Danish Consonants K, P, T pronounced as G, B, D - When Does it Happen?

A very basic feature of modern Danish is the fact that
- K is often pronounced as G -
- P is pronounced as G -
- T is pronounced as D -
When does this occur?
Learn the rules here!
My article on this topic:
tinyurl.com/ycw3d6r3
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[@braziliaan]

I am learning Danish, but I have to admit that Norwegian pronunciation is much easier. But I won’t give up. Tak for det!

[@MicsLanguages]

Ja, dansk kræver nok lidt mere arbejde end norsk. Held og lykke 👍

[@Andreacosta448]

@@MicsLanguages is Lykke pronounced with a G-sound?

[@juliagarrison-odwyer5234]

Tak! I'm Danish American and trying to learn. Desværre, har jeg aldrig haft mulighed for at lære af min mor. Thank you for your work! I'm enjoying your channel!

[@clockworkheir1835]

Hey, Mic! Great work! Looking forward to more Danish videos!

[@pullibo]

Tak, det er nok tet bedste.

[@vanttildet3069]

tak for din video❤❤

[@francescomartello]

Tak igen for din video!

[@anastasioskoulaouzidis6640]

Mic, excellent all your videos, thank you for posting, I find Danish difficult as beginner, sounds like a very phonetic language

[@viggoerickson7854]

alle af jeres fordrager er virkelig godt

Nunca me canso de ver esses vídeos fantásticos do Mic. :)

[@MicsLanguages]

Muito obrigado, Elvis! Espero que esteja tudo bem aí! ;)

[@mari0095467]

Tak for videon!!!

[@fernandademeira9683]

Thanx!

[@frenzo110]

Fantastisk video!! Du förtjänar minst 20k subscribers 😉

[@MicsLanguages]

Mange tak skal du have! Lad os se, om jeg får de 20k hen ad vejen. Der er jo ikke så mange, der lærer dansk, som hvis det nu for eksempel var engelsk. 🤔

[@giuliannafaliero6034]

Hej! Your phonetics lessons are really useful, could you do a video about all danish verbs tenses, it's hard to find a good list of tenses name and meaning

[@MicsLanguages]

I will put it on my list. But my list os very extensive 😉

[@aneesmughal2949]

Very informative video, also very pleasant background 😊 thanks for the video.

[@MicsLanguages]

Great, thanks for mentioning the background. I often take ages choosing the background, so it helps a lot to get feedback about it 😉

[@aneesmughal2949]

@@MicsLanguages yeah,I have noticed all your backgrounds are very beautiful and synchronised.

[@MicsLanguages]

Mange tak 😊

[@jasonlove8733]

Great vlog!

[@MicsLanguages]

Thanks

[@badangelrosario]

I really like music in Danish, and I apply all those rules unconsciously, because in many words, if it's not with the rule, they don't fit into the time of the music 😅 but when I speak I never remember

[@607]

Interesting, I think I can remember these first three rules! The loan words I don't think I'll get right, though, because there are so many different groups and there's little way for me to guess what's considered a loan word and what's not.

[@MicsLanguages]

By loan words I mean loan words from Latin and Greek mainly. Those are easy to identify, if your native language is Dutch. Great that the video helps you!

[@francescoghigo8394]

Hej Mic Could you make a video with the infamous Danish vowels ? In your video about "så", I've finally understood the difference between "se --> så" and "så", I think I could understand all other vowels if you dedicated a video to them 🙌 In the meantime, I'll binge-watch the rest of the videos in your channel ✨

[@MicsLanguages]

Thank you, Francesco! Let me see if I'll make a video about the vowels some time. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@Romulus.2030]

Tusind tak,for det. Hej,hej.

[@viktoria93133]

Det var bare utrolig nyttigt! Tak for det! :-)

[@MicsLanguages]

Tak for din kommentar! :)

[@jasonlove8733]

Strong and weak consonant sounds have many rules and exceptions... I’m going to read your linked article about the -tion and loan word exceptions!! You are very knowledgeable ❣️Tak Mic og vi ses😎😎

[@MicsLanguages]

Tak, vi ses 😉

[@channelyoutube4151]

Thank you so much, I’m a high schooler in the US who’s interested in learn Danish and your videos help so much. I was wondering if you could cover the differences between the word “even.” As I’m learning Danish I see “engang, endda and selv” and I get confused. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

[@MicsLanguages]

Hi there, thanks for your nice words and for your suggestion :)

[@klaus-heinzmorales4448]

Thanks Mic, it's very interesting how these consonants soften in the middle of the words, it's curious because in the Russian is the inverse process, soft consonants become hard

[@MicsLanguages]

That's interesting! Unfortunately I know almost nothing about Russian. Would be interesting to learn some day!

