Lesson 6 - Personal pronouns
It’s time to take a step in the direction of constructing a sentence in Danish. But before we completely get there, let’s look at pronouns. As you know, there are several different pronouns: subject pronouns (e.g. I, you), object pronouns (e.g. me, you), possessive adjectives (e.g. my, your), possessive pronouns (e.g. mine, yours) and reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself). Ugh, so many fancy grammatical words! Below are some tables with each pronoun in English and Danish as well as some example sentences that puts the pronouns into context. Don’t worry about the grammar of the example sentences (though you might notice it’s very similar, if not identical, to English) - they are just there to put each pronoun into context. Let’s get started!
To be able to see tables and get the best experience of this lesson, please open the lesson on danishwithemi.tumblr.com/post/182551219859/lesson6
Subject pronouns
Used as the subject in a sentence (often a subject a verb or an adjective).
Danish English Example sentences Jeg I Jeg er sulten / I am hungry Du/De You Du er sulten (informal) / De er sulten (formal) / You are hungry Han He Han er sulten / He is hungry Hun She Hun er sulten / She is hungry Den/det It Den er sulten (en-noun) / Det er sulten (et-noun) / It is hungry Vi We Vi er sultne / We are hungry I/De You I er sultne (informal) / De er sultne (formal) / You are hungry De They De er sultne / They are hungry
Note: Whether you should use “den” or “det” when talking about “it” depends on whether the thing you are talking about is an en-noun (e.g. en kat) or an et-noun (e.g. et dyr).
Object pronouns
Used as the object of a sentence (the thing a verb is acting upon).
Danish English Example sentences Mig Me Hunden ser mig / The dog sees me Dig/Dem You Hunden ser dig (informal) / Hunden ser Dem (formal) / The dog sees you Ham Him Hunden ser ham / The dog sees him Hende Her Hunden ser hende / The dog sees her Den/det It Hunden ser den / Hunden ser det / The dog sees it Os Us Hunden ser os / The dog sees us Jer/Dem You Hunden ser jer (informal) / Hunden ser Dem (formal) / The dog sees you Dem Them Hunden ser dem / The dog sees them
Possessive adjectives
Used to modify a noun to make it possessive and show who owns the noun.
Danish English Example sentences Min/mit/mine My Det er min bog / It is my book Det er mit hus / It is my house Det er mine bøger / It is my books Din/dit/Deres/dine Your Det er din bog (informal) / Det er Deres bog (formal) / It is your book Det er dit hus (informal) / Det er Deres hus (formal) / It is your house Det er dine bøger / It is your books Hans His Det er hans bog / It is his book Hendes Her Det er hendes bog / It is her book Dens/dets Its Det er dens bog / It is its book Vores Our Det er vores bog / It is our book Jeres/Deres Your Det er jeres bog (informal) / Det er Deres bog (formal) / It is your book Deres Their Det er deres bog / It is your book
Note: The pronouns “mine” and “dine” is used when talking about ownership of a plural noun. For example: Det er mine hunde = It is my dogs Det er dine hunde = It is your dogs
Possessive pronouns
Similar to possessive adjectives. Used to demonstrate possessiveness but not placed in front of a noun. It can replace the noun. Note that the possessive pronouns are the same as the possessive adjectives in Danish.
Danish English Example sentences Min/mit/mine Mine Bogen er min / The book is mine Huset er mit / The house is mine Pengene er mine / The money is mine Din/dit/Deres/dine Yours Bogen er din (informal) / Bogen er Deres (formal) / The book is yours Huset er dit (informal) / Huset er Deres (formal) / The house is yours Pengene er dine / The money is yours Hans His Pengene er hans / The money is his Hendes Hers Pengene er hendes / The money is hers Dens/dets (not used) Pengene er dens / Pengene er dets Vores Ours Pengene er vores / The money is ours Jeres/Deres Yours Pengene er jeres (informal) / Pengene er Deres (formal) / The money is yours Deres Theirs Pengene er deres / The money is theirs
Note: As stated above the possessive pronoun can replace a noun. For example: Min er rød = Mine is red
Reflexive pronouns
Used when the subject and the object are the same.
