich tries to hard to be deep. But your explanation also works
Ah, okay I get that one too. Similar sentiment.
Træls:
part 1:
Imagine you are a Farmer, and working the farm with "lillemor" (endearing word for wife / mother of your children) and this morning you are the one to go out to the staples and milk the cows. You get your bucket and sit behind "Maren Malkeko" (usual name for a cow is maren, malkeko describes that she is a milking -able cow) bucket is down and you get started with milking the teats of the cow. But not only have you started milking her, then she begins to kick you with her right leg, so you stop for a sec and think. The solution, you grab her kicking leg and tie it up along the post next to her so she cant kick you, and you presume milking. Well, didnt take her long to begin kicking you with the other leg, but this time you have the solution and start tieing the other leg up against the other post on the other side. Finally you can begin milking her... Or so you thought... Cos now she comes down swing with her tail at you as you are sitting behind her. So this time, you take the tail and tie that around her back so she cant hit you with that either. Now you can get started, and the milk flows. After a few minutes you feal the urge to pee, but cant really "overskue" to walk all the way back to the main house, dedress, just to go pee so you think, fuck it - Maren pisses here, so i can do that too - and just as you are ready to take a leak - right then - Lillemor enters at the door... Now that's "træls"
Part 2:
Imagine you had the chance to buy a flower power car, a pink vw beetle with flowers and piece signs all over - really looks like a hippie car from the 70s. You find it the most adoring car and you buy it because it looks amazing to you. And here you are with your new car and you wanna take it for a drive, at some point you get to the highway and it manages okay up there. After a little while a gang of Hells Angels on Harleys over take you, and in you admiration for them you wanna give them a little honk, as to say "WoW" - but then the horn gets stuck - now that's "Træls"
My two favorite jokes to describe the word "Træls" to people from outside Jylland (Jutland) =D
I have never heard that definition of følelsesporno, everyone i know, including myself, it means doing something that makes you feel good, it can be reading your favorite book, or watching your favorite show, anything that lets you unwind and relax qualifies as følelsesporno
To me følelsesporno has a negative meaning.
Definitely negative.
Little saturday in Denmark also means Wedensday, but in terms of having "fun" with your partner/wife ect.
Yes! Lige den kommentar jeg ledte efter. Troet det var alm kendt .
Ah yea, because the male gear needs 3 days to fully recharge after a successful mission.
‘Overskue’ and ‘overskud’ are two completely different terms. ‘At overskue’ means to be able to view it all, to have a broard vision in this situation, to monitor everything (related to this).
‘Overskud’ is when you have (more) power-to-go, abundance, ability to overcome a strained situation and be able to help somebody simultanesly - or smile at it. It can also mean profit. The opposite is ‘underskud’ when you are lacking something either in economical or energetic ways. 😊
"Lille fredag" probably comes from what Scandinavians call the day before christmas. December 23 is called "Lille juleaften", or "Little christmas eve".
A better English word is the "lesser christmas eve" Just like the "lesser king pippin of France"
You guys makes me extra happy❤
The Chinese are even more precise regarding relatives.
I can't believe that you didn't mention Håndbajer. Literally a hand beer. That's the first beer you get when you get to a party and everyone is still mingling and you have to hold it in your hand.
From a Swede on the other side of Öresund.
Lyserød is a word i need when i talk colours as a colour designer light red
Tudekiks reminds me of a saying I overheard as a teen in America that has a very similar meaning: cardboard cookie. One is typically given a cardboard cookie when one feels their accomplishment is great but their reward is not, and then they discuss it. Love y'all's vids ❤
A little twist here, in the translation. Nice to bring it up, but "at overskue" something; back in folkschool, when we asked for the meaning, of various words, my teacher told us to turn the words around. "Skue over"
The sentence example you brought up, "Jeg har ikke.." here I would put a different word in, "overdskud" (surplus, energy) "... til det i dag"
Regarding "Precise". I was educating to be working in a laboratory, which in Danish is called "laborant". Now, there is a term for it in English, I admit, I don't recall it, but the term in Danish is the one having the rank "above" "laboranten". During that time of education, I learned, that there was a difference between "precise", præcis", and "accurate", "nøjagtig". Being precise, you for example arrive at the same time every day. But you can still be late, all the time. If you are "accurate", "nøjagtig", then you arrive at the exact time. If the day starts at 8 'o clock, then you are there, at 8 'o clock.