[@klaus-heinzmorales4448]

@@MicsLanguages It's a lovely language, though it's Slavic, has a lot of common things with Germanic languages. The Soft/Hard consonants change is quite frequent

[@lululiao2032]

Hej Mic, Thank you for good video. Do you know if there is any rule about stød?

[@MicsLanguages]

Good question, Lulu. There are rules for stød (not always of course), but I'll have to dive deep into it at some point and make a video about stød 🤔

[@lululiao2032]

@@MicsLanguages I would appreciate if you make a video for it. 👍😉

[@carolinapolicarpo6]

dine videoer redder mig!

[@luraymundo1067]

Hej Mic! Jeg vil se videoen mange gange!!! Jeg vil også læser din artikel... selvfølgelig. Et spørgsmål: lyder "tion" ligesom "chion" på portugisisk? Mange tak for informationerne!

[@MicsLanguages]

Hej Lu! Nej, det lyder ikke helt som "chion" på portugisisk. Den første del er som "sj" ligesom i chokolade eller sjov. Og selvfølgelig er "n" artikuleret, ikke ligesom på portugisisk, hvor "chion", "chiom" og "chiõ" ville være den samme lyd 😁

[@luraymundo1067]

@@MicsLanguages Mange tak Mic!!! 🙏🙏🙏🙏 Hav en fantastisk weekend!

[@carolinapolicarpo6]

kan du godt lave en video om “SJ” udtalen på dansk? 🙏🏽😄

[@aravindssingapore4327]

Hej fra Singapore, min venn! Det er hyggeligt

[@Yamezzzz]

Tak Mic

[@leticiadelfino2858]

O dinamarquês possui acentuação gráfica como no português? Estou vendo aí algo que me lembra um acento agudo (´), mas ao mesmo tempo parece apenas com o nosso 'ç., um jeito de alterar a pronúncia da letra em determinados momentos.

[@MicsLanguages]

Boa pergunta. A resposta curta: Não Um pouco mais longa: As vezes é usado um acento no e, dessa forma: é Por exemplo se usa en palavras como idé (ideia), mas essa palavra também pode ser escrita sem (ide). Se usa as vezes na palavra en (én) para mostrar que estamos falando de 1 (quantidade) de uma determinada coisa e não do artigo (UM homem, UMA mulher).

[@leticiadelfino2858]

@@MicsLanguages Entendi. É parecido com o antigo acento diferencial que infelizmente deixou de existir na última reforma da língua portuguesa. Obrigada!

[@thapasanbir]

It seems very fruitful. Hope more will come..

[@Chriiiis102]

Hey Mic, if you see this comment, can you please make a video when to use En and Et because i'm very confused half of the time, Tak

[@MicsLanguages]

Great question! You are meant to be confused, haha. There are no reliable rules about when to use en and when to use et. The only thing I cna recommend is for you to learn the gender for each word by heart. And if you see a new word and you have to guess, mostly you should guess "en", 'cause that's more common than "et". That way you will get way more than half of them right. But still, try to learn them together with each word. People from most other languages that I know of also have to choose between at least two articles in their mother tongues. English is more "simple" in that manner, which of course makes it more difficult to pay attention to the necessity of remembering the gender for an English speaking person learning for example Danish 😐

[@Chriiiis102]

@@MicsLanguages I saw an article saying that Et for things with no life while En is for things with life, but for example "Et barn" "a child" pretty confusing 😃

[@MicsLanguages]

Yeah, I've read about that "rule" as well. Might help, but then again, there are lots of "animated" nouns that are et, not en. So better forget about that rule 😉

[@PIANOPHUNGUY]

Turning a "k" into a "g" sound also happens in American English. Package could be prounouced as "pa-gidge. Almost pronounced like "baggage" but with a "p" instead of "b". Depends if you say it fast or are reading it maybe.

[@MicsLanguages]

Exactly, American English speakers do this fairly often.

[@PIANOPHUNGUY]

When I learned Danish as a child I pronounced : "hindbaer" as "himbaer". Vil du gerne ha' noget hindbaer syltetoej? I only heard it never saw it written. Years later maybe i realen or thereabouts I learned the correct pronunciation. Linguistically maybe "nd" sometimes gets pronounced as an "m"? Is this a typical pronunciation mistake by Danish children? Maybe ask children what kind of berry or jam it is. I think a study of child language could be a interesting topic for a speech pathologist or linguist.

