Learn the most common way to say "thank you"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Hello! Hej! My name is Anna and I'll be your language teacher and cultural guide throughout this introductory course. |
| Wherever your destination may be, manners are a must! Denmark is no different. So in our very first lesson, we'll be teaching you simple expressions that are bound to come in handy throughout your trip to Denmark. I can’t stress this enough: A little a bit of language can go a long way! |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| In Danish the most simple way of saying “Thank you” is |
| Tak. |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Tak. |
| Once more: |
| Tak. |
| Tak is an interjection and is derived from the verb takke. The dictionary form is “at takke” which in English will be translated as “to thank”. The English equivalent to “Tak” would be “thanks”. |
| In Danish we have a saying Tak er et fattigt ord! which means “Thank you is a poor word”. Meaning that because Tak is only one syllable, it doesn’t take much effort to say. So don’t forget it! |
| If you want to make clear who you are thanking, like the English phrase “Thank you”, you say “Tak skal du have.” which literally means “Thanks you shall have.” |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Tak skal du ha-ve. |
| Once more: |
| Tak skal du have. |
| Skal du have can be added at the end of any of the phrases I will teach you from now on. You automatically make the phrase polite with it. Also, notice that many Danes will leave out the last syllable of have, so it becomes ha’. |
| Let’s hear it: |
| (slow) Tak skal du ha’! |
| Tak skal du ha’! |
| There will be occasions when you want express your gratitude in a more appreciable manner. Then, you should use the expression Mange tak! |
| Let’s break that down: |
| (slow) Man-ge tak. |
| Once more: |
| Mange tak. |
| The first word mange means “many” or “lot”, so the English equivalent of Mange tak is “Many thanks”. |
| Actually, you can also say Tusind tak! which expresses the same level of appreciation as Mange tak! |
| Let’s break that down: |
| (slow) Tu-sin-d tak! |
| Once more: |
| Tusind tak! |
| The word tusind means “thousand” |
| (slow) tu-sind |
| tusind |
| To show a deeper gratitude, it is enough to combine the two expressions, so you get Mange tusind tak! which in English will be translated as “Many many thanks.” or “Thank you very much.” |
| Let’s break that down: |
| (slow) Man-ge tu-sind tak. |
| Once more: |
| Mange tusind tak. |
| An even more formal way of expressing your gratitude is Mange tusind gange tak. Literally translated, it is “Many thousand times thanks”. I just added the word gange to the previous expressions. Easy, don’t you think? |
| Let’s break that down: |
| (slow) Man-ge tu-sind gan-ge tak. |
| Once more: |
| Mange tusind gange tak. |
| The third word gange means “times”, and is used as the multiplier to enhance your appreciation. |
| (slow) Gan-ge. |
| Gange. |
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