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 18 - Let Your Danish Opinion Be Heard. I’m Gina: .
Anna: Hej! And I’m Anna.
Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to express your likes and dislikes.
Anna: Being able to say what you like or don’t like is very useful when you’re getting to know your new Danish friends.
Gina: So let’s get started!
Anna: The conversation takes place at William’s parents’ house, and it’s between Louise and Peter.
Gina: The speakers are friends, and they’re speaking standard Danish.
DIALOGUE
Let's listen to the conversation.
Louise: Kan din søster godt lide musik?
Peter: Ja, hun elsker at lytte til musik.
Louise: Det gør jeg også.
Peter: Min søster kan bedst lide rock.
Louise: Det kan jeg ikke så godt lide.
Let's hear the conversation one time slowly.
Louise: Kan din søster godt lide musik?
Peter: Ja, hun elsker at lytte til musik.
Louise: Det gør jeg også.
Peter: Min søster kan bedst lide rock.
Louise: Det kan jeg ikke så godt lide.
Now let's hear it with the English translation.
Louise: Kan din søster godt lide musik?
Louise: Does your sister like music?
Peter: Ja, hun elsker at lytte til musik.
Peter: Yes, she loves listening to music.
Louise: Det gør jeg også.
Louise: So do I.
Peter: Min søster kan bedst lide rock.
Peter: My sister likes rock the best.
Louise: Det kan jeg ikke så godt lide.
Louise: I don't like it that much.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Gina: So in this dialogue, we talked about liking and not liking some music.
Anna: So why don’t we take this opportunity to tell our listeners a little about the Danish contemporary music scene?
Gina: Let’s do it! So who’s hot and who’s...not so hot?
Anna: If you are into dance-pop, artists such as Medina and Ida Corr own that scene at the moment.
Gina: Do they sing in Danish?
Anna: Medina usually sings in Danish, but she also sings English versions of many of her songs. Ida Corr sings in English.
Gina: What about popular electronic music artists?
Anna: Here we have the DJ duo Svenstrup &Vendelboe and Electric Lady Lab. Svenstrup &Vendelboe’s tracks usually feature a female vocalist who sings in Danish.
Gina: Any good rock bands?
Anna: Volbeat and Nephew are the most popular ones right now.
Gina: Listeners, those are some good tips if you’re looking for some Danish music!
VOCAB
Gina: Now let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is
Anna: kunne lide
Gina: like, be fond of
Anna: (SLOW) kunne lide, kunne lide
Next:
Anna: søster
Gina: sister
Anna: (SLOW) søster, søster
Next:
Anna: musik
Gina: music
Anna: (SLOW) musik, musik
Next:
Anna: elske
Gina: love
Anna: (SLOW) elske, elske
Next:
Anna: lytte
Gina: listen
Anna: (SLOW) lytte, lytte
Next:
Anna: min
Gina: my, mine
Anna: (SLOW) min, min
Next:
Anna: bedst
Gina: best
Anna: (SLOW) bedst, bedst
Next:
Anna: ikke så godt
Gina: not so good, not so well, not so much
Anna: (SLOW) ikke så godt, ikke så godt
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Gina: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What’s first?
Anna: The first word we are going to talk about is musik [pause] Musik.
Gina: Which means “music,” of course, and is a common gender noun.
Anna: This means that in definite form, it becomes musikken. [pause] Musikken.
Gina: We've added the definite article -en at the end of the word as usual, but before that we have also added another -k.
Anna: Without this double consonant, the vowel -i would be long and instead of short. This means that musikken would be pronounced musiken, which is wrong.
Gina: What’s next?
Anna: Lytte [pause] Lytte.
Gina: This is the verb “listen.”
Anna: When listening to music, you say Jeg lytter til musik, which literally means “I listen to music.” Jeg lytter til musik.
Gina: Let’s break this down.
Anna: Jeg means “I,” lytter is the verb “listen” in present tense,” and til musik means “to music.” But Danes tend to say Jeg hører musik instead of Jeg lytter til musik.
Gina: Both sentences mean the same thing, but the verb høre means “listen” and “hear” in English.
Anna: So Jeg hører musik literally means “I hear music,” but what is meant is still “I listen to music.”
Gina: What’s next?
Anna: Bedst [pause] Bedst.
Gina: This means “best”.
Anna: And it’s the superlative of the irregular adjective god, which means “good” or “well.” The comparative of god is bedre, which means “better.” Bedre.
Gina: How do you say “You're the best”?
Anna: I see where you’re trying to make me do here, but I’ll say it anyway. “You're the best” is Du er den bedste. [pause] Du er den bedste.
Gina: Aw, thanks!
Anna: Right… When bedst follows the definite articles den or det, which mean “the,” you add an -e so it becomes bedste.
Gina: Great. Okay, now onto the grammar.
GRAMMAR POINT
Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to express likes and dislikes.
Anna: After finishing this Danish Absolute Beginner series, we'd like to know which lessons you liked, and what you like or dislike about the Danish language and culture so far.
Gina: And when visiting Denmark, Danes will definitely ask you for your opinion.
Anna: In Danish, “like” is kunne lide. [pause] Kunne lide.
Gina: Can you give us an example?
Anna: Sure. Jeg kan godt lide musik. [pause] Jeg kan godt lide musik.
Gina: This means “I like music.”
Anna: Jeg is the pronoun “I,” kan godt lide means “like,” and musik means “music,” of course.
Gina: What else can you tell us about this sentence?
Anna: Well, in infinitive, “like” is kunne lide, but in other tenses Danes usually add the adverb godt, which means “well.”
Gina: The adverb can’t be heard in the English translation, but it's used to emphasize or confirm that you like something or someone.
Anna: In this case, it’s music. Jeg kan godt lide musik.
Gina: How do you say that you don’t like something?
Anna: Instead of the adverb godt, you use the adverb ikke, which means “not.”
Gina: Can you give us an example?
Anna: Jeg kan ikke lide sild. [pause] Jeg kan ikke lide sild.
Gina: This means “I don’t like herring.”
Anna: Jeg means “I,” kan ikke lide means “do not like,” and sild means “herring.”
Gina: You can replace the nouns that we’ve used so far in the examples with other nouns in indefinite form without the indefinite article, or in definite form with the definite article.
Anna: You can also use pronouns in the oblique case, or verbs in infinitive or dictionary form.
Gina: So how do you say “I like to swim,” for example?
Anna: Jeg kan godt lide at svømme. [pause] Jeg kan godt lide at svømme.
Gina: If you don’t like swimming, you can replace the adverb godt with the adverb ikke, like we did earlier.
Anna: Please remember to place the infinitive marker at before the verb, so the sentence is Jeg kan godt lide at svømme instead of Jeg kan godt lide svømme, which would mean “I like swim” and is grammatically incorrect.

Outro

Gina: Great! Okay, listeners, that’s all for this lesson.
Anna: We hope you enjoyed it!
Gina: We also hope you feel more confident in expressing your likes and dislikes in Danish now.
Anna: Remember to check out the lesson notes for more examples and information.
Gina: Until next time, thanks for listening. Bye!
Anna: Hej hej!

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