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DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish word of the day: Fanden

This swearword might seem milder on the surface but hits a bit harder than the many imported curses in the Danish language.

What is fanden?

Like other popular expletives, helvede (“hell”) and satan (“satan”), fanden, meaning “the devil” has a religious connotation.

The three words above are almost interchangeable for swearing, usually preceded by for, as in for fanden! Which roughly translates to “for devil’s sake!”.

They are all used as a light to moderate swearword, perhaps slightly harsher than “damn” or “shit” in English but less aggressive than “fuck” as an expletive.

Most Danes would in theory object to using them in front of children, although in practice they slip out now and then.

You could use them, for instance, if you hit your thumb with a hammer, left your mobile charger at home, or found a parking ticket slipped beneath your windscreen wiper. 

Fanden is a bit softer than the other two, and commonly used for less acute situations – to express mild disappointment or frustration, or even surprise or amazement. It is also very commonly abbreviated to leave out the middle consonants, leaving you with for fa’en!

Why do I need to know fanden?

The description above makes it seem like a mild expletive but, like its two sweary relatives, Danes don’t necessarily take its use frivolously. In fact, you will sometimes see people ‘write’ the word without actually writing it, instead replacing all the letters after the first one with dots, as in for h…… or for f…..

Contrast this with the cavalier way in which fuck – a swear word which (obviously) is loaned from English but has a much milder impact in Danish – is thrown around in live sports interviews, posters on railway stations and on pre-watershed broadcasts. It’s even used to name the middle finger. Similar can be applied to “piss” and “shit”, both extremely common in Danish and frequently used by children.

READ ALSO: Olympic-level swearing: Why do Danes drop the F-bomb so often?

The word “fuck” has gained a steadily greater role in written and spoken Danish over the last few decades and particularly since about 1990, edging out the older Danish swear words like fanden and helvede.

It is perhaps for this reason that some people, notably from older generations, might still wince a little when it comes to writing the latter words but not the former.

While Danes are generally more laid back about swearing than people in, for example, the US or UK, there does still seem to be a hierarchy as to which words are worse than others, and the f-word does not figure as highly as fanden on this list.

Uses 

If you’ve misplaced something, such as a hammer, you could say hvem fanden har taget min hammer? (“who the hell took my hammer?”).

If there is a situation of chaos, confusion or frustration, you can exclaim hvad fanden sker der altså! (“what the devil is actually going on!”)

Fanden can take on a plaintive quality, especially when given a nasal tone, when it expresses a sort of exasperation or frustration: faaa’en

Hva’ fa’en! (hvad fanden or “what the devil”) is also commonly used to express surprise, or amazement. When bumping into an old friend or acquaintance unexpectedly, for instance, you might say Hva’ fa’en, Kathrine!, before hugging them. 

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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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