Meeting someone before a lesson | Learn Danish in English

Sentence explanations

1. Rart at møde dig.

   Nice to meet you.

   Rart

   nice; pleasant

   møde

   meet

   dig

   you

   More detail

   Rart means “nice” or “pleasant” here. It is the neuter singular form of the Danish adjective rar; the common-gender form is rar. In this greeting, the neuter form belongs to the impersonal evaluation of the following action, not to the person being met. møde means “meet”. After at, it is the infinitive: at møde = “to meet”. The pattern Det er rart at møde ... means “It is nice to meet ...”; Danish can also use the shorter greeting Rart at møde ... as here. dig means “you” as the object of the meeting. Danish uses du for “you” as a subject and dig after a verb or preposition as an object. Example: Jeg møder dig. — “I meet you.” Together, Rart at møde dig. literally presents meeting you as pleasant and naturally means “Nice to meet you.”

2. Er det din første lektion her?

   Is this your first lesson here?

   Er det

   Is this …?

   din

   your

   første

   first

   lektion

   lesson

   her

   here

   More detail

   Er det forms a yes/no question. er is the present form of være (“to be”), and Danish commonly places the finite verb before the subject in this question pattern: Er det ...? = “Is this ...?” Here, the fixed translation supports “this” for det. din means “your” before a singular common-gender noun. Danish possessive forms include din with an en-word, dit with a singular et-word, and dine with a plural noun. In this sentence, din agrees with lektion, not with the person who owns it. første means “first” and is the ordinal form used for position one. It has the same form with common-gender and neuter singular nouns and with plural nouns. For example, min første dag means “my first day.” lektion means “lesson.” It is an en-word: en lektion; its plural is lektioner, and its definite singular is lektionen (“the lesson”). The noun names the lesson itself; the possessive and ordinal words specify whose lesson and its order. her is the adverb “here,” referring to the relevant place. It does not change for gender or number. Compare her (“here”) with der (“there”) when contrasting locations. Together, Er det introduces the yes/no question, din første lektion means “your first lesson,” and her adds the location “here.” The complete utterance therefore means: “Is this your first lesson here?”

3. Jeg har været her før.

   I came here before.

   Jeg

   I

   har været

   have been

   her

   here

   før

   before

   More detail

   Jeg means “I” here: the speaker is the subject. Danish personal pronouns distinguish person and number; jeg is the first-person singular form. Example: Jeg bor her. — “I live here.” har været is the form used here for “have been.” har is the present form of have, used as an auxiliary, and været is the past participle of være (“be”). Together they form the present perfect: har + past participle. This links a previous experience or situation to the present. The same pattern is reusable in Jeg har læst bogen. — “I have read the book.” her means “here,” referring to the place relevant in the conversation. It is a location adverb, not a noun, so it does not change for number or gender. Example: Hun arbejder her. — “She works here.” før means “before” in the time sense “previously.” In this sentence it places the experience before the present moment: the speaker has been here at an earlier time. Example: Jeg har set filmen før. — “I have seen the film before.” The sentence follows the pattern Jeg har været + place + time adverb. Jeg supplies the subject, har været expresses a past experience connected with the present, her identifies the place, and før says that this has happened previously. Thus the whole utterance means “I have been here before,” matching the fixed translation “I came here before.”

4. Jeg har været her et stykke tid.

   I have been here for a while.

   Jeg

   I

   har været

   have been

   her

   here

   et stykke tid

   for a while

   More detail

   Jeg is the first-person singular pronoun “I”. It identifies the speaker as the subject. The corresponding plural pronoun is vi (“we”), but Jeg itself does not indicate anything about how many other people may be present. har været expresses “have been” here. været is the past participle of være (“to be”); the useful form chain is være → været. Together with har, the present form of have, it forms the Danish perfect: har + past participle. This presents the being-here situation as connected with the present. Danish finite verbs do not change for the subject’s person or number, so har is also used with other subjects: Hun har været her means “She has been here.” her is the place adverb “here”. It locates the situation at the speaker’s relevant place. A useful contrast is der (“there”): Jeg har været der means “I have been there.” et stykke tid is a duration expression meaning “for a while”. stykke is the noun “piece” and tid is “time”; in this fixed expression, the combination refers to an unspecified period rather than to one physical piece of something. The indefinite article et agrees with the neuter noun stykke; it does not by itself state a numerical count. A related duration expression is i lang tid, “for a long time,” when a longer duration is intended. Together, Jeg + har været gives “I have been”, her gives the location, and et stykke tid gives the duration. The complete utterance therefore means: “I have been here for a while.”

5. Hvordan er læreren?

   What is the teacher like?

   Hvordan

   how

   er

   is

   læreren

   the teacher

   More detail

   Hvordan means “how” here, but in the pattern Hvordan er …? it asks about someone’s qualities or general character: “What is … like?” This is different from asking about an action, as in Hvordan arbejder han? — “How does he work?” er is the present-tense form of være, “to be.” It is used with all persons in the present: jeg er (“I am”), du er (“you are”), and læreren er (“the teacher is”). It does not change for singular versus plural in the present; for example, lærerne er means “the teachers are.” læreren means “the teacher.” The base noun is lærer, “teacher”; the ending -en marks the definite singular form, “the teacher.” The noun’s grammatical form does not identify whether the teacher is a man or a woman. The plural definite form is lærerne, “the teachers.” Together, Hvordan er asks for a description, and læreren identifies the person being described. The whole utterance therefore means “What is the teacher like?” It asks about the teacher’s characteristics, not about the teacher’s location or current activity.

6. Læreren er meget venlig.

   The teacher is very kind.

   Læreren

   the teacher

   er

   is

   meget

   very

   venlig

   kind

   More detail

   Læreren means “the teacher.” It is the definite singular form of lærer (“teacher”): lærer = a teacher, læreren = the teacher. The ending -en marks definite singular for this common-gender noun; it does not itself state whether the teacher is male or female. er is the present-tense form of være (“to be”). It is used with subjects such as jeg, du, and læreren; Danish does not change this present form for person or number. For example, Jeg er venlig means “I am kind.” meget means “very” here. It intensifies the adjective that follows: meget venlig = “very kind.” It is different from mange (“many”), which is used with countable plural nouns. venlig means “kind” or “friendly” here. It is the common-gender singular form of the adjective. Compare et venligt svar (“a kind answer,” neuter singular) and venlige mennesker (“kind people,” plural or definite form). A short example is Læreren er venlig — “The teacher is kind.” Together, Læreren supplies the subject, er links that subject to a description, and meget venlig describes the teacher with strong emphasis. The complete utterance means “The teacher is very kind.”