😀 Thanks for all the great comments and additional phrases! We're definitely going to add a Part II in the weeks to come. If you want your own copy of the book: Cows On Ice & Owls in the Bog you can click this link ➡ amzn.to/3xNcxLv As Amazon Associates we earn from qualifying purchases.
I'm a dane. That was really really really fun to watch and hear!!! A fantastic movie! You should also DEFINITELY learn this phrase (on the book cover): in danish: "der er ingen ko på isen". In english, direct translation: "there's no cow on the ice". The meaning of the phrase (very very typical, you have to learn and memorize it) is: "easy peasy" or simply "piece of cake". Next time on the job, in the canteen or wherever in Denmark and you want to say "piece of cake" you just say "there's no cow on the ice, in that/doing that". All danish people will understand that it's a direct translation of the danish phrase: "der er ingen ko på isen". Use it, it's great fun!!!!!!!
A punchline from tv comercial (at least 10 years back). Commercials on tv are farely new in DK and sayings /punchlines from many are well known and used in everyday talk
Another good one is "flueknepperi" or "flyf*cking", which is the act of being pedantic or nitpicky - caring too much about tiny, insignificant details, haha.
@@RobeTrotting NO goat for dinner :) When youre solution on problem is perferct, feeling selfconfident and may a bit cocky in the good way. :D We danes are damn funny, but all of our slang is pretty weird, but have a deeper meaning.
Except that the job done has a menacing quality. The expression comes from a fairy tale about three boys, their father's goat and their father. Their father sends a boy out in the fields with the goat to let it feed there and not return until the goat is full. And the goat eats and the boy asks if it is full, and it replies positively, and they return home. The father then asks the goat if it is full, and it replies that it had nothing to eat and returned famished. The father beats the boy and throws him out. The story repeats itself with the next two boys, and then the father takes the goat out himself, ask the same question when they are out, and upon return ask the goat: Now you are full? And the goat replies as it has done everytime it returned home: It is famished. Not a shrub did it get. And then the father realises his mistake, and he shaves the goat as punishment and then the story ends with the words: "Now that goat is shaved." The expression in Danish is actually: "Så er den ged barberet." It is usually meant somewhat defiantly.
@@RobeTrotting Americans would say done and done, or case closed. Here's another danish saying: No arms no cookie! A darkened humorous way of saying: life's a b*tch. Or maybe akin to being a one legged man in an ass-kicking contest.
I like the "ingen hænder, ingen småkage", its quite dark, and an abbreviation on an old danish joke. It translates directly to "no hands, no cookie", but it refers to: if you dont want to do the work, you dont get the reward. Fun vid guys, keep it up :)
Me too. The story is about a small boy with no arms, who wants a cookie. He’s told to fetch them himself, and when he complains that he cannot open the cookie jar, he’s told by his parents: No arms, no cookies. I have mostly heard it used against children, who try to persuade their parents into fetching or preparing something for them, that they should be able to do themselves. I know, I’ve used it that way.
I live your coments and topics. Spinat is/was sowed in between strawbeeries in The Fields as it grows faster and is harvested earlier. But when you make a Wrong step in The strawberry Field (primary crop) - you step in The spinace (and ruin it). So making a Wrong step or turn and spoiling Something else thereby!
Your pronouncation of "klap lige hesten" was actually really good! Also, klap lige hesten; klap doesn't translate to slap in this case, but pat. Your pronunciation of "blæser" was also great! I lived a few years in the states and got married there, so I know how hard Danish is for English speakers! But just the fact you're trying, is more than enough to impress any Dane! Your channel is great, informative and it shows you really want Denmark. Keep it up guys! Much love!
I loved the "most days it is blowing at least a quarter of a pelican" awesome way to express how lovely our weather is here in Denmark.... sarcasm about the weather may occur in this post.. Also as a Dane I truly love your videos, you share some really cool insight about living in Denmark that we native Danes don't experience, for obvious reasons, and you guys are also really funny. You do kind of slaughter our language sometimes but as you have said so your self in other videos, it is just cool that you try and that your aren't afraid of getting it wrong, that really earns you some respect in my book.
Translation of Finnish saying about not having mouth of bark was interesting. At least I, as a Finn, have always heard that as being open to/wanting to eat sweets. It is actually part of old idiom "Ei köyhänkään suu tuohesta ole", which translates about "Even poor person don't have a mouth of birch bark". That meant that they too would like to eat and drink good stuff (because they can taste it because they don't have mouth of bark) but don't really have money to do so.
There's also 'a bear's favour' (bjørnetjeneste) which is often misunderstood by Danes, as it stems from a fable by La Fontaine, of a bear throwing a rock to its master's head in order to remove a fly. I.e. a kind gesture that just makes the situation worse. People tend to use it the other way around as if it is a good thing, probably because they don't know the origin
The reason why people usually mix up a bjørnetjeneste with something good, I believe is because of bjørneklem/bjørnekram, which is a huge big warm hug.. so then people who hasn't heard of a bjørnetjeneste before connect the meaning from the bjørneklem/bjørnekram, and think that a bjørnetjeneste is a huge/big/warm (or similar) favor.
The story behind "Det regner skomagerdrenge" is not known to the majority. It is a rather dramatic and sad story which took place in Copenhagen in 1758. The shoemaker Carl Jepsen was known as a very hard employer who often punished his apprentices physically for even small mistakes. One day one of them made a bigger mistake, after which the shoemaker threw him out of a window on 2nd floor. As the other apprentices protested, they were also thrown out of the window. Only two of the five apprentices survived.
Ah, okay - good to get the difference down. It wasn't super clear in the book and said "a high compliment to the object of your desire" - so this clarifies it a bit more. So glad you loved the video - Tak Lea 😀🇩🇰
Great video. Loved one of the answers Derek gave for Træde i spinaten (step on a vegan 🤣) Always looking forward to your videos. Some other Danish sayings/expressions: -Goddag mand økseskaft/hello man axshaft(when you say something that doesn't make sense/talk nonsense/when you are in a convesation and don't get what the other one is saying/mean/maybe misunderstand each other completely) - Feje for sin egen dør/sweap in front of your own door( to focus on your own problems/mistakes/business, before you meddle/interfere in/with others.) - Ude hvor kragerne vender/where the crows are turning (when someone/something is far out in the country/on the countryside) - 1800 og hvidkål/1800 and cabbage (when you don't remember which year it was/talking about something that happened a very long time ago) - Få i hoved og røv/get in head and ass(getting more than enough/too much/getting spoiled) -Ananas i egen juice/pineapple in it's own juice(When you talk or focus a lot/too much on yourself) -(Har du) Tabt småkagerne/dropped the cookies(In situations where someone really behave in a wierd/stupid/very strange way, like "have you lost your mind?")
"Har du tabt småkagerne?" can be used in similar context as the English "who peed in your corn flakes?" When I lived on Lolland I learned that their local version of "hvor kragerne vender" er "der hvor grisene har nummerplader" / where the pigs have license plates. Same meaning, but perhaps a little more modern
Skomagerdrenge: I've learnt that it's because the only people who are out in that bad weather, are the cobblers' boys - They are running around delivering all the boots that hasn't been picked up after repair. English speaker wactching the weather report, where they promise hard wind: OMG it blowing chickens! No, dear, it's Kuling - not kylling Hygge!
If you look it up it is because a cobbler master in 1758 in Copenhagen were tossing the cobbler boys out of the window so they were bouncing off the road.
Can’t remember your names, when that is said, the guy on the right pronounced 3:49 “slap af” and “klap lige hesten” so damn well, like that was so on point!
Another weird one from Norway (and Denmark, I believe) is "rosinen i pølsa" which translates to "the raisin in the sausage". It means the best part of a good thing or a great end to a good thing, usually unexpected.
Oh, that's funny. I thought "rosinen i pølseenden" means to come last. Like if someone is the "raisin in the sausage end" it's someone who came last, maybe in a race or something. Google says it's both.
@@TanjaToft in Danish it's come to mean a consolation price (trøstepremie), essentially on the lines of "at least you got something", but generally it's used when something good comes out of a bad situation
@@TorchwoodPandP *"så længe". The sayings "ingen ko på isen" and "ingen ko på isen så længe bagbagene er på land" has slightly diferent meanings. "Ingen ko på isen" means "that's no problem at all", while the extended saying means "that's no problem per se, but would be if something else went wrong too"
You know when a a person becomes danish, even though they don't speak the language. My wife of 20 years came from Moscow, and we spoke english in the beginning, one day she had a rant, and when she stopped speaking I asked her "Are you finnish ?" she looked at me stearnly and replied "No ! I'm Danish" she didn't understand why I was rolling on the floor crying from laughing
Also, I'd be a bit careful about using that expression. Some will accept it as a compliment, while to others you might come off being a bit sexist. It's kinda like saying "You're a babe" to a woman. Some appreciate it, some not so much.
