Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to get to places by taxi. There are several ways to get a taxi in Denmark: call the company and the taxi will come to your address, go to a taxi stop, or simply hail it on the street. If you are far from a taxi area and it is cold out, you might want to call a taxi. So let’s look at that in this lesson.
GRAMMAR POINT
Imagine you are in Copenhagen. You want to go to Kong Hans Kælder, one of the best restaurants in Copenhagen. You are staying at Copenhagen Admiral Hotel. You call the taxi company, and the person who answers says “How can I help you?” In Danish, this is:
Hvordan kan jeg hjælpe dig?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Hvordan kan jeg hjælpe dig?
Once more:
Hvordan kan jeg hjælpe dig?
The first word, hvordan, denotes the question “how”.
(slow) Hvordan?
Hvordan?
This is followed by kan jeg, which is literally translated as “can I”.
Then we have the word hjælpe which means “help”.
(slow) Hjælpe.
Hjælpe.
And in the end we get the personal pronoun for “you”.
Hvordan kan jeg hjælpe dig? Literally, this translates to “How can I help you?”
・
Answer back by saying that you want a taxi, and giving your location. Say En taxa til, then say your location, and add tak at the end.
In our case the phrase will sound like this:
En taxa til Admiral Hotel tak.
(slow) En taxa til Admiral Hotel tak.
En taxa means “a taxi”.
(slow) En taxa.
En taxa.
Til Admiral Hotel is literally translated as “to Admiral Hotel”.
(slow) Til Admiral Hotel.
Til Admiral Hotel.
Once more all together that’s
(slow) En taxa til Admiral Hotel tak.
En taxa til Admiral Hotel tak.
In English the whole sentence will be translated as “A taxi to Admiral Hotel please.”
・
The person on the phone will then ask you where you want to go and how many people you are. That will sound like this:
Til hvor mange mennesker og hvortil?
This translates into:
“For how many people and to where?”
Let’s say you are 2 people going to Kong Hans Kælder. You just say this: To, til Kong Hans Kælder, tak.
“Two, to Kong Hans Kælder, please.” First you just state the number of people, followed by til meaning “to”, and then your destination – in this case Kong Hans Kælder.
(slow) To, til Kong Hans Kælder, tak.
To, til Kong Hans Kælder, tak.
Next, the operator will tell you the amount of time you have to wait, and sometimes the type of car. If you are more than 3 passengers, they will send a larger vehicle. It will be something similar to this:
Taxaen vil være der om tre minutter, vent venligst.
The first word, Taxaen, means “the taxi”.
(slow) Taxaen.
Taxaen.
Vil is “will”
Være means “be”
Der translates as “there”
All together that is “will be there”
(slow) Vil være der.
Vil være der.
After that we have the amount of time “3 minutes”
(slow) Tre minutter.
Tre minutter.
And at the end we have the phrase vent venligst which means “please wait”.
Let’s hear the whole phrase one more time:
(slow)Taxaen vil være der om tre minutter, vent venligst.
Taxaen vil være der om tre minutter, vent venligst.
The literal meaning is “The taxi will be there in three minutes, please wait.”
・
You will go out, see your taxi, greet the driver and give him your name. After getting in the taxi, confirm your destination. At the end of the drive, you will need to ask how much you have to pay. In Danish that sounds like this:
Hvor meget bliver det?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Hvor meget bliver det?
Once more
Hvor meget bliver det?
The first words, hvor meget, means “how much”
(slow)Hvor meget.
Hvor meget.
Next we have bliver which is the future form of the verb that means “to become”
(slow)Bliver.
Bliver.
Det at the end means “it” and refers to the ride.
(slow) Det.
Det.
The literal translation is “How much becomes it” or “How much is it?”
The entire question is
(slow) Hvor meget bliver det?
Hvor meget bliver det?
And just before leaving the taxi, you might want to say “Thanks for the ride.”
Which in Danish is:
Tak for turen!
(slow) Tak for turen!

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