But it's a smaller thing, that is to be forgiven, most Danes do also use "precise", as a term, when they mean "accurate", because to them, it's the same. The difference does not exist. Try to ask your collegues at work, and listen to their explanation of those two words
Snigeren = When someone does something extremally smart.
littarally means the "the sneaky one" og the describing the "Sneak" itself
Have you guys run into having a “håndbajer”? It’s having a beer with friends/colleagues/family, but doing so at a place without a table, i.e. a very informal beer (you could technicly have it outside the Netto where you bought it ;-) )
Love Mike's shirt
I love what you do. And I am danish. Keep up the good work. You Guys Are so charming😊 kirsten
As inspiration for Pt. II: One of my all time favorite examples of what can be done in the Danish language is: “(Den er) lige til at lukke op og skide i”. Used about a thing (typically, maybe sometimes person) that is FUBAR/functioning so poorly that it’s suited for opening up and taking a crap into. But the whole wording “lige til at…” is something I can’t quite find a suitable English substitute for. It’s beautiful.
It means it is craptastic
Yeah right. I like that term🤣. Another one in the same category is: pis mig i øjet😅
"just right for ...". / "only made for" ...
Følelsesporno, in my opinion, is best described with the ASPCA commercials playing sad music while you see pictures of animals suffering ... more like an OVERLOAD of emotional manipulation, not just any exploitation of emotions or sad situations
Danish for a cookie is småkage, the Danish word kiks (tudekiks) would be a biscuit.
Regarding mormor, farmor, farfar and farmor, we also have masculine and femine versions for cousin. A female cousin is a kusine and a male cousin is a fætter. Also, there is morbror (mom's brother), farbror (dad's brother), moster (mom's sister) and faster (dad's sister). It would seem we care about our family relations a bit more than others ;-)
Just have to say... great t-shirt Mike! Thanks for the awesome content as well, you two, of course.
Love your words and especially your pronunciation. Sorry, I just love it/you
I love this. I have american immigrant friends and it is always fun to talk about what you notice as you learn a new language, particularly when it is one you start learning as an adult.
Side note, and I know this is not what the video was about but just because it is one of my pet peeves about the viking age 'træl' was a slave class in the Scandinavian society and it included everyone. There were slaves from other countries but the træl class both predates and "post dates" the viking age by quite a bit (interestingly it took a few hundred years after christianity came about before the slave class was abolished. Absalon, warrior, bishop and founder of Copenhagen (-ish) was a huge slave owner) and the majority of them were Scandinavian. (though the slaves that the Swedes traded with the south were unlikely to have been the Scandinavian born ones, more likely they were british they got from the Danes and Norwegians or they were slavic).
There were a lot of reasons you could become a træl but debt to other people was one of the big ones and then from that point on your offspring was born into slavery.
I've never heard "Time pessimist" before..
I'm just in good time 😉
I live in West Jutland, and travel by train and bus. If I'm late, there's about 2 hours until the next departure, so I'd rather wait 10 minutes for the train than see the back of it 🚂
Gotta say I loove you guys! So funny to hear your perspective on Danish. I’ve never thought about Danish words as literal before, but you are so right. 😂
Just one comment: It seems like you are confusing OVERSKUD with OVERSKUE, at least in your speech.
“Det har jeg ikke overskud til” = I don’t have the energy for that (can be both mental and physical).
“Det kan jeg ikke overskue” = I am so confused or there are so many things here, that I completely lost my ability to mentallly structure/organize/process what to do.
This was my favorite one. I so like to have special/clever words in my language. You will forever bee my favorit “speed takling boys”
Two comments, both regarding "overskue":
1. All the examples were negative - not being able to "overskue". It can just as well be used positively - being able to "overskue".
2. In the end of the talk about "overskue" I heard the word "overskud", which is a completely different word.
"Det har jeg ikke overskud til"
Haha great video, fun to hear from a Danes point of view. Tudekiks is awesome :D another great one is "skriv en bog", which would be used if a person is over explaining or talks a lot about one subject. Also very sarcastic :P
fun fun today :) yes you are correct about where lill lördag comes from... :) being married to an englishman the whole grandparent thing was confusing till i taught him to say mormor/farmor morfar/farfar so i knew which one he was talking about - yes we say that in sweden aswell :)
Love that you included overskue. It is one of those words that I use often when speaking Danish but it just doesn't translate well into English. It is one of my "Danglish" words, a word that if you know the person understands a little of both languages, you just use it. In both languages, there are just some words that are so spot-on in communicating what you really mean.