[@MicsLanguages]

I would say that many Danes call it himbær even though in theory it's wrong. But there is a reason: the B is pronounced with the lips closed as is an M. it's a lot easier to say M before B, than to say N before B. Actually we Danes often say København as Købmhavn for the same reason, or "til dem, for dem, med dem..." as "tibm, fobm, mebm"

[@mandybedevere]

What about "Ø"? Is there a rule when we read it much like "O" or other sound?

[@MicsLanguages]

The vowels are a topic for themselves. The Ø can have 3 different sounds, and yes there are rules, but that's a bit difficult to get into. Maybe at some point I'll make a video about it. The Ø is never said like O, though.

[@ms774]

Hallo Mic, gibt es auch Videos Dänisch-Deutsch? LG

[@MicsLanguages]

Also deutschsprachige Videos mit Dänischunterricht? Gibt's leider nicht. NOCH nicht, vielleicht sollte ich das irgendwann machen. Wenn, dann wäre es aber höchstwahrscheinlich nur ein Video oder ein paar denke ich. Es ist für mich noch immer ne Heidenarbeit diese Videos zu produzieren. Werde aber immer effizienter! 🙂 LG

[@ms774]

@@MicsLanguages Vielen Dank für die schnelle Antwort. Mein Englisch ist leider nicht ganz so gut. Deshalb meine Frage. Ich sehe mir deine Videos dennoch an. Dauert zwar länger, aber das ist nicht schlimm. Vielen Dank für die Mühe, die du dir machst. Herzliche Grüße

[@MicsLanguages]

Alles klar! Es gibt auch immer die Möglichkeit, direkten Unterricht mit mir zu machen über Videokonferenz (falls es bei dir budgetmäßig reinpasst) 🙂 In dem Fall schreib mir gerne über meine Internetseite. Ansonsten viel Spaß+Glück beim Lernen! LG

[@Ernesthorr]

Magne Tak!

[@jeremycline9542]

On Netflix shows the word "okay" sometimes sounds like "ogey" to me. Also heard "walgie talgie" instead of walkie talkie.

[@MicsLanguages]

exactly!

[@clydexmation4583]

Your videos are extremely useful! (≧▽≦)

[@MicsLanguages]

Thank you very much, I am glad to hear that! 🙂

[@Ingo64]

"At imponere" er også et lånord.

[@knaw35]

True story. You can use this anecdote in your work. No problem for me. So, My wife is Danish and we lived together by years with a cat. The cat was called Kiddy. One day I try to get to one of our common accounts on the network. My wife had created a password for the access. She said to me - the password is Kiddy1234 (I have changed now with purpose so do not even try). I tried without success. So finally I asked her to come to my room and check - something is wrong, the password does not work! She came and... bingo! The reason was that the password is spelled Kitty1234. So, we both lived with the cat by years. The cat who had two names.

[@MicsLanguages]

Haha, that's what I call "en misforståelse" ("mis" is the Danish way of saying kitty, pussycat) 😻

[@barrysteven5964]

I like your videos but I find it against my instincts to call soft voiceless consonants like K,P,T 'strong' and voiced cononants G,B,D 'weak'. It seems the wrong way round.

[@MicsLanguages]

Thanks for your comment. I have received another "complaint" similar to yours regarding this video. Even though I have a masters degree in linguistics (translation), I often use other terminology than the "official" one, either because I've forgotten the conventional terms or because I don't think they make sense. In this case, I think that K, T, P are definitely stronger than G, D, B. Or maybe "harsher" is a better word. I hope you forgive me. 😉

[@PIANOPHUNGUY]

Ah, the Danes are turning "t" into a "d". A flap "t"? Just like North Americans who pronounce "water" as "wadurr".

[@MicsLanguages]

exactly!

[@pullibo]

@@MicsLanguages tak tusinde tak

[@kiwisainz]

in Spanish, at least, we characterize this phonological process as SONORIZATION. K shares the same point of articulation as G (P the same as point of articulation as B, and T same as D). The slightest difference is that the first ones are VOICING (sonora) instead of VOICELESS (sorda) as you can tell if you put your fingers on your throat when you utter each phoneme. So, they're very close to each other. The fingers on your throat are a very simple test. Pardon my lousy English, min dansk er endnu værre...

[@MicsLanguages]

Hi Kiwi, thanks for your comment. What you wrote is close to perfect English, only very few minor things need to be changed for it to be perfect. Thanks for your explanation. I was actually not aware that the T and D in Spanish have the same point of articulation. I thought the tongue was in slightly different positions. I think this will help me to pronounce the Spanish T better 🙂 Mange tak!

[@kiwisainz]

@@MicsLanguages Broadly speaking .. obviously. At real life we pronounce different T or D at different positions, for sure; but that grosso modo phonological opposition could be pedagogical helpful. Thank you for reading. I love your lessons. Chau!