@@Human_Organic This is silly, but I think it has to do with the sound of the word, which is light and high in tone, which makes sense if you're thinking about a slender, beautiful woman. It could also have to do with the fact that you contract your throat to make the "i" sound. The letter "i" even looks like a person, could be a woman in a dress. Now I'm losing my mind! The"si" sound also seems feminine to me, while "l" and "d" seem more neutral. This is very weird.
Ahh, weird old sayings, that for some reason still are relevant today!! 🤣 Surprised that you didn't mention, 'at gå agurk' Finland & Iceland are our Nordic brethren, not Scandis, only Denmark, Norway and Sweden are Scandis 😉 p.s. Finns are very sensitive to the difference Great fun, guys!
I comes from back when we had wolfs, so at the start it was "der er ulve i mosen" and when things go from mouth to mouth things change therefore "ulger"
I love that you made this video about Scandinavian expressions and not just Danish, even though you live here. There were some of the Swedish etc expressions I had never heard of. So even for a Dane, it was educational. :D
" I stepped in the spinach " translates way better to " I messed up" / " I fucked up" Most of these sayings are actually pretty old though. They aren't used much in the present danish language. I love your video's guys! If you ever wanna visit Sønderborg, I'll be your tour guide 😊
It is still very common to say a politican has "trådt i spinaten" when they screw up, along with many other old sayings that have become stable terms used when talking about politics
Its actually "wolves in the bog", which is kinda like danger. 'Der er uller i mosen', which since has become 'ugler i mosen' which is just nonsensical. Uller is old for ulv in a part of Jutland.
I disagree with this. It's wrong. Owls in the bog, is correct, directly translated... Means something is suspicious, as also correctly said in the video...
GREAT TOPIC ! Ugler i mosen - we expect owls in the woods but not in the bog. So for me in English (being Danish myself): Something's brewing... En lækker sild - a extraordinarily gorgeous looking person - primarily said of female. Det blæser en halv pelikan - When wind is severe (connotation towards "even stronger than expected") - I would only use term when winds at gale force or even stormy.
imo the best part of "olws in the bog" is how it became that. The "correct" saying is wolfs in the bog, which is a scary and suspicious thing. But most moderen people has little real fear of wolfs and wolf = ulv while olw = ugle. So over time it migrated from ulv to ugle as these sounds are pretty similar in Danish. Got the same saying in Norwegian, but it has "migrated" one step further and is now "olws in the moss" as mosen isn't really used in Norway for bog anymore, and it's really close to "mosen" which is moss
Even more so because the saying is 'originally' from Jutland (Jylland), where they used to call "ulve" = "uller" 🙂 So it was "Uller i mosen" back in the day
Can i just say as a half danish and half norwegan person... When you said "ugler i mosen" it sounded like you spoke with a norwegan accent! I sounded super nice! I really liked that, because i have a lot of friends trying to imitate a norwegan accent and it is horrible to listen to... But your "singing" way of pronouncing our words align well with some of my norwegan family ;) :D
Wow you really nailed some of them 💪 And props for remembering them and using them right away. "En lækker sild" is "a hot herring", which means a hot/good looking woman. It's not used for men unfortunately. Love Derek's obvious distaste for herring here 😂 "Træde i spinaten" is kind of like a faux pas I think. It's an unintentional mistake, so yeah, like putting your foot in your mouth. You Guys are so great ❤️
We need to hear your take on some of your favourite American expressions. These are some of mine I bought with me from my time in the US. "Happier than a tornado in a trailer park" "Feeling like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest"
Good job at guessing at the meaning, of the different sayings, I know there are many more sayings then those and quite a few of them I would not have a clue what they really meant.
About time You two nice guys learns a Danish tongue twister, that isn't worn to shreds yet. Even Danes have a hard time saying this 10 times fast. Here we go : Blå glat gadeplakat Don't hurt Yourself trying to say this Jeg har lært det af mine kammelegerater på Institaletuttet !
Yes, we won’t mistake that again... BUT in our defense, we didn’t write the book of Scandinavian sayings and include Finland haha - we just read from it 😂
Hahaha, that's where we are in language classes so it makes sense I supposed BUT we have heard this before - that they teach everyone a very Copenhagen accent 😂
My mom use to say "you are going to be a stick to my coffin/ Du bliver en pind til min ligkiste" which I think means something like you will become an addition to my demise. It sound very dramatic, but was often said in a jest when I irritated her.
Mothers always have the best expressions haha. I think we have something similar “you’re a thorn in my side” and a few others that express the same sentiment 😊
I would like to recommend a standup comedy show called Danglish, where an Englishman who have lived some time in Denmark, makes jokes about the way danes speak but at the same time talking about, how it is to live in Denmark as an English speaker. His name is Conrad Molden. The show is hilarious 😂 @Robe Trotting
A couple more: “Fis i en hornlygte” = “A fart in a horn lantern” Means something that turned out not to be true.... obviously 🤷♀️😅 “Ingen ko på isen” = “No cow on the ice” Means that all is well
A fis is actually not referring to flatulance, but it’s an old word for the last bit of a tallow candle. Other things could also be described as a fis, e.g. Æblefis = æbleskrog. The meaning of the expression is something blown out of proportions or something that seems bigger than it really is.
The Bog Lady brews (Mosekonen brygger) = it’s foggy Eyes on stems (øjne på stilke) = keep a close eye/pay attention To put your nose in the sky (at stikke næsen i sky) = to think you are special (something extra)
So glad that you enjoyed it - this was a really fun one for us to make. Thanks for watching and joining our community. We're glad you are here and we will keep the videos coming and hopefully the laughs as well 😀🇩🇰
Another expression: "Forsætter for fuld skrue" "Fuld skrue" Meaning "full steam ahead", as we are a naval nation, we have many expression that are naval related. Just carry on 🙂 I had a boss once that tried to translate it directly while speaking, but translated it wrong.... "Continue full screwing" 🤣 He did correct himself immediately, but too late🤣 I
Actually not as bad in English. The "SS" in "SS Shipname" actually stand for "screw-ship" (sometimes steam-ship)- so "full screw" makes sense from a maritime perspective!
Such a fun video and to learn about different saying in Scandinavia. Also there's a lot of regional words in Denmark, like "Træls", "knøw" and "Møj". Most of the words are from Jylland, to my knowledge.
No, Jylland doesn't stand out with that at all. In fact there isn't even a regional word, known everywhere in Jylland. It depends on where you live and/where your family originated from, what is known to you besides Kingdom Danish. All areas has that and the dialects are all so different, it's like independent languages. 2 born and raised danes will not understand one another at all, if speaking different dialects. Anything but kingdom Danish, is extremely local and not known outside its own small area :) Amager for instance, has one regional dialect/language exclusively their own. Knøw is only known in one tiny area in Jylland. Nowhere else. Sinnegas only known in southern Jylland. Daps only used in Western jyllland. Kavt only known in Northjylland. Sule, futte, ra'nok etc. only on Fyn. Flabbatas, sjødda, hjulkat etc on Bornholm No dialect is more known nationally. And horrar and bælli is as common on Bornholm, as træls and knøw is in some parts of Jylland. And as unknown anywhere else. Anything but 'kingdom danish' is extremely local and those words only known there. And all tiny are has a local language soly they use
@@kaffegal Danish is indeed very funny in the way our dialects are so geographically limited, but I do believe most Jutlanders know both træls and knøw, whether they use it in daily speech, I don't know. Så knøw er je' it. Anyway it reminds me of a puzzle that my Copenhagen born German teacher used to tease us Silkeborg students with: Wa du? A bu. Wa bu? Ublabu. Punctuation helps a lot, but when just said aloud it's difficult to understand. However when I moved to Struer for work, it suddenly made much more sense. And there we joked about how to bend the word hus. Æ hus, to huus, alle æ huuus. Now that I live in the capital district, I hear quite some different, often immigrant, dialects that I'd say could be difficult to understand. The Danish language is just playful I guess 😆
The literal meaning of "træls" is that something is slave (træl is the viking/ancient nordic word for slave) work, as in a task you don't want to do. In modern Danish it's come to mean something boring or tedious, but it is not a regional term at all. It does however vary between regions how much those old terms are still used. Møj og træls are perhaps more common in Jylland and on Lolland-Falster, in areas less affected by Copenhagen Danish, but I do definitely hear both occasionally here in Copenhagen, especially amongst young people. Just the other day a young girl on the train said something was "møj træls" while she was talking to her friends
Watched quite a few of your videos now :) You guys are awesome! I like how you are intrigued by many parts of the culture but also point out where Danes took it a little too far maybe.. (teenage drinking eg). You do it in a very moderate way that does not put me on the fence but makes me think about it. Keep the videos up.
