Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
In the last lesson, we learned how to get a waiter’s attention and order food and drinks at a restaurant. Once you have the beverages and meal you ordered, you can enjoy the mouthwatering food.
GRAMMAR POINT
During your dinner, the waiter will come to your table and ask in a nice manner, “Is everything well here?” In Danish this is
Er alt vel her?
Let’s break that down:
(slow) Er alt vel her?
Once again:
Er alt vel her?
In this sentence er is a form of the verb “to be” in English, translated as “is”
(slow) Er.
Er.
Alt means “everything” and this will very often be followed by vel, which in English is “well” creating the phrase “everything well”
(slow) Alt vel.
Alt vel
At the end we have her which literally means “here”
(slow) Her.
Her.
Let’s hear the question one more time.
(slow) Er alt vel her?
Er alt vel her?
The answer to this would typically be a simple “yes” ja. Or you can reply with this Alt vel, tak. Which means “Everything is well, thanks.”
Let’s hear that one more time.
(slow) Alt vel, tak.
Alt vel, tak.
The waiter might also ask if he can get you something else. That sounds like this in Danish - Mangler I noget?
Mangler is the form of the verb “to miss” which means “missing”
(slow) Mangler.
Mangler
Combine “missing” with the plural personal pronoun I which in English is the plural of “you,” and you get the meaning of “are you missing”
(slow) Mangler I.
Mangler I.
And lastly we have noget meaning “something.”
(slow) No-get.
Noget.
“Are you missing something?” or “Can I get you something else?” is
Mangler I noget?
If you don’t want to order anything else, you can say Nej, ellers tak.
(slow) Nej, ellers tak.
You may recall that nej means “no” and tak means “thanks.”
The new word here is ellers which literally translates as “otherwise,” but in this case would be “but”
(slow) Ellers.
Ellers.
So if you don't need anything, simply say: “No, but thanks.”
(slow) Nej, ellers tak.
Nej, ellers tak.
If you are finished at this point you might want to get the check. For “Check, please.” use this phrase:
Regningen, tak.
Regningen is the singular of “bill” translated into English as “the bill” or “the check”
(slow) Regningen.
Regningen.
This is followed by tak, which is “thanks” or “please”
(slow) Regningen, tak.
Regningen, tak.
Even if you are finished eating and your plates have been taken away, the waiter doesn't assume you are leaving, since Danes like to chat after dinner for a long time. So when you’re ready to leave and if the waiter hasn’t been around your table in a while, you’ll want to ask for the check. In Danish, “Could I get the check, please?” would be Må jeg bede om regningen, tak.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Må jeg bede om regningen, tak?
Once more:
Må jeg bede om regningen, tak?
The first two words må jeg literally mean “may I”
(slow) Må jeg.
Må jeg.
This is followed by bede om which here means “ask for”
(slow) Bede om.
Bede om
Regningen as you know means “the bill”.
And after that we have tak.
Here’s the whole sentence:
Må jeg bede om regningen, tak?.
(slow) Må jeg bede om regningen, tak?.
Må jeg bede om regningen, tak?

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