Learn how to ask someone,"Write it down please"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| In the previous lesson, we covered how to ask, “How do you say this in Danish?” which was “Hvordan siger man det der/det her på dansk?” Do you remember? In this lesson, because we don’t want you to be caught off guard in any situation in Denmark, we are going to introduce a new phrase that is very important to help you focus your skills, not on the sounds, but on the writing. So let’s start this new lesson. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| In Denmark, “Can you write it down, please?” is |
| Kan du skrive det ned, be’om? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Kan du skrive det ned, be’om? |
| Once more: |
| Kan du skrive det ned, be’om? |
| The first words kan du are translated in this case as “can you”. |
| (slow) Kan du. |
| Kan du. |
| Next we have skrive, which is translated as “to write” |
| (slow) Skrive. |
| Skrive. |
| This is followed by det ned, which is translated directly into English as “it down”. |
| (slow) Det ned. |
| Det ned. |
| Be’om is “please” as you might remember from previous lessons. |
| All together: |
| Kan du skrive det ned, be’om? |
| This means, "Can you write it down, please?” |
| As you already observed the previous phrase is not very specific. To make yourself more clear you can say: “Can you write this down, please?” |
| Kan du skrive det her ned, be’om? |
| Compared to the last sentence, we just added the word her to create the meaning of “this”. |
| (slow) Kan du skrive det her ned, be’om? |
| Kan du skrive det her ned, be’om? |
| If you want to be even more specific you might want to ask for something like this: |
| Kan du skrive sætningen ned for mig, tak? |
| In English: |
| “Can you write the sentence down for me, thanks?” |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Kan du skrive sætningen ned for mig, tak? |
| Once more: |
| Kan du skrive sætningen ned for mig, tak? |
| The new word in this question is sætningen which means “the sentence” |
| (slow) Sætningen. |
| Sætningen. |
| For mig directly translates as “for me” and you can add this before the “please” in any of the sentences we see in this lesson. |
| (slow) For mig. |
| For mig. |
| Let’s hear the whole phrase one more time: |
| (slow)Kan du skrive sætningen ned for mig, tak? |
| Kan du skrive sætningen ned for mig, tak? |
| Also, you can say Kan du skrive det der ord ned, be’om? In English that means “Can you write that word down, please?” |
| Let’s break it down. |
| (slow) Kan du skrive det der ord ned for mig, be’om? |
| Kan du skrive det der ord ned for mig, be’om? |
| Det der are the words that come together to create the meaning of “that”. |
| And the new word here is ord which means “word”. |
| (slow) Ord. |
| Ord. |
| It might happen that people are not carrying a pen and paper. So before asking: Kan du skrive det ned, be’om? try asking Har du pen og papir? |
| “Do you have a pen and paper?” |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Har du pen og papir? |
| Once more: |
| Har du pen og papir? |
| The first words, har du, are translated as “do you have” |
| (slow) Har du. |
| Har du. |
| Then you have pen, which in English is “pen”. |
| (slow) Pen. |
| Pen. |
| Then you have og which means “and”. |
| (slow) Og. |
| Og. |
| Finally we have papir which means “paper”. |
| (slow) Papir. |
| Papir. |
| Here’s the whole sentence: |
| (slow) Har du pen og papir? |
| Har du pen og papir? |
| As usual, before asking about someone else’s stationery supplies or for a favor, it’s a good idea to say “excuse me” Undskyld mig at the beginning of the sentence. |
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