Thank you so much, Christian, that's such a nice compliment and it's really how we try to approach the topics that we discuss. It's not our place to judge at all - and there's a little bit of the old saying "when in Rome" that we try to adopt since we moved to DK. Even with things like teenage drinking (which we also did in America), there's always more to the story, like how in Danish culture independence comes at an earlier age than in the States 😀🇩🇰
Hi guys. Love your videos. As a dane they teach me a lot about Danish culture seen from the outside. But one thing: Scandinavia consists only of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. "Norden" includes Finland and Iceland as well.
Thank you 😊 we kind of went off of the languages in the book but now we definitely know which to truly refer to as Scandinavian 🇩🇰🇸🇪🇳🇴 We feel this in a similar way when Americans, especially political pundits, try to label Pennsylvania (the states we moved from and derek grew up in) as “Midwest” when it was an original colony on the east and Philadelphia is an hour from the Atlantic Ocean 😂
Tommy Victor Buch 0 seconds ago Here's another, guys: "Du er nødt til at gå på dybhavsfiskeri i tegnebogen, hvis du vil købe denne/dette". Translation: "You'll have to go fishing in the deep sea, (in your wallet) if you want to buy this item." Meaning, this item isn't cheap. Something like that. Great video! Fun!
One thing to notice is that if the phrase is "Det regner X" , X is either a metaphor for how it rains like in "Det regner skomagerdrenge" which means that the rain consists of huge drops that hurt would when hitting you, or that X comes down as if it was rain e.g. "Det regner mælk". If the phrase is "det regner med X" (note the extra word "med") it has nothing to do with rain but instead means that there is a cornucopia of X. "Det regner mænd" would not make sense since men can't really be a metaphor for the way it rains, neither would there be a huge amount of men dropping at the same location. "Det regner med mænd" would make sense as it tells that there are a lot of men. If you are a girl looking for a good night under the sheets it would be perfect as it means that there are many to choose from. Related to "Det regner skomagerdrenge" is "Det står ned i lårfede stråler" = "It comes down in thigh-thick beams" which means that it rains in huge amounts.
Don't feel bad about your pronunciations. You're trying, doing your best. Danish IS difficult and in the eyes of most Danes you get a bunch of points just for trying...
came back to this one from the lastest video and got floored by Ugler i mosen, you did well Derek, but mosen sounded like Måsen (which with all the skat jokes in the other one) is a reference to your rear end :), I know I am a child.
Thanks for watching Mette, so glad to hear you enjoyed the video. We know now that Finland is only Nordic - the book included Finland so we just went with it haha, opps 😂🇩🇰
Love you guys! I actually didn't know any more than you did (I am an American living here for 15 years) and my Husband is Danish. I guessed the same as you, now I wonder how he would do in this quiz! hehehe I will ask him :)
The origin of "Det regner skomagerdrenge" or in english "It's raining cobbler's boys" is actually a very sad story. It wass a tripple homicide in 1758 in a street in Copenhagen called "Læderstræde", where the master cobbler threw 3 cobbler boys out the window, because one made a mistake and the other 2 complained about the first boy being thrown out. They got killed when hitting the cobblestone street.
Damn, you're right! Fra norsk leksikon: Det opprinnelige uttrykket, der er ulve i mosen, forekommer i Peder Syvs danske ordspråkssamling fra 1682, hvor det forklares med at det er fare på ferde.
@@RobeTrotting I think it is something about slenderness or curves, while torsk (cod) is used as an insult because of the way the head looks. I've also heard laks (salmon) used to describe someone who is annoying and a bit pompous.
@@nicolaim4275 I have never heard "laks" used in that way - usually it's just used synonymously with "sild" when describing hot women. "Laber laks" = "Lækker sild". In high school (15 years ago) we used to say someone was "max laks", but maybe that was just a local thing 😂 I am from Aarhus - where are you from? I imagine "laks" could be used differently on Sjælland maybe?
There's an urban legend that the phrase about raining cobbler boys, comes from a triple homicide in Cph in the 1700s. The story goes that the master cobbler threw his apprentices out the window when he lost his temper over a mistake. So the meaning of the expression would then be, something big falling from the sky. Luckily this story is just a tall tale...
I've always been told it was a reference to the sound of the wooden shoes, that the cobblers kids could of course afford, hitting the cobblestone pavement, as the kids would run through the streets while playing. The difference in explanation could be that I didn't grow up near Copenhagen.
I am not sure it's a tale. I think it's real. Notice the shoemaker is named. TV2 states it's as a fact. But it could be interesting to find out for sure. Court archives must have the records. Here is a copy/paste from TV2's page (Google translate do a pretty good job on this article if you want so): Men man kan vel nok bruge det gamle udtryk "det regner skomagerdrenge" til morgen. Udtrykket er ikke brugt så meget mere, men måske godt det samme. For udtrykket tager sit udspring i en både tragisk og meget dramatisk hændelse tilbage i 1700-tallets København. "Det regner skomagerdrenge" er et udtryk for regn med usædvanligt store regndråber. Udtrykket stammer fra et tre-dobbelt mord i Læderstræde i København i 1758. Skomageren Carl Jepsen var kendt som en meget hård arbejdsgiver, der ofte afstraffede sine lærlinge fysisk for selv små fejl. En dag lavede en af dem en større fejl, hvorefter skomageren smed ham ud af vinduet på 2. sal. Da de andre lærlinge protesterede over udsmidningen, røg de også ud af vinduet. Kun to af de fem lærlinge overlevede turen ned på de hårde brosten. I folkemunde gav tragedien fødsel til et nyt udtryk: "Det regner med skomagerdrenge i Læderstræde". Senere blev udtrykket brugt generelt, når der faldt store ting ned fra himlen, som fx usædvanligt store regndråber. Efterhånden som udtrykket bredte sig til resten af landet, bortfaldt det lokale islæt, så man bare sagde: "Det regner med skomagerdrenge". Siden har man droppet "med", så det nu er "Det regner skomagerdrenge"
One of my sources is a Kristeligt Dagblad article, that mentions there seems to be no court records backing up the story, surely even back then throwing five boys, even apprentices, out of a window, killing three, would leave some trace in the records. Also they mention the expression was in use before the murders were to have occurred.
@@Gert-DK It is not uncommon even today to spread unfounded rumors about someone you don't like or your competition. I don't doubt there was a cobbler who was awful to the people working for him, might have even beaten the severely/caused them great bodily harm. But honestly I find it unlikely that he threw all five boys out the window, and that now is a fun way to describe rain. I'm sure there's a grain of truth somewhere in the story, but like our famous HC Andersen wrote about that one feather turning in to five chickens, stories sometimes take on a life of their own.
@Amalie Olsdatter we have that one as well in Denmark. another one in danish is : " han har ikke opfundet den dybe tallerken" / "he hasn't invented the deep dish"
@@RobeTrotting it is only because most Danes can't say them either. Rødgrød med fløde is evil, because it is so difficult to pronounce. But tongue twisters are funny because you sometimes let your brain getting in the way of saying them.
@@linnmusic I've moved to Sweden, and they have some fun ones as well. 7777 søsyge sømænd på skibet Shanghai is difficult for some Swedes and impossible for Danes (because we aren't used to the SJ-sound the Swedes have)
”Ugglor (uler)i mossen” in Swedish is from the begining ”Ulvar i mossen”. Ulv is the old word for varg (wolf). Which makes more sense. An owl isn’t that dangerous but you don’t want a wolf sneaking around!
I like herring and always have. My (American) mother brought home those little jars of pickled herring in a creamy sorta sauce. We ate it on crackers such as Ritz and Saltines. I liked it. I prefer my herring cooked, though.
It's raining cobbler boys - "Det regner med skomagerdrenge": Expression of rain with unusually large raindrops. The term originates from a triple murder in Læderstræde in Copenhagen in 1758. The shoemaker Carl Jepsen was known as a very hard employer who often punished his apprentices physically for even small mistakes. One day one of them made a major mistake, after which the shoemaker threw him out the window on the 2nd floor. As the other apprentices protested the eviction, they also smoked out the window. Only two of the five apprentices survived the trip down the hard cobblestones. In folklore, the tragedy gave birth to a new expression: "It is raining shoemaker boys in Læderstræde". Later, the term was used in general when large objects fell from the sky, such as unusually large raindrops. As the term spread to the rest of the country, the local flair faded away, so one just said, "It's raining shoemaker boys."
