Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Gina: Hello and welcome back to DanishClass101.com. This is Absolute Beginner season 1, lesson 6, Seeing an Old Friend in Denmark. I’m Gina.
Anna: Hej! And I’m Anna.
Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn which expressions to use when catching up with an old friend.
Anna: It can be difficult to know what to say to someone you haven’t seen for ages.
Gina: Right! So let’s get started!
Anna: The conversation takes place on the street and is between Troels and Alan.
Gina: The speakers are old friends, and they are speaking standard Danish.
DIALOGUE
Let's listen to the conversation.
Troels: Hej Alan! Længe siden.
Alan: Hej Troels. Ja, det må du nok sige.
Let's hear the conversation one time slowly.
Troels: Hej Alan! Længe siden.
Alan: Hej Troels. Ja, det må du nok sige.
Now let's hear it with the English translation.
Troels: Hej Alan! Længe siden.
Troels: Hi Alan! Long time, no see.
Alan: Hej Troels. Ja, det må du nok sige.
Alan: Hi Troels. Yes, you can say that again.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Gina: Anna, what can you tell us about Danes and physical greetings?
Anna: When you haven’t seen each other in a while, you either hug, shake hands, or don’t have physical contact at all.
Gina: It depends on who you are, right?
Anna: Exactly. Especially, when running into an old friend you haven’t had any contact with since last time you met, it can sometimes be difficult to know what to do.
Gina: What about family members you only meet at occasional family get-togethers?
Anna: Usually people shake hands or hug, or even both. Again, it really depends on who it is and how close you are.
Gina: What about when meeting for the first time?
Anna: Then it’s customary to shake hands, but don’t be surprised if some Danes go straight for a hug.
Gina: So don’t be a stranger, huh?
VOCAB
Gina: Now let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is
Anna: længe siden
Gina: long time no see
Anna: (SLOW) længe siden, længe siden
Next:
Anna: det må du nok sige
Gina: you can say that again
Anna: (SLOW) det må du nok sige, det må du nok sige
Next:
Anna: hej
Gina: hi, hello
Anna: (SLOW) hej, hej
Next:
Anna: ja
Gina: yes
Anna: (SLOW) ja, ja
Next:
Anna: måtte
Gina: may, can, must, have to, be bound to
Anna: (SLOW) måtte, måtte
Next:
Anna: du
Gina: you
Anna: (SLOW) du, du
Next:
Anna: nok
Gina: enough, probably
Anna: (SLOW) nok, nok
Next:
Anna: sige
Gina: say, tell
Anna: (SLOW) sige, sige
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Gina: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Anna: Yes, the first word is du.
Gina: This is the personal pronoun “you” found in the second-person singular case.
Anna: It’s very easy to use, because it works the same way in Danish as "you" does in English.
Gina: Can you tell us more about this pronoun?
Anna: It’s important to change du to De, if one day you have to address the Queen of Denmark or other members of the royal family.
Gina: So, are we talking about a formal “you” here? I thought spoken Danish didn’t have formality levels.
Anna: That’s right! It doesn’t, but using formal personal pronouns is the only way of clearly expressing formality in Danish.
Gina: I see. But it’s not something you should worry too much about, is it.
Anna: No. You can use du with everyone except royalty or elderly people, of course.
Gina: Great. What’s next?
Anna: Nok.
Gina: This word usually means “enough” or “probably,” but depending on its position, it can either be an adjective or an adverb.
Anna: Besides being used to indicate probability, nok can also be used to say “please.”
Gina: Can you give us an example?
Anna: For example, Vil du ikke nok? becomes “Won’t you, please?” in English.
Gina: Great. And the next word?
Anna: Sige.
Gina: This is the verb “to say” or “to tell” in English, but be careful when using it with some nouns.
Anna: A rule of thumb is, whenever you can only use the verb “to tell” to express something in English, you should use the verb fortælle in Danish, instead of sige.
Gina: For example…
Anna: “To tell a story” is at fortælle en historie. Or “to tell a joke” is at fortælle en vits.
Gina: Excellent. Okay, now onto the grammar.
GRAMMAR POINT
Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say “long time no see” and answer that question.
Anna: Yes, what you say when you reunite with an old friend.
Gina: Tell us the phrases the Danes use most often.
Anna: Længe siden and Ja, det må du nok sige.
Gina: The first phrase means “Long time no see.”
Anna: The phrase is composed of længe which is an adverb and means “for a long time” or just “long.” The other component is siden which usually means “since.”
Gina: But depending on whether it’s used as a preposition, an adverb, or a conjunction in a sentence, it can also mean “ago,” “afterwards,” or “later on,” isn’t that right, Anna?
Anna: Yes, that’s right!
Gina: So how do we reply to this?
Anna: We can reply by using the second phrase, Ja, det må du nok sige.
Gina: This means “Yes, you can say that again.”
Anna: Notice how the word nok is used in this phrase.
Gina: Since both the Danish and English versions are fixed expressions, the word is equivalent to “again” in this case.
Anna: Exactly.
Gina: So what else can you tell us about these phrases?
Anna: Well, if you’d like, you can add Det er, which means “It is,” in front of længe siden to create a longer version that carries the same meaning as Længe siden on its own.
Gina: So another way of saying “Long time no see” in Danish is...
Anna: Det er længe siden.
Gina: Which literally means something like “It’s been long,” right?
Anna: Yes, but since Danes like to keep expressions short, many people only say Længe siden.
Gina: So what about the reply?
Anna: You can use even shorter sentences than Ja, det må du nok sige to reply.
Gina: Like “Yes, it is”?
Anna: You got it! “Yes, it is” in Danish is Ja, det er det or even just Ja, det er.
Gina: Great! But let’s hear the most commonly used phrases again.
Anna: Længe siden. Ja, det må du nok sige.

Outro

Gina: Okay, that’s it for this lesson.
Anna: Don’t forget to check the lesson notes! They will help you practice what we learned.
Gina: Until next time!
Anna: Vi ses!

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