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DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish word of the day: Ø

The Danish language might be known for its lengthy compound words, but today we take a look at a word just one letter long.

What is Ø?

Today’s word of the day ø, meaning island, is also the shortest Danish word (well, tied with another single-letter word, å, which means stream).

It is also one of three Danish letters that don’t exist in English, along with the aforementioned Å and Æ. These letters are often split into oe (ø), aa (å) or ae (æ) when, for example, Danish names are written in English texts. Ø is also sometimes written as o, which is misleading, because o is a different vowel in Danish.

The pronunciation of ø is somewhere between the exclamation ‘oh!’ and the filler word ‘er’ in English, but given the letter ø cannot be found in the English-language alphabet, it’s hard to describe an exact match.

We think that, like the word ‘bed’ in English, ‘ø’ has the rare quality of looking like the thing it signifies. It has more than a passing resemblance to an island, right?

Why do I need to know Ø?

Apart from Jutland, Denmark is a country consisting of islands (there are 443 named ones), so it’s a word you’ll hear a lot.

You’ll spot it in the names of some of these islands, such as Læsø, Samsø, Æbelø, Bogø, and Sprogø. These are generally the smaller islands, while big ones have names without the ø — the obvious examples are Zealand (Sjælland) and Funen (Fyn), but Bornholm, Langeland, Lolland, Falster and Møn can also be added to this list.

There are some exceptions to this, like Endelave and Anholt, which are both somewhat smaller than our favouritely-named Danish island of all: Ærø.

An important linguistic point to remember is that you generally use the preposition på (on) with islands. For example, you would say ‘jeg bor på Fyn‘ (I live on Funen), but jeg bor i Jylland (I live in Jutland).

Although ‘på Fyn‘ is correct, this only applies when talking about the island, not towns or cities located on it, for example: jeg bor i Svendborg, en mindre by på Fyn (I live in Svendborg, a small town on Funen).

Likewise, when talking about a region within an island you switch back to (in). This is particularly relevant on the largest island, Zealand, which is often discussed in terms of its geography. Jeg bor i Hillerød, det ligger i Nordsjælland (I live in Hillerød, it’s located in North Zealand) is correct, for example.

It’s not a major faux pas to mix up  and i, however.

Finally, the Danish word for peninsula is halvø, literally ‘half island’. Worth knowing given that the only non-island part of the country, Jutland, is in fact a very large peninsula.

Examples

Jeg har lige været på Ærø og synes øboerne er utrolig venlige.

I have recently been to Ærø and think the islanders are incredibly friendly.

Intet menneske er en ø.

No person is an island.

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DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish word of the day: Varmebølge

Here's a Danish word to use when complaining about the hot weather.

Danish word of the day: Varmebølge

What is varmebølge?

Varmebølge means “heatwave” in Danish.

Varme means “heat” or “warmth”, and bølge means “wave”, so it’s an easy translation. You’ll sometimes hear hedebølge used too, using another Danish word for “heat”. The word varme is the more common of the two, and can be used in situations where you might say either “heat” or “warmth” in English. Hede, on the other hand, implies a more extreme type of heat.

For example, the Danish words for “hot water bottle” and “central heating” both use varme rather than heat (varmedunk and centralvarme or just varmen, respectively) and “hot weather” is varmt vejr but the phrase i kampens hede means “in the heat of the battle”. 

Why do I need to know varmebølge?

While the above terms – varmebølge and hedebølge – are synonyms on first glance, there’s an important difference.

Denmark’s national meteorological agency, DMI, defines a varmebølge as a three-day period on which the average highest temperature is over 25 degrees Celsius.

For a hot spell to qualify as a hedebølge, on the other hand, the average highest temperature for the three days in question must exceed 28 degrees Celsius

People from southern parts of Europe might consider either type of Danish heatwave to feel more like regular summer weather – and perhaps this helps explain why extreme weather in southern regions in recent years, related to climate change, has led to speculation Denmark could become an increasingly popular summer destination for foreign holidaymakers.

The phrases also reveal a little about how Denmark’s climate influences language and the way Danes talk about the weather.

READ ALSO: Five Danish phrases you only hear in summer

While almost everyone gets quickly tired of long spells of cool, wet summer weather – like those seen during most of June 2024 – it also doesn’t take much for Danes to begin longing for more moderate temperatures to return once it heats up.

Anything over around 24-25 degrees Celsius is likely to be considered for meget (“too much”) what I would consider a regulation summer temperature of 26 degrees might be described as denne forfærdelige varme (“this dreadful heat”).

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