Haha, sorry Mathias! But we're glad you enjoyed the video. We are really indecisive decorators and need to either patch the wall up or hang some photos back up haha.
Hi from Britland: This was fun! Heard one the other week, think it's Swedish. You can't just slide in on a shrimp sandwich...! It means not have to work to get success (???) Don't know why I find this so funny!!!
@@RobeTrotting Yeah! I moved from Sjælland to South fyn 10 years ago and there are still a Lot of frases over here i laugh about cause theyre so different and sometimes hillarious 🤗 but like, to walk inside with shoes where youre making footprints on the floor, over here they call that, at lappe på gulvet (to patch up the floor) Ive never heard that before and it still cracks me up when my husband sais it 🤣
It's funny, I've never thought of Denmark as being an especially windy place compared to anywhere else that I've been to. "Death walks faster than the wind and never returns what he has taken." H. C. Andersen
We don't have a lot of words for wind. But i love that you think so hahaha. It's also a myth that natives in Alaska and Greenland have a lot of words for snow. It's a good story that sounds believable. But it's not true. ;)
@Robe Trotting, random tangent, but I think you will like the book "The year of living Danishly" by Helen Russel, she's an English Expat that has moved to Denmark and writting about it, and it's quite fun, and she describes us pretty well. I thoroughly enjoyed her book :)
Oh yes, we have that book but only Mike read it. We'll have to both read it and make a response video (even if it's not widely viewed - it would be interesting to share and see what others think of it) 😀🇩🇰
Excellent video 😊 I believe 'Det regner skomagerdrenge' refers to the visual similarity between hard rain splashing off a hard surface and 'Gadedrengeløb' - a sort of bouncy skipping run.
Hej Morten, thanks for the great explanation - when you think of it that way it's super clever and makes a lot of sense. It's so fun to learn these phrases 😀
Yes, I agree with Morten... Skomagerdrenge is when the rain comes down so hard that it bounces up again when hitting a hard surface like a cobbled road. That's my take anyway.. Love your channel.. Keep it up 😀
Another good one is "Sku ikke en hund på hårene" meaning "don't judge the dog by its coat" It's the Danish equivalent of "don't judge a book by the cover"
I am a dane but i have never heard the term "det regner skomagerdrenge" 😂 so funny. I think a danish frase that translate a bit Better to the english frase: "its raining cats and dogs" is "det står ned i stænger". Directly translated is: "Its stand down in stangs". But anyhow love you guys you are so great 😍 (sorry about any misspealling)
Thank you for the sweet message Annette and love right back to you 😀 Someone in the comments shared that the "regner skomagerdrenge" phrase originates from when a cobbler tossed five of his apprentices out the window in the 1700s. Three of them died 😯but Danish humor did not haha.
😀 Thanks for all the great comments and additional phrases! We're definitely going to add a Part II in the weeks to come. If you want your own copy of the book: Cows On Ice & Owls in the Bog you can click this link ➡ amzn.to/3xNcxLv As Amazon Associates we earn from qualifying purchases.
I'm a dane. That was really really really fun to watch and hear!!! A fantastic movie! You should also DEFINITELY learn this phrase (on the book cover): in danish: "der er ingen ko på isen". In english, direct translation: "there's no cow on the ice". The meaning of the phrase (very very typical, you have to learn and memorize it) is: "easy peasy" or simply "piece of cake". Next time on the job, in the canteen or wherever in Denmark and you want to say "piece of cake" you just say "there's no cow on the ice, in that/doing that". All danish people will understand that it's a direct translation of the danish phrase: "der er ingen ko på isen". Use it, it's great fun!!!!!!!
Man that pelican must be very well endowed if you can only blow have of him. 🤣
I love "hjemmebragt" (home brought) instead of "hjemmebagt" (home baked) for when you bought a cake or cookies instead of baking it yourself 😂
That is GENIUS - oh that one is going into regular rotation for us haha
About all baked products
We use that a lot...😹
@@RobeTrotting Poor your friends 😂
A punchline from tv comercial (at least 10 years back).
Commercials on tv are farely new in DK and sayings /punchlines from many are well known and used in everyday talk
Another good one is "flueknepperi" or "flyf*cking", which is the act of being pedantic or nitpicky - caring too much about tiny, insignificant details, haha.
Or mayby round pices with tooth buttor.
We call that ant f*cking in the Netherlands.
Fly or ant f*cking is hilarious both ways 😂
My favorite:
“Then that goat was shaved.”
“Så blev den ged barberet.”
It means: Jobs done.”
Ah, that makes sense - I assume it was goat for dinner 😂
@@RobeTrotting NO goat for dinner :)
When youre solution on problem is perferct, feeling selfconfident and may a bit cocky in the good way. :D
We danes are damn funny, but all of our slang is pretty weird, but have a deeper meaning.
It’s also my favorite it’s so good
Except that the job done has a menacing quality. The expression comes from a fairy tale about three boys, their father's goat and their father. Their father sends a boy out in the fields with the goat to let it feed there and not return until the goat is full. And the goat eats and the boy asks if it is full, and it replies positively, and they return home. The father then asks the goat if it is full, and it replies that it had nothing to eat and returned famished. The father beats the boy and throws him out. The story repeats itself with the next two boys, and then the father takes the goat out himself, ask the same question when they are out, and upon return ask the goat: Now you are full? And the goat replies as it has done everytime it returned home: It is famished. Not a shrub did it get. And then the father realises his mistake, and he shaves the goat as punishment and then the story ends with the words: "Now that goat is shaved."
The expression in Danish is actually: "Så er den ged barberet." It is usually meant somewhat defiantly.
@@RobeTrotting Americans would say done and done, or case closed.
Here's another danish saying: No arms no cookie!
A darkened humorous way of saying: life's a b*tch. Or maybe akin to being a one legged man in an ass-kicking contest.
Klap lige hesten - Hold your horses 😃
I like the "ingen hænder, ingen småkage", its quite dark, and an abbreviation on an old danish joke. It translates directly to "no hands, no cookie", but it refers to: if you dont want to do the work, you dont get the reward.
Fun vid guys, keep it up :)
Me too. The story is about a small boy with no arms, who wants a cookie. He’s told to fetch them himself, and when he complains that he cannot open the cookie jar, he’s told by his parents: No arms, no cookies.
I have mostly heard it used against children, who try to persuade their parents into fetching or preparing something for them, that they should be able to do themselves. I know, I’ve used it that way.
I live your coments and topics. Spinat is/was sowed in between strawbeeries in The Fields as it grows faster and is harvested earlier. But when you make a Wrong step in The strawberry Field (primary crop) - you step in The spinace (and ruin it). So making a Wrong step or turn and spoiling Something else thereby!
Your pronouncation of "klap lige hesten" was actually really good!
Also, klap lige hesten; klap doesn't translate to slap in this case, but pat.
Your pronunciation of "blæser" was also great!
I lived a few years in the states and got married there, so I know how hard Danish is for English speakers! But just the fact you're trying, is more than enough to impress any Dane!
Your channel is great, informative and it shows you really want Denmark. Keep it up guys! Much love!
I loved the "most days it is blowing at least a quarter of a pelican" awesome way to express how lovely our weather is here in Denmark.... sarcasm about the weather may occur in this post..
Also as a Dane I truly love your videos, you share some really cool insight about living in Denmark that we native Danes don't experience, for obvious reasons, and you guys are also really funny.
You do kind of slaughter our language sometimes but as you have said so your self in other videos, it is just cool that you try and that your aren't afraid of getting it wrong, that really earns you some respect in my book.
Translation of Finnish saying about not having mouth of bark was interesting. At least I, as a Finn, have always heard that as being open to/wanting to eat sweets.
It is actually part of old idiom "Ei köyhänkään suu tuohesta ole", which translates about "Even poor person don't have a mouth of birch bark". That meant that they too would like to eat and drink good stuff (because they can taste it because they don't have mouth of bark) but don't really have money to do so.
There's also 'a bear's favour' (bjørnetjeneste) which is often misunderstood by Danes, as it stems from a fable by La Fontaine, of a bear throwing a rock to its master's head in order to remove a fly. I.e. a kind gesture that just makes the situation worse. People tend to use it the other way around as if it is a good thing, probably because they don't know the origin
Ohhhh, that's a good one - because there's no word for that situation, but everyone has been in one before! 😂
@Amalie Olsdatter I love when things click 😊
The reason why people usually mix up a bjørnetjeneste with something good, I believe is because of bjørneklem/bjørnekram, which is a huge big warm hug.. so then people who hasn't heard of a bjørnetjeneste before connect the meaning from the bjørneklem/bjørnekram, and think that a bjørnetjeneste is a huge/big/warm (or similar) favor.
