Danish pronouns mostly behave like their English counterparts. Here, however, you will find videos that focus on some of the tricky aspects that might be difficult to understand even after a few hours with the grammar book.
If you have any questions, leave a comment and I will try to answer it.
“Som” or “der”, that is the question
When you first learned about Danish relative pronouns, you were probably told just to use “som” as it can almost always be used (see, however, the video on “hvilket” below). This video explains when you can use “der”, and seeing that Danes use “der” more than “som”, it really is worth mastering if you want to take your Danish to the next level.
Which which? Using the relative pronoun “hvilket”
In English, you cannot really hear that you have two different kinds of “which”: One is used to refer back to a clausal element (which is when we use “som/der” in Danish); the other refers back to an entire sentence (which is when we use “hvilket” in Danish). This video explains the difference between the two in more detail.
He went home with his girlfriend – whose girlfriend?
The headline highlights an interesting aspect of English grammar: You cannot tell if the guy went home with his own girlfriend or another man’s girlfriend.
In Danish, we care a lot about our girlfriends, and so we want to go home with the correct one. Therefore we distinguish between going home with our own and somebody else’s.
Confused – this video will make it much clearer!
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