Learn how to say, "You're welcome"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| In this lesson, we’ll continue to learn more phrases that will help you with basic etiquette. Danish people might seem distant at first but we are naturally hospitable and warm, so phrases of gratitude are used quite often. As you may remember from our last lesson, Danes have many ways to express gratitude, and just as many ways to respond to it. During your trip to Denmark, there’s a very big chance you'll hear these. So let’s take a closer look at some of them! |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| In Danish, there are two common ways of saying “You’re welcome”. |
| The first one we’ll learn in this lesson is: |
| Selv tak! |
| Let's break it down: |
| (slow) Selv tak. |
| Once more: |
| Selv tak. |
| This is used mostly in response to Tak meaning “thanks”. Selv tak, which when translated into English is “self thanks”. |
| And the second one is: |
| Det var så lidt.. |
| Let's break it down: |
| (slow) Det var så lidt. |
| Once more: |
| Det var så lidt. |
| Literally this means “it was so little” |
| The word det means “it” and var means “was” |
| (slow) Det var. |
| Det var. |
| Så means “ so” and lidt is “ little”. |
| (slow) Så lidt. |
| Så lidt. |
| All together, that is |
| (slow) Det var så lidt. |
| Det var så lidt. |
| ・ |
| Another way of responding to someone who has thanked you is ingen årsag. In English this literally means “not any cause”. |
| Ingen årsag! |
| Let's break it down: |
| (slow) In-gen år-sag. |
| Once more: |
| Ingen årsag. |
| The first word, ingen, means “ none” or “not any”. |
| (slow) In-gen |
| Ingen |
| The second word, årsag, means “cause.” |
| (slow) År-sag. |
| Årsag |
| All together, that’s |
| (slow) In-gen år-sag. |
| Ingen årsag. |
| ・ |
| There will be occasions when you will say Mange tusind tak, which is the phrase for “Thank you very much”, and the response will be Nej, det var min fornøjelse. The translation in English is “No, it was my pleasure”. |
| Let’s break that phrase down: |
| (slow) Nej, det var min fornøjelse. |
| Once more: |
| Nej det var min fornøjelse. |
| In the beginning we have Nej. which means “no” |
| And as you might remember, det var means “it was” |
| (slow) Det var. |
| Det var. |
| The word min means “mine”. Remember to emphasize this in the sentence. |
| (slow) Min. |
| Min. |
| And fornøjelse means “pleasure”. |
| (slow) fornøjelse |
| fornøjelse |
| Again, the whole phrase is |
| (slow) Nej, det var min fornøjelse. |
| Nej, det var min fornøjelse. |
| This phrase is very polite, and you can make it sound even more formal by exchanging the word min with mig en. It will sound like this: Det var mig en fornøjelse. This phrase is used mainly towards older people and in situations when high formality is needed. |
| Let’s break that phrase down: |
| (slow) Det var mig en fornøjelse. |
| Once more: |
| Det var mig en fornøjelse. |
| ・ |
| Remember: |
| Det var så lidt. means “It was so little” and Selv tak means “self thanks”, and these are both equivalents of the English “You are welcome.” |
| Ingen årsag means “No cause.” |
| And the phrase Nej, det var min fornøjelse means “No, it was my pleasure.” Remember that changing min to mig en makes the phrase even more formal. |
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