"klap lige hesten" you can literally translate it to the english saying "hold your horses"
Ohhhhhh, well when you say it that way we should have known it immediately haha.
I think it's used more like "Shut up please".
@@imagzz4942 Nope. That would be "klap lige kebaben" :P
@@andersjjensen Or maybe "Knyt sylten" :-P
@@RobeTrotting - There's a British satire show called "Smack the Pony", so I think the expression does exist in English.
The story behind "Det regner skomagerdrenge" is not known to the majority. It is a rather dramatic and sad story which took place in Copenhagen in 1758. The shoemaker Carl Jepsen was known as a very hard employer who often punished his apprentices physically for even small mistakes. One day one of them made a bigger mistake, after which the shoemaker threw him out of a window on 2nd floor. As the other apprentices protested, they were also thrown out of the window. Only two of the five apprentices survived.
Now don't be sad, cos two out of five ain't bad
Love this vid 😍😍
The English equivalent to 'En lækker sild' would be 'a hot chick'
agreed
A sexy herring
Ah, okay - good to get the difference down. It wasn't super clear in the book and said "a high compliment to the object of your desire" - so this clarifies it a bit more. So glad you loved the video - Tak Lea 😀🇩🇰
@@RobeTrotting I will say that to my (danish) husband later tonight. Let's see how good of an compliment it is 😂
That would be way more accurate
Great video. Loved one of the answers Derek gave for Træde i spinaten (step on a vegan 🤣)
Always looking forward to your videos.
Some other Danish sayings/expressions:
-Goddag mand økseskaft/hello man axshaft(when you say something that doesn't make sense/talk nonsense/when you are in a convesation and don't get what the other one is saying/mean/maybe misunderstand each other completely)
- Feje for sin egen dør/sweap in front of your own door( to focus on your own problems/mistakes/business, before you meddle/interfere in/with others.)
- Ude hvor kragerne vender/where the crows are turning (when someone/something is far out in the country/on the countryside)
- 1800 og hvidkål/1800 and cabbage (when you don't remember which year it was/talking about something that happened a very long time ago)
- Få i hoved og røv/get in head and ass(getting more than enough/too much/getting spoiled)
-Ananas i egen juice/pineapple in it's own juice(When you talk or focus a lot/too much on yourself)
-(Har du) Tabt småkagerne/dropped the cookies(In situations where someone really behave in a wierd/stupid/very strange way, like "have you lost your mind?")
In Norway we say 1800 og brødmangel. 1800 and bread shortage...
@@Davulzz Eller 1800-og-pil-og-bue
"Har du tabt småkagerne?" can be used in similar context as the English "who peed in your corn flakes?"
When I lived on Lolland I learned that their local version of "hvor kragerne vender" er "der hvor grisene har nummerplader" / where the pigs have license plates. Same meaning, but perhaps a little more modern
The way we use it in Jutland 'klap lige hesten' means 'hold on a minute', or 'wait, hold it'.
or just shut up, but a tiny bit more polite
And in Copenhagen it often means, "Shut your trap and listen!".
And in english. Wooh! Hold your horses.
I find it quite funny, that when you pronounce the sentences in danish, I can actually detect a Copenhagen dialect 😂
Træde i spinaten cracked me up.
Kicking a vegan.. 😂
I probably wouldn't, but then again.. Temptations can run high sometimes 😂
I'm a carnivore that can hang with the best of them, but my wife is vegan. Some of them are very nice:)
Skomagerdrenge: I've learnt that it's because the only people who are out in that bad weather, are the cobblers' boys - They are running around delivering all the boots that hasn't been picked up after repair.
English speaker wactching the weather report, where they promise hard wind: OMG it blowing chickens!
No, dear, it's Kuling - not kylling
Hygge!
If you look it up it is because a cobbler master in 1758 in Copenhagen were tossing the cobbler boys out of the window so they were bouncing off the road.
@@annesofievangditlev3820 Brilliant. Thank you for enlightning us. Hygge!
I love how you guys keep trying to be polite about all these sayings, and i'm like; you are allowed to say they are weird😂❤
"En lækker sild (delicious Herring)" is an attractive woman, and you usually don't say it to her face, even though she knows she is one.
Much better explanation than the book, which was a little unclear - so NOT Derek 😂
@@RobeTrotting not Derek unless he's been keeping secrets ;)
Nina Arleth is correct! That someone is a nice "sild/herring" is something guys talk about when there are no women to hear it...
6:22: We also have "It's raining in thigh-thick beams"
Ja "Det står ned i stænger" er mere almindelig brugt. 👍
Lår tykke stråler bliver mest brugt om bræk??
Can’t remember your names, when that is said, the guy on the right pronounced 3:49 “slap af” and “klap lige hesten” so damn well, like that was so on point!
Now we need just just get all the other words down haha 😂
Another weird one from Norway (and Denmark, I believe) is "rosinen i pølsa" which translates to "the raisin in the sausage". It means the best part of a good thing or a great end to a good thing, usually unexpected.
Oh, that's funny. I thought "rosinen i pølseenden" means to come last. Like if someone is the "raisin in the sausage end" it's someone who came last, maybe in a race or something. Google says it's both.
@@TanjaToft in Danish it's come to mean a consolation price (trøstepremie), essentially on the lines of "at least you got something", but generally it's used when something good comes out of a bad situation
Because in the old days you would put a raisin in the end of the sausage when you stuffed them at home.
Another great one is
“No cow on the ice”
“ingen ko på isen”
Which means “That is not a problem”
Yes, that one is super funny - and logical haha. It's also part of the book name too.
I am so glad you mentioned this one!
My Danish father used to say this and my mother and I had no idea what it meant!
The second part of that is “sålænge bagbenene er på land” - as long as the hind quarters are on land, i.e. No back legs on the ice.
@@TorchwoodPandP
*"så længe".
The sayings "ingen ko på isen" and "ingen ko på isen så længe bagbagene er på land" has slightly diferent meanings.
"Ingen ko på isen" means "that's no problem at all", while the extended saying means "that's no problem per se, but would be if something else went wrong too"
You know when a a person becomes danish, even though they don't speak the language. My wife of 20 years came from Moscow, and we spoke english in the beginning, one day she had a rant, and when she stopped speaking I asked her "Are you finnish ?" she looked at me stearnly and replied "No ! I'm Danish" she didn't understand why I was rolling on the floor crying from laughing
“en lækker sild” is only useable about a hot girl. Not about men.
Also, I'd be a bit careful about using that expression. Some will accept it as a compliment, while to others you might come off being a bit sexist.
It's kinda like saying "You're a babe" to a woman. Some appreciate it, some not so much.
Yeah, big mistake for us there haha, kind of a funny mix up I guess 😂
@@Human_Organic This is silly, but I think it has to do with the sound of the word, which is light and high in tone, which makes sense if you're thinking about a slender, beautiful woman. It could also have to do with the fact that you contract your throat to make the "i" sound. The letter "i" even looks like a person, could be a woman in a dress. Now I'm losing my mind! The"si" sound also seems feminine to me, while "l" and "d" seem more neutral. This is very weird.
Ahh, weird old sayings, that for some reason still are relevant today!! 🤣
Surprised that you didn't mention,
'at gå agurk'
Finland & Iceland are our Nordic brethren, not Scandis, only Denmark, Norway and Sweden are Scandis 😉
p.s. Finns are very sensitive to the difference
Great fun, guys!
So fun to explore where these old sayings come from (and some that we share in English). So glad you enjoyed the video 😀
You have "gå agurk" as "go bananas" in English.
”att gå agurk” har man ju som svensk lärt sig av Kim Larsen gm ”Hva gør vi nu, lille du”. 😎
At gå agurk, direct translation: to go/become cucumber = to go bonkers/bananas, as someone also wrote... Great fun, great movie!!!
Ugler i mosen - probably one of my favorite ones to use.
It's a great phrase! 😀🇩🇰
I comes from back when we had wolfs, so at the start it was "der er ulve i mosen" and when things go from mouth to mouth things change therefore "ulger"
*ugler
Been waiting for you guys to post!! Love your guys channel!!
Aw, sorry we were late - uploading issues (had to even chat with Google haha). So glad you're enjoying our content 😀🇩🇰
Awesome, thank you for the 'low down' 🎂
You two are doing well,thanks!
Thank you :)
I love that you made this video about Scandinavian expressions and not just Danish, even though you live here. There were some of the Swedish etc expressions I had never heard of. So even for a Dane, it was educational. :D
" I stepped in the spinach " translates way better to " I messed up" / " I fucked up"
Most of these sayings are actually pretty old though. They aren't used much in the present danish language.
