Danish Subtitling Service

Everything you never needed to know about Denmark

There’s more vowels than English
The Danish language has three more vowels than the English language that means it has eight vowels with sixteen pronunciations.

Danish People are trilingual
If you can speak Danish, then you will be able to speak and understand Norwegian and Swedish as they are interchangeable. That’s handy when you visit the neighbouring countries.

Denmark is a happy place
Denmark is always at the top or close to the top of the UN World Happiness Report. The report is published every year and began in 2012. Questions the poll asks include a person’s experience of their life being in balance and feeling at peace with life.

The Danes aren’t rude
The Danes aren’t being rude when they don’t say please. It’s because there isn’t a word in Danish for please so they don’t use it.

A Danish Pastry isn’t Danish
Just think when you’re tucking into your delicious Danish Pastry remember it actually comes from Vienna in Austria. It was brought over to Denmark by some Austrian bakers who were keen to share their delicious pastries with the Danes.

Lego is Danish
Lego was originally invented by the Danes. You can visit the original Legoland in Billund, Denmark. Lego is now a global brand and there are now ten Legoland parks in the world including Winsor in London and New York and Japan.

Be careful where you walk
They are very strict in Denmark about Jaywalking. You must always walk on the right, and you must use designated crosswalks. If you get caught there are fines of up to 700 kroner which is around £82.

Cosy contentment
If you read books about wellbeing then no doubt you’ve read about the concept of Hygge. Hygee comes from the Danes, and it is all about improving your wellbeing and enjoying the simple things in life like outdoor walks and time with the family.

Flat as a pancake
If you want mountains to climb, then Denmark isn’t the place for you. There are no mountains at all in Denmark. It is a flat country just above sea level. The highest spot in Denmark is 561 feet (171 metres) and that’s in Mollehaj which is close to Ejer Bavnehoj in Skanderborg. You will see it if you take a hiking trail called Sporet ved Ejer which stretches for 15 miles.

Hans Cristian Andersen was Danish
Hans Cristian Andersen wrote the famous ugly duckling story about an ugly bird who was cast out by his family and friends but who turns into a beautiful swan. The swan, as it happens is Denmark’s national bird.

Danish is a North Germanic language. It is spoken by around 5.5. million people living in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Canada.

It is the first foreign language taught in schools in Iceland, where it was once the official language and it can be understood by speakers of Norwegian and Swedish.

The language was first classified as Old Norse, which was the language of the people who lived in Scandinavia during the Viking era. German and Latin was used in writing up to the 17th century. However, the Danish speech was developed into a standard language taken from Copenhagen.

Danish has three distinct dialect groups which cover:

• Insular Danish – including the islands of Denmark
• Jutlandic
• Bornholmsk – From the island of Bornholm

Due to the Danish conquests of Great Britain, Old Norse was spoken in the North East of England. Many place names that end with the suffix -by- such as Derby and Grimsby originated from Old Norse, as well as words like Dale meaning valley, hence the Yorkshire Dales. Famous children’s author Hans Cristian Andersen was Danish.