Danish English Example sentences Mig (selv) Myself Jeg vil give den til mig selv / I will give it to myself Dig/Dem (selv) Yourself Du vil give den til dig selv (informal) / De vil give den til Dem selv (formal) / You will give it to yourself Sig (selv) Himself Han vil give den til sig selv / He will give it to himself Sig (selv) Herself Hun vil give den til sig selv / He will give it to herself Sig (selv) Itself Den vil give den til sig selv / It will give it to itself Os (selv) Ourselves Vi vil give den til os selv / We will give it to ourselves Jer/Dem (selv) Yourselves I vil give den til jer selv (informal) / De vil give dem til Dem selv / You will give it to yourselves Sig (selv) Themselves De vil give den til sig selv / They will give it to themselves
Reflexive possessive adjectives
Danish English Example sentences (not used) (not used) Sin/sit/sine His Han spiser sin mad / He eats his food Han elsker sit hjem / He loves his home Han elsker sine hunde / He loves his dogs Sin/sit/sine Her Hun spiser sin mad / She eats her food Hun elsker sit hjem / She loves her home Hun elsker sine hunde / She loves her dogs Sin/sit/sine Its Den spiser sin mad / It eats its food Den elsker sit hjem / It loves its home Den elsker sine hunde / It loves its dogs (not used) (not used) Sin/sit/sine Their De spiser sin mad / They eat their food De elsker sit hjem / They love their home De elsker sine hunde / They love their dogs
About formal Danish
You may have noticed that some pronouns can either be formal or informal. Nowadays using informal pronouns is by far the most common in the Danish language. The formal pronouns are mainly used when talking about the royals (e.g. the Queen). So when talking to Danes, always use informal pronouns (even with strangers!). The same applies for all formal/informal pronouns.
You may also have noticed that there are three types of “de”, “dem” and “deres”. Now what is the difference?
De (you) - formal version of “you” (when referring to one person). Always written with an uppercase D. Example: Er De sulten? = Are you hungry?
De (you) - formal version of “you” (when referring to several people or you guys). Always written with an uppercase D. Example: Er De sulten? = Are you hungry?
De (they). Always written with a lowercase d (unless it’s the first word in the sentence). Example: Er de sultne? = Are they hungry?
The same rules applies to “dem/Dem” (you, them) and “deres/Deres” (yours, theirs). How can you know which meaning is used? In written Danish, if “de” is written with a lowercase d you will know that it means “they” (unless someone is making a typo). Otherwise, it all comes down to context and believing your intuition. In conclusion, you shouldn’t have to worry about the rules of formal Danish because you will rarely ever hear it!
The difference between possessive pronouns/adjectives and reflexive possessive adjectives
You might wonder why the last table (the reflexive possessive adjectives) are almost empty. There’s a very specific reason for this. In English there’s no difference between the pronoun used when the subject of a sentence is owning the object of a sentence versus when the subject of a sentence is not owning the object of a sentence. This sounds like gibberish, but let’s look at an example sentence:
He eats his burger.
In this example sentence you can’t tell whether he is eating his OWN burger or some other guy’s burger. This is something you will have to know from context of the sentence.
In Danish there’s a clear distinction between whether (as in this example) he is eating his own burger or someone else’s. Let’s look at the same example but in Danish:
Han spiser sin burger. (since the pronoun “sin” is used we can tell that he is eating his own burger)
Han spiser hans burger. (since the pronoun "hans” is used we can tell that he is eating someone else’s burger)
I hope everything makes sense! If you have any questions or feedback feel free to submit a question/feedback at danishwithemi.tumblr.com/ask and I will answer as soon as possible.