I love your video's guys! If you ever wanna visit Sønderborg, I'll be your tour guide 😊
It is still very common to say a politican has "trådt i spinaten" when they screw up, along with many other old sayings that have become stable terms used when talking about politics
Its actually "wolves in the bog", which is kinda like danger. 'Der er uller i mosen', which since has become 'ugler i mosen' which is just nonsensical. Uller is old for ulv in a part of Jutland.
I disagree with this. It's wrong. Owls in the bog, is correct, directly translated... Means something is suspicious, as also correctly said in the video...
@@mrsubrange He was explaining the historical origin of the phrase, not the word by word translation of the current form.
GREAT TOPIC !
Ugler i mosen - we expect owls in the woods but not in the bog. So for me in English (being Danish myself): Something's brewing...
En lækker sild - a extraordinarily gorgeous looking person - primarily said of female.
Det blæser en halv pelikan - When wind is severe (connotation towards "even stronger than expected") - I would only use term when winds at gale force or even stormy.
imo the best part of "olws in the bog" is how it became that. The "correct" saying is wolfs in the bog, which is a scary and suspicious thing.
But most moderen people has little real fear of wolfs and wolf = ulv while olw = ugle. So over time it migrated from ulv to ugle as these sounds are pretty similar in Danish.
Got the same saying in Norwegian, but it has "migrated" one step further and is now "olws in the moss" as mosen isn't really used in Norway for bog anymore, and it's really close to "mosen" which is moss
Even more so because the saying is 'originally' from Jutland (Jylland), where they used to call "ulve" = "uller" 🙂 So it was "Uller i mosen" back in the day
Can i just say as a half danish and half norwegan person... When you said "ugler i mosen" it sounded like you spoke with a norwegan accent! I sounded super nice! I really liked that, because i have a lot of friends trying to imitate a norwegan accent and it is horrible to listen to... But your "singing" way of pronouncing our words align well with some of my norwegan family ;) :D
Wow you really nailed some of them 💪 And props for remembering them and using them right away.
"En lækker sild" is "a hot herring", which means a hot/good looking woman. It's not used for men unfortunately. Love Derek's obvious distaste for herring here 😂
"Træde i spinaten" is kind of like a faux pas I think. It's an unintentional mistake, so yeah, like putting your foot in your mouth.
You Guys are so great ❤️
We need to hear your take on some of your favourite American expressions.
These are some of mine I bought with me from my time in the US.
"Happier than a tornado in a trailer park"
"Feeling like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest"
Those are great ones! Maybe we can do a second video with some Danish friends and have them guess the meaning of American phrases and vice versa 😀🇩🇰
@@RobeTrotting
That would be sweet! Do that for sure.
Good job at guessing at the meaning, of the different sayings, I know there are many more sayings then those and quite a few of them I would not have a clue what they really meant.
Two way leaning. Interesting leaning similar American sayings for me as well. Love it, keep up the good work guys.
About time You two nice guys learns a Danish tongue twister, that isn't worn to shreds yet.
Even Danes have a hard time saying this 10 times fast.
Here we go :
Blå glat gadeplakat
Don't hurt Yourself trying to say this
Jeg har lært det af mine kammelegerater på Institaletuttet !
Gotta say guys. I love this more relaxed video without all the sudden cuts.
I love you guys! hope to keep on,
Cobblers don't make horseshoes, they make people shoes.
Opps haha - we should have thought about that one a little deeper 😂
@@RobeTrotting If you want a horse shod, you should find a farrier.
@@RobeTrotting The cobbler's wife and he farrier's horse always have the worst shoes. This is more of a proverb than an expression.
@@klausolekristiansen2960 "Bagerbørn får ingen brød"
Again boys : Finland is a Nordic, not a Scandinavian country! 😉
Yes, we won’t mistake that again... BUT in our defense, we didn’t write the book of Scandinavian sayings and include Finland haha - we just read from it 😂
Igen... Typisk dansk at rette andre. Finland er norden. De to herre forveksler måske skaldinavien med Norden.. So, pad your horse.
LOL - love your Danish pronunciation. Fun channel!
Tak Jesper! Glad to have you as a viewer 😀🇩🇰
It doesn't touch me a cardboard duck - classic !!
Wow, that was pronounced in such a Copenhagen-y manner at 1:06! Your Zealand dialect is really comming through :) So Danish ^^
Hahaha, that's where we are in language classes so it makes sense I supposed BUT we have heard this before - that they teach everyone a very Copenhagen accent 😂
My mom use to say "you are going to be a stick to my coffin/ Du bliver en pind til min ligkiste" which I think means something like you will become an addition to my demise. It sound very dramatic, but was often said in a jest when I irritated her.
Mothers always have the best expressions haha. I think we have something similar “you’re a thorn in my side” and a few others that express the same sentiment 😊
English has a rather direct translation to that, but perhaps not used in the same context.
Another nail in my coffin.
@@BenjaminVestergaard Yeah, I guess it can be used to express different sentiments depending on the context.
@@RobeTrotting They really do and I love it :)
I (Norwegian) only know that as a term for cigarettes :D
I've always been partial to: "vi ses i hegnet" 😂 First time I heard it, I was like.. What?!
Oh wow, we haven't heard that one. How would you even use that? haha
When your meeting your neighbor in a another place other than your gardens. Mainly a goodbye talk to you later over the fence
@@RobeTrotting It's what you might say before going out drinking. Pretty much a saying to we're gonna get drunk as fk lol
@@RobeTrotting "At drikke sig i hegnet", to drink oneself into the fence, means to get really, really drunk.
@@klausolekristiansen2960 One of the bars at DTU is called hegnet for the same reason
This is too much fun. Do ,ore videos but switch halfway. Love it.
You can call a glass of water or Danskvand, goose wine (gås vin) working in a kindergarten and actually using that allot there, the kids love it🤣
I've always thought it was just plain clean water... But I believe the language is evolving 🙂
I would like to recommend a standup comedy show called Danglish, where an Englishman who have lived some time in Denmark, makes jokes about the way danes speak but at the same time talking about, how it is to live in Denmark as an English speaker. His name is Conrad Molden. The show is hilarious 😂 @Robe Trotting
Yes, that show is awesome! Highly recommend it 👏
Where is that Show watchable?
@@jodaj8050 if you're in Denmark, it's on TV2 Play
The U in ugler is pronounced “oo” as in “soon”. The o in mosen is pronounced like the o-sound in “oh”.
And that is kind of important, because the way i heard it, it sounded like "ørler i mosen" which would translate to throwing up in the bog 😂😂😂
@@CorneliusVanderbild I heard it more like ørler i måsen aka throwing up in the butt.
And the expression is common in Swedish as well.
You guys are funny.
Incidentally, Finland is not part of Scandinavia, but very much a part of Norden.
Yeah, it was odd to include Finland in the book - we know the categories are very important to get right.
A couple more:
“Fis i en hornlygte” = “A fart in a horn lantern”
Means something that turned out not to be true.... obviously 🤷♀️😅
“Ingen ko på isen” = “No cow on the ice”
Means that all is well
Hej Louis, thanks for the additions. I think we will plan a second round for another video 😀
A fis is actually not referring to flatulance, but it’s an old word for the last bit of a tallow candle. Other things could also be described as a fis, e.g. Æblefis = æbleskrog. The meaning of the expression is something blown out of proportions or something that seems bigger than it really is.
The Bog Lady brews (Mosekonen brygger) = it’s foggy
Eyes on stems (øjne på stilke) = keep a close eye/pay attention
To put your nose in the sky (at stikke næsen i sky) = to think you are special (something extra)
Fis er et gammelt udtryk for en stump stearinlys i en hornlygte
Can't get over how good your pronunciation of 'klap lige hesten' is. 👏👏👏
What actually cracked me up is that most of the danish saying you chose are all used and very common to this day... at least if you are over 50.
That’s great, as our Danish improves these are the things we really want to start understanding more 😊
This video was d*mn funny, got a like and subscribe :'D When thinking about it, and translating it, these sayings are actually kinda weird :'D
So glad that you enjoyed it - this was a really fun one for us to make. Thanks for watching and joining our community. We're glad you are here and we will keep the videos coming and hopefully the laughs as well 😀🇩🇰
I just love this video ☺ so much fun ☺ I am born and raised in Denmark my self
Another expression:
"Forsætter for fuld skrue"
"Fuld skrue"
Meaning "full steam ahead", as we are a naval nation, we have many expression that are naval related. Just carry on 🙂
I had a boss once that tried to translate it directly while speaking, but translated it wrong.... "Continue full screwing" 🤣
He did correct himself immediately, but too late🤣
I
Actually not as bad in English. The "SS" in "SS Shipname" actually stand for "screw-ship" (sometimes steam-ship)- so "full screw" makes sense from a maritime perspective!
