Dialogue

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Now it’s time for some useful Survival Phrases for when you go shopping in Danish stores.
GRAMMAR POINT
The first thing you say to a shop clerk is undskyld mig, to get their attention. After that, you will want to ask a “How much” question.
One way could be: “How much is this?”
If you have the thing within pointing reach, or you can hold it, you say:
Hvor meget er den her?
(slow) Hvor meget er den her?
Hvor meget, means “how much.”
(slow) Hvor meget.
Hvor meget.
This is followed by er which is a form of the verb “to be” meaning “is”
(slow) Er.
Er.
At the end of the question we have den her which is translated as “this one”.
(slow) Den her.
Den her.
Another way of asking for the price of something would be “How much does this cost?”
In Danish, we say
Hvor meget koster den her?
Let’s break the question down:
(slow) Hvor meget koster den her?
Once more:
Hvor meget koster den her?
Hvor meget, as you know, means “how much.”
(slow) Hvor meget.
Hvor meget.
Koster is a present form of the verb that means “to cost” which translates as “costs.”
(slow) Koster.
Koster.
At the end of the question, we still have den her which is “this one”.
(slow) Den her.
Den her.
Let’s hear it one more time.
Hvor meget koster den her?
・
Imagine that you are in a shop and you want to buy a shirt. To attract the attention of the store clerk, say undskyld mig, then ask how much the shirt costs. The question will sound like this:
Undskyld mig, hvor meget koster denne skjorte?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Und-skyld mig, hvor me-get kos-ter den-ne skjor-te?
And again at natural speed:
Undskyld mig, hvor meget koster denne skjorte?
First is undskyld mig “excuse me”
Then we have hvor meget koster which means “how much costs”.
(slow) Hvor meget koster?
Hvor meget koster?
After that, we have denne. This word is the common gender pronoun which has the same meaning as “this one here” when translated to English.
(slow) Denne.
Denne.
The last word is the interchangeable one. In this case, it’s skjorte which means “shirt”.
(slow) Skjorte.
Skjorte.
The whole question is
Undskyld mig, hvor meget koster denne skjorte?
If the thing you want to buy is neutral gender, replace the word denne with dette.
・
Another way of asking the price in Danish is:
Hvad er prisen på den her? translated in English as “What is the price on this one?”
Let’s break that down:
(slow) Hvad er prisen på den her?
Once more:
Hvad er prisen på den her?
In this question, hvad means “what”.
(slow) Hvad.
Hvad.
Er would be translated as “is”
And lastly prisen means “the price”
(slow) Prisen.
Prisen.
På is the preposition that means “on”
(slow) På.
På.
Let’s hear this question again.
(slow) Hvad er prisen på den her?
One more time at natural speed.
Hvad er prisen på den her?
Let’s take a look at how asking the price for a shirt changes with this question.
Undskyld mig, hvad er prisen på denne skjorte?
Meaning:
“Excuse me, what is the price on this shirt?”
Notice that it is virtually the same construction, except you need to add a preposition when asking for “price”.
Lastly, you have these two question options when asking for the price of something.
Hvad koster den her?
In English this is: “What does this one cost?
Hvor meget er prisen på den her?
Translated, this will be: “How much is the price on this one?”

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