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DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish expression of the day: Fit for fight

You'll need to be fighting fit to get your head around this one.

What is ‘fit for fight’?

If ‘fit for fight’ doesn’t sound very Danish to you, that’s because there are no Danish words in it — the expression is composed entirely of English words.

So how can it be a Danish expression? Well, it’s only used in the Danish language and if you said it to an English speaker, it might sound a bit jarring or could be misunderstood.

If you say you are ‘fit for fight’ to a Dane, however, they will know exactly what you mean: ready for action, up for the challenge, or even fighting fit.

Why do I need to know ‘fit for fight’?

English-language expressions and words commonly make their way into the Danish language. This can be in their original form, for example “fifty-fifty” or the more recent “download”; or they can be translated, like with rolig nu (“easy now”) or elefanten i rummet (“the elephant in the room”).

‘Fit for fight’ is neither of these, but an expression using English words that probably has its roots in a corruption of a real English expression, namely “fighting fit”.

The concept of ‘Danglish’ — spoken English that is heavily influenced by the speaker’s native Danish — is therefore probably also responsible in part for ‘fit for fight’. Danglish is usually thought of as heavily accented English or sentences with Danish grammatical structure, but here we have a Danish expression that appears to be a manifestation of Danglish.

Examples

Jeg var virkelig sløj i morges, men nu er jeg fit for fight og kommer med til festen.

I felt really unwell this morning, but I’m now fighting fit and coming to the party.

Han virkede ikke særlig fit for fight, men leverede en god præstation i andet sæt.

He didn’t seem fully fit, but put in a good performance in the second set.

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DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish word of the day: Kværn

This unassuming little word pops up surprisingly often in Danish, so it's a very good one to have in your vocabulary.

Danish word of the day: Kværn

What is kværn?

Kværn is a noun meaning “mill” or “grinder”, used to refer to any kind of tool or machine that breaks a substance down into smaller pieces.

kværn can be small, for example a peberkværn (pepper mill) or kaffekværn (coffee grinder).

There’s some overlap between kværn and mølle, the Danish word for “mill”. In the past, mølle might have been used to refer to household items like the coffee grinder. It’s now become the reserve of larger pieces of machinery like windmills (vindmølle), but there is stills a bit of interchangeability in Swedish, a sister tongue of Danish.

If you’re in Skåne – the Swedish province closet to Denmark — the word for “mill” in the local dialect is not kvarn but mölla.

Why do I need to know kværn?

The above describes how to use kværn as a noun, but it’s also a verb, at kværne, meaning “to grind” or “to mill”.

Apart from everyday uses like jeg kværner kaffebønnerne (”I’ll grind some coffee beans”), you won’t hear it too often in its literal sense, but it has a lot of figurative meanings too.

For example jeg var så sulten, at jeg kværnede maden uden at sige et ord means ”I was so hungry I gobbled down (literally ’crushed’ or ’ground’) the food without saying a word”.

This can also apply to drinking: han sad og kværnede bajere hele aftenen (“he sat there downing beers all evening”).

It can also be used to describe working very hard, as in jeg skal bare kværne, indtil projektet er færdig (“I have to keep grafting until the project is finished”).

Finally if someone kværner bare løs, it probably means they are talking non-stop.

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