Such a fun video and to learn about different saying in Scandinavia. Also there's a lot of regional words in Denmark, like "Træls", "knøw" and "Møj". Most of the words are from Jylland, to my knowledge.
No, Jylland doesn't stand out with that at all. In fact there isn't even a regional word, known everywhere in Jylland. It depends on where you live and/where your family originated from, what is known to you besides Kingdom Danish. All areas has that and the dialects are all so different, it's like independent languages. 2 born and raised danes will not understand one another at all, if speaking different dialects. Anything but kingdom Danish, is extremely local and not known outside its own small area :) Amager for instance, has one regional dialect/language exclusively their own. Knøw is only known in one tiny area in Jylland. Nowhere else. Sinnegas only known in southern Jylland. Daps only used in Western jyllland. Kavt only known in Northjylland. Sule, futte, ra'nok etc. only on Fyn. Flabbatas, sjødda, hjulkat etc on Bornholm No dialect is more known nationally. And horrar and bælli is as common on Bornholm, as træls and knøw is in some parts of Jylland. And as unknown anywhere else. Anything but 'kingdom danish' is extremely local and those words only known there. And all tiny are has a local language soly they use
@@kaffegal Danish is indeed very funny in the way our dialects are so geographically limited, but I do believe most Jutlanders know both træls and knøw, whether they use it in daily speech, I don't know. Så knøw er je' it.
Anyway it reminds me of a puzzle that my Copenhagen born German teacher used to tease us Silkeborg students with:
Wa du? A bu. Wa bu? Ublabu.
Punctuation helps a lot, but when just said aloud it's difficult to understand. However when I moved to Struer for work, it suddenly made much more sense. And there we joked about how to bend the word hus. Æ hus, to huus, alle æ huuus.
Now that I live in the capital district, I hear quite some different, often immigrant, dialects that I'd say could be difficult to understand.
The Danish language is just playful I guess 😆
The literal meaning of "træls" is that something is slave (træl is the viking/ancient nordic word for slave) work, as in a task you don't want to do. In modern Danish it's come to mean something boring or tedious, but it is not a regional term at all. It does however vary between regions how much those old terms are still used. Møj og træls are perhaps more common in Jylland and on Lolland-Falster, in areas less affected by Copenhagen Danish, but I do definitely hear both occasionally here in Copenhagen, especially amongst young people. Just the other day a young girl on the train said something was "møj træls" while she was talking to her friends
Watched quite a few of your videos now :) You guys are awesome!
I like how you are intrigued by many parts of the culture but also point out where Danes took it a little too far maybe.. (teenage drinking eg). You do it in a very moderate way that does not put me on the fence but makes me think about it. Keep the videos up.
Thank you so much, Christian, that's such a nice compliment and it's really how we try to approach the topics that we discuss. It's not our place to judge at all - and there's a little bit of the old saying "when in Rome" that we try to adopt since we moved to DK. Even with things like teenage drinking (which we also did in America), there's always more to the story, like how in Danish culture independence comes at an earlier age than in the States 😀🇩🇰
Hi guys. Love your videos. As a dane they teach me a lot about Danish culture seen from the outside. But one thing: Scandinavia consists only of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. "Norden" includes Finland and Iceland as well.
Thank you 😊 we kind of went off of the languages in the book but now we definitely know which to truly refer to as Scandinavian 🇩🇰🇸🇪🇳🇴
We feel this in a similar way when Americans, especially political pundits, try to label Pennsylvania (the states we moved from and derek grew up in) as “Midwest” when it was an original colony on the east and Philadelphia is an hour from the Atlantic Ocean 😂
My favorit: "At stå med håret i postkassen" eller "Med røven i vandskårpen"
Tommy Victor Buch
0 seconds ago
Here's another, guys: "Du er nødt til at gå på dybhavsfiskeri i tegnebogen, hvis du vil købe denne/dette". Translation: "You'll have to go fishing in the deep sea, (in your wallet) if you want to buy this item." Meaning, this item isn't cheap. Something like that.
Great video! Fun!
One thing to notice is that if the phrase is "Det regner X" , X is either a metaphor for how it rains like in "Det regner skomagerdrenge" which means that the rain consists of huge drops that hurt would when hitting you, or that X comes down as if it was rain e.g. "Det regner mælk".
If the phrase is "det regner med X" (note the extra word "med") it has nothing to do with rain but instead means that there is a cornucopia of X.
"Det regner mænd" would not make sense since men can't really be a metaphor for the way it rains, neither would there be a huge amount of men dropping at the same location.
"Det regner med mænd" would make sense as it tells that there are a lot of men. If you are a girl looking for a good night under the sheets it would be perfect as it means that there are many to choose from.
Related to "Det regner skomagerdrenge" is "Det står ned i lårfede stråler" = "It comes down in thigh-thick beams" which means that it rains in huge amounts.
Don't feel bad about your pronunciations.
You're trying, doing your best.
Danish IS difficult and in the eyes of most Danes you get a bunch of points just for trying...
came back to this one from the lastest video and got floored by Ugler i mosen, you did well Derek, but mosen sounded like Måsen (which with all the skat jokes in the other one) is a reference to your rear end :), I know I am a child.
That was enjoyable.... you are so funny.
Btw Scandinavia is Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The Nordic countries are Scandinavia + Finland and Iceland
Thanks for watching Mette, so glad to hear you enjoyed the video. We know now that Finland is only Nordic - the book included Finland so we just went with it haha, opps 😂🇩🇰
Tanks for cool videos
Love you guys! I actually didn't know any more than you did (I am an American living here for 15 years) and my Husband is Danish. I guessed the same as you, now I wonder how he would do in this quiz! hehehe I will ask him :)
Oh that will be fun! Curious how he’ll perform.
The origin of "Det regner skomagerdrenge" or in english "It's raining cobbler's boys" is actually a very sad story. It wass a tripple homicide in 1758 in a street in Copenhagen called "Læderstræde", where the master cobbler threw 3 cobbler boys out the window, because one made a mistake and the other 2 complained about the first boy being thrown out. They got killed when hitting the cobblestone street.
Lol I had so much fun during this! :D :D :D Thank you
So happy that you enjoyed it Susie 😀🇩🇰
About 300 years ago the wolf disappeared from Denmark. When “ulve (wolfs) i mosen” change to ‘ugler i mosen”
Damn, you're right! Fra norsk leksikon: Det opprinnelige uttrykket, der er ulve i mosen, forekommer i Peder Syvs danske ordspråkssamling fra 1682, hvor det forklares med at det er fare på ferde.
Normaly you would only use en lækker sild about women. Good show love you guys
Derek is very disappointed haha. Thanks for the clarity though, the book's example was a little unclear 😀🇩🇰
@@RobeTrotting I think it is something about slenderness or curves, while torsk (cod) is used as an insult because of the way the head looks. I've also heard laks (salmon) used to describe someone who is annoying and a bit pompous.
Furthermore, it's about looks more than endearment. I would translate it to "hot chick" or similar.
@@RobeTrotting - You can call him a roast (en steg).
@@nicolaim4275 I have never heard "laks" used in that way - usually it's just used synonymously with "sild" when describing hot women. "Laber laks" = "Lækker sild". In high school (15 years ago) we used to say someone was "max laks", but maybe that was just a local thing 😂 I am from Aarhus - where are you from? I imagine "laks" could be used differently on Sjælland maybe?
There's an urban legend that the phrase about raining cobbler boys, comes from a triple homicide in Cph in the 1700s. The story goes that the master cobbler threw his apprentices out the window when he lost his temper over a mistake. So the meaning of the expression would then be, something big falling from the sky.
Luckily this story is just a tall tale...
I've always been told it was a reference to the sound of the wooden shoes, that the cobblers kids could of course afford, hitting the cobblestone pavement, as the kids would run through the streets while playing.
The difference in explanation could be that I didn't grow up near Copenhagen.
I am not sure it's a tale. I think it's real. Notice the shoemaker is named.
TV2 states it's as a fact. But it could be interesting to find out for sure. Court archives must have the records. Here is a copy/paste from TV2's page (Google translate do a pretty good job on this article if you want so):
Men man kan vel nok bruge det gamle udtryk "det regner skomagerdrenge" til morgen. Udtrykket er ikke brugt så meget mere, men måske godt det samme. For udtrykket tager sit udspring i en både tragisk og meget dramatisk hændelse tilbage i 1700-tallets København.
