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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: 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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