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DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish word of the day: Pant

This Danish false friend means something quite different from the English but is a crucial word for living in Denmark.

What is pant? 

Pant has nothing to do with trousers or underpants, or being out of breath. It refers to money paid as security for something. In English it could be translated as “refundable deposit” or “security”.

For example, if you buy property in Denmark, a pantebrev is the document which means a mortgage has been taken out against it (this should be resolved on the day the property changes hands). You can also pay money in pant as security against other kinds of debts.

But in everyday life, the more common usage is the pant fee you pay when you buy recyclable bottles and cans.

This is listed as a separate amount on your receipt, so a drink in a plastic bottle or can may cost you 20 kroner and anything between extra 1 and 3 kroner extra in pant, depending on the type of bottle or can.

You get the pant back by recycling the bottles at flaskeautomater (bottle and can recycling stations) which can be found in almost all Danish supermarkets. The money is paid out by the machine in the form of a receipt, which you can hand in at the checkout for cash or have it deducted from the cost of your food shopping.

READ ALSO: ‘Pant’: Denmark recycles more cans and bottles than ever before

Why do I need to know pant?

In Denmark, the pant system was introduced for glass bottles way back in 1942, with the system extended to cans and plastic bottles in 2002 and for juice cartons in 2019.

Dansk Retursystem, the company operating the pantsystem, says that for every 100 bottles and cans sold with the ‘pant’ mark on it, 92 were returned in Denmark in 2022.

A return percentage of 92 percent is one of the highest of the world for recycling of drinks packaging, and gives an idea of how established pant is in everyday life in the country.

The verb at pante means to hand something in and get money in return, but usually it refers simply to the act of recycling bottles. You can also use pant to talk about other similar recycling schemes, for example at music festivals which might charge a pant fee for their plastic or paper cups, which is returned if you bring them for recycling.

Examples

Vi har utrolige mange flasker og dåser efter festen i går. Jeg går ned i supermarkedet og panter det hele.

We’ve got loads of bottles and cans after the party yesterday. I’m going to the supermarket to cash them in.

Jeg fik 75 kroner tilbage i pant, så det var relativt billigt at handle.

I got 75 kroner from returning bottles and cans, so the food shopping was relatively cheap.

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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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