{"id":767,"date":"2019-09-27T04:05:19","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T11:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rottendanish.com\/?p=767"},"modified":"2021-07-09T01:51:37","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T08:51:37","slug":"danes-in-space-no-sorry-this-is-about-danes-n-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rottendanish.com\/?p=767","title":{"rendered":"Danes in space!! No, sorry, this is about Danes ‘n space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Danes have actually been to space. First, many Danish companies provided software and equipment to NASA and the European Space Agency, maybe most prominently Christian Rovsing A\/S<\/a> back in the 60s and 70s. In 2015, Andreas Mogensen spent a week in the International Space Station and became the first (and so far only) Danish astronaut. This, of course, was predicted by the hilarious Danish full-length cartoon comedy “Rejsen til Saturn” (Journey to Saturn<\/a>) from 2008 based on an earlier comic book of the same name.

But, of course, this is not the kind of space, we want to talk about here… Our space-challenge at hand is about whether a space should or should not be inserted between two Danish words. The issue has risen in urgency since the invasion of the English language and its handling of two nouns next to each other, where the first noun actually acts as an adjective describing the other noun. Things like “winter shoes” or “work clothes” are two words in English, where in Danish, since they naturally belong together, they become one word: vintersko and arbejdst\u00f8j. Like the Americans would say: “some things just belong together, like peanut butter and jelly”, where Danes take the consequence of that and make “peanutbutterandjelly”. Just kidding! -Every Dane knows that jelly goes on cheese and not on peanuts. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, writing Danish with some knowledge of English grammar is firstly challenging in regards to whether to separate the words or not (when in doubt, you’re probably right going with a compound word in Danish). The second challenge is purely of Danes’ own making: after you’ve smooshed the two words together, you should also be able to pronounce the resulting word. Yes, some times two words just don’t become one word without putting up a fight. This is typically solved by inserting an extra ‘s’ if, for instance, the first word ends in a vowel and the second word also starts with a vowel. But if the insertion or omission of an ‘s’ produces a new legitimate Danish word , then things get funny. You can produce a brand new word that still has meaning, -just not the meaning you intended. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We caught a few of those one-letter bloopers in a previous posting<\/a>. Here’s a collection of some further one-letter-off or one-space-too-little golden nuggets:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danish ==> English<\/strong>
Arbejdst\u00f8j ==> work clothes
Arbejdsst\u00f8j ==> noise in the workplace<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rygb\u00e6nke ==> back benches (exercise equipment)
Rygeb\u00e6nke ==> cigarette smoking benches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flotte nylonstr\u00f8mper ==> gorgeous nylon stocking
Flotte nylonstr\u00f8mer ==> a gorgeous policeman made of nylon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dyreartikler ==> items for animals
Dyre artikler ==> expensive items<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tekstilsalg ==> sale of fabric
Tekst til salg ==> text for sale (like for a blog or an advertising)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B\u00f8rnepuder ==> pillows for children
B\u00f8rnepudder ==> baby powder<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billige kvinder frakker ==> cheap women (in) coats [this is not proper Danish, but I’ve seen an ad with this headline]<\/em>
Billige kvindefrakker ==> cheap coats for women [this was the intended meaning]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lederuddannelse ==> Leadership education
L\u00e6deruddannelse ==> Education in leather<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uddannet ==> educated
Uuddannet ==> uneducated
Udannet ==> showing bad manners<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buskrydder ==> a hedge trimmer [=busk+rydder]<\/em>
Buskrydder ==> an alcoholic drink (a bitter) enjoyed on the bus [=bus+krydder]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B\u00e6rbusk ==> berry bush
B\u00e6r busk ==> carry a bush<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forretning ==> business
Forrentning ==> interest on a loan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fladsk\u00e6rm ==> flat screen
Faldsk\u00e6rm ==> parachute<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skifte tid ==> to change time
Skiftetid ==> shift-hours, duration of a work shift
Skift tidsplan ==> change time schedule (skift is here a verb, so no compounding)<\/em>
Skiftetidsplan ==> shift-schedule (dash – is there because otherwise ‘shift schedule’ is ambiguous in English)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slagterpigerne ==> the Butcher Girls
Slagter pigerne ==> (he\/she) butchers the girls<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sk\u00e6r sild ==> cut the herring (fish)
Sk\u00e6rsild ==> purgatory
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krabbe kl\u00f8r ==> a crab is itching
Krabbekl\u00f8r ==> crab claws<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And some naughty ones! :):<\/strong>

Sameje ==> joint ownership
Samleje ==> intercourse<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bedstemors boller ==> grandma’s bread rolls
Bedstemorboller ==> grandma’s bread rolls [here the compounding results in REMOVAL of the s]<\/em>
Bedstemor boller ==> grandma is having sex<\/p>\n\n\n\n

F\u00f8rstegangsydelse ==> First installment (of a loan payment)
F\u00f8rstegangsnydelse ==> Enjoying the first time<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bl\u00e6re r\u00f8v ==> bladder (and) ass [human parts]<\/em>
Bl\u00e6rer\u00f8v ==> a boaster, a braggart<\/p>\n\n\n\n

F\u00e6llesspisning ==> a community dinner
F\u00e6llespisning ==> group pissing <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1986 a group of performance artists<\/a> actually on purpose tricked the Copenhagen magistrate to give them a permit for f\u00e6llespisning<\/em>, where of course the magistrate believed that they were approving a f\u00e6llesspisning<\/em>, as this newspaper clip shows: \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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