"Det regner skomagerdrenge" er et udtryk for regn med usædvanligt store regndråber. Udtrykket stammer fra et tre-dobbelt mord i Læderstræde i København i 1758. Skomageren Carl Jepsen var kendt som en meget hård arbejdsgiver, der ofte afstraffede sine lærlinge fysisk for selv små fejl. En dag lavede en af dem en større fejl, hvorefter skomageren smed ham ud af vinduet på 2. sal. Da de andre lærlinge protesterede over udsmidningen, røg de også ud af vinduet. Kun to af de fem lærlinge overlevede turen ned på de hårde brosten.
I folkemunde gav tragedien fødsel til et nyt udtryk: "Det regner med skomagerdrenge i Læderstræde". Senere blev udtrykket brugt generelt, når der faldt store ting ned fra himlen, som fx usædvanligt store regndråber. Efterhånden som udtrykket bredte sig til resten af landet, bortfaldt det lokale islæt, så man bare sagde: "Det regner med skomagerdrenge". Siden har man droppet "med", så det nu er "Det regner skomagerdrenge"
One of my sources is a Kristeligt Dagblad article, that mentions there seems to be no court records backing up the story, surely even back then throwing five boys, even apprentices, out of a window, killing three, would leave some trace in the records.
Also they mention the expression was in use before the murders were to have occurred.
@@lindalarsen1070 Interesting. But how come the shoemaker is named?
@@Gert-DK It is not uncommon even today to spread unfounded rumors about someone you don't like or your competition.
I don't doubt there was a cobbler who was awful to the people working for him, might have even beaten the severely/caused them great bodily harm. But honestly I find it unlikely that he threw all five boys out the window, and that now is a fun way to describe rain.
I'm sure there's a grain of truth somewhere in the story, but like our famous HC Andersen wrote about that one feather turning in to five chickens, stories sometimes take on a life of their own.
You guys are adorbs
"Har du drukket af natpotten?" =
"Have you been drinking from the chamber pot?"
When someone says or do something silly 😂
One I enjoy is,
"He isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer"
"Han er ikke den skarpest kniv i skuffen"
It means that someone isn't very clever.
That's such a great one! We use that a lot 😀🇩🇰
Yeah or "The fastest moped on the dock" 😂
"He's not playing with a full deck".:-)
If someone is even less clever than that I usually say he's not the sharpest spoon in the drawer 😂
@Amalie Olsdatter we have that one as well in Denmark.
another one in danish is : " han har ikke opfundet den dybe tallerken" / "he hasn't invented the deep dish"
you should make a danish tongue twister video :) I love to hear americans/english speakers speak danish, it sounds so cute :D
Yeah let's start a thread with tongue twisters!
Far får får får? Nej får får ikke får, får får lam.
That is my favorite!
@@mariepindstruplinde1671 hehe yes den er god!!! Eller fem flade flødeboller på et fladt flødebollefad 😀
We have no idea why people always want tongue twisters - we mispronounce regular words and phrases enough to satisfy the masses haha 😂
@@RobeTrotting it is only because most Danes can't say them either.
Rødgrød med fløde is evil, because it is so difficult to pronounce.
But tongue twisters are funny because you sometimes let your brain getting in the way of saying them.
@@linnmusic I've moved to Sweden, and they have some fun ones as well.
7777 søsyge sømænd på skibet Shanghai is difficult for some Swedes and impossible for Danes (because we aren't used to the SJ-sound the Swedes have)
Wonderful. Thanks guys. love ur channel.
Thank so much and thank you for watching?
”Ugglor (uler)i mossen” in Swedish is from the begining ”Ulvar i mossen”. Ulv is the old word for varg (wolf). Which makes more sense. An owl isn’t that dangerous but you don’t want a wolf sneaking around!
It’s the same in danish :)
Yes, it was once "ulve i mosen" Interesting that "ulv" has been misunderstood as "ugle/uggla" in both countries.
ur danish is honestly prty good
I like herring and always have. My (American) mother brought home those little jars of pickled herring in a creamy sorta sauce. We ate it on crackers such as Ritz and Saltines. I liked it. I prefer my herring cooked, though.
It's raining cobbler boys - "Det regner med skomagerdrenge": Expression of rain with unusually large raindrops. The term originates from a triple murder in Læderstræde in Copenhagen in 1758. The shoemaker Carl Jepsen was known as a very hard employer who often punished his apprentices physically for even small mistakes. One day one of them made a major mistake, after which the shoemaker threw him out the window on the 2nd floor. As the other apprentices protested the eviction, they also smoked out the window. Only two of the five apprentices survived the trip down the hard cobblestones.
In folklore, the tragedy gave birth to a new expression: "It is raining shoemaker boys in Læderstræde". Later, the term was used in general when large objects fell from the sky, such as unusually large raindrops. As the term spread to the rest of the country, the local flair faded away, so one just said, "It's raining shoemaker boys."
I tried wiping off the little smudge on my screen for a full minute before realizing its a dot on your curtains! Great vid :)
Haha, sorry Mathias! But we're glad you enjoyed the video. We are really indecisive decorators and need to either patch the wall up or hang some photos back up haha.
Hi from Britland: This was fun! Heard one the other week, think it's Swedish. You can't just slide in on a shrimp sandwich...! It means not have to work to get success (???) Don't know why I find this so funny!!!
"I assume its to kick a vegan" 😂😂🤣🤣🤣 yes, yes it is,we do that so often that we have come up with a saying for vegan kicking 😅😅🤣🤣🤣
😂 I hope no vegans were offended by this but it's the first thing that sprung into my head HAHA
the English equivalent of pat the horse, is hold your horses.
Ive never heard that frase where its raining skomagerdrenge... but frases are really different from area to area!
So true! A lot of regional expressions. We also learned from the comments that it’s an older expression too.
@@RobeTrotting Yeah! I moved from Sjælland to South fyn 10 years ago and there are still a Lot of frases over here i laugh about cause theyre so different and sometimes hillarious 🤗 but like, to walk inside with shoes where youre making footprints on the floor, over here they call that, at lappe på gulvet (to patch up the floor) Ive never heard that before and it still cracks me up when my husband sais it 🤣
It's funny, I've never thought of Denmark as being an especially windy place compared to anywhere else that I've been to.
"Death walks faster than the wind and never returns what he has taken." H. C. Andersen
We don't have a lot of words for wind. But i love that you think so hahaha. It's also a myth that natives in Alaska and Greenland have a lot of words for snow. It's a good story that sounds believable. But it's not true. ;)
Good to know, I guess we were applying old stories but it's a fun saying 😀
@@RobeTrotting A good story is still a good story, and a enjoyed your video as i usually do. Keep up the good work :)
@Robe Trotting, random tangent, but I think you will like the book "The year of living Danishly" by Helen Russel, she's an English Expat that has moved to Denmark and writting about it, and it's quite fun, and she describes us pretty well.
I thoroughly enjoyed her book :)
Oh yes, we have that book but only Mike read it. We'll have to both read it and make a response video (even if it's not widely viewed - it would be interesting to share and see what others think of it) 😀🇩🇰
Yeah I read that had some laughs
Excellent video 😊 I believe 'Det regner skomagerdrenge' refers to the visual similarity between hard rain splashing off a hard surface and 'Gadedrengeløb' - a sort of bouncy skipping run.
Hej Morten, thanks for the great explanation - when you think of it that way it's super clever and makes a lot of sense. It's so fun to learn these phrases 😀
Thanks. Love the show. I wish I knew what Gadedrengeløb is in English?
Yes, I agree with Morten... Skomagerdrenge is when the rain comes down so hard that it bounces up again when hitting a hard surface like a cobbled road. That's my take anyway.. Love your channel.. Keep it up 😀
@@mpwithad I think of "skipping" when I try to imagine how it looks. As in the one where you sorta jump and lift one knee high.
@@mariepindstruplinde1671 yes you are right.
Another good one is "Sku ikke en hund på hårene" meaning "don't judge the dog by its coat"
It's the Danish equivalent of "don't judge a book by the cover"
My fav sayings are "fis lunkent" because its primarity something you say on Fyn that rest of Denmark never heard of
I am a dane but i have never heard the term "det regner skomagerdrenge" 😂 so funny. I think a danish frase that translate a bit Better to the english frase: "its raining cats and dogs" is "det står ned i stænger". Directly translated is: "Its stand down in stangs". But anyhow love you guys you are so great 😍 (sorry about any misspealling)
Thank you for the sweet message Annette and love right back to you 😀
Someone in the comments shared that the "regner skomagerdrenge" phrase originates from when a cobbler tossed five of his apprentices out the window in the 1700s. Three of them died 😯but Danish humor did not haha.
@@RobeTrotting haha talk about a bad job deal for those three boys 😆