Loan Words in Danish – Pronounce them Correctly!

Loan words are everywhere

As with all Germanic languages and also many languages from other linguistic groups, the Danish language is full of loan words that were adopted from Latin and Greek centuries ago.

Danish has also integrated many loan words from English origin, many of them in recent decades. Often, these loan words are pronounced more or less the same in Danish and English.

The loan words of Latin and Greek (and also French) origin on the other hand are quite often pronounced very differently in Danish than in English. This is especially the case with regards to syllable stress. Do we stress the first syllable…the last syllable…or maybe the penultimate one?

“Penultimate” is a nice little loan word, which English has borrowed from Latin. Can you feel/hear where the stress is here? Do you think a person from China or the Amazon jungle, who has never been confronted with the English language, can pronounce this word so that you will understand it? Chances are they won’t without prior training.

Well, this word, “penultimate”, as a matter of fact doesn’t exist in Danish, but let me tell you there are thousands of words that exist both in English and Danish. Chances are you are learning Danish since you are here at this very place at this very moment, so imagine how it would be if you could pronounce thousands of new words in Danish as a result of reading this post. Or well, you might not be able to pronounce them totally perfectly, ‘cuz Danish sounds are notoriously hard to replicate for non-Danes (without lots of practice). Having said that, after reading this text you WILL have a good understanding of which syllables to stress in most of the many loan words that are part of the Danish language. And you might learn tens of new words that you didn’t know existed in Danish.

In this article, I have only included words that are used frequently in Danish.

A big majority of them are must-know-words for someone who seriously wants to speak Danish.

How this article is structured

Structure is important. Especially when we are looking at a topic with heaps of information. It has taken me quite some time to put this information together. From identifying different categories of loan words with the same or similar patterns, to finding a good number of loan words in each category and finally establishing “rules” that can be followed by you and other people who are interested. I want to present this topic in the easiest possible way, but not compromise the comprehensiveness (is that a word? If so, it is definitely a loan word that English has adopted from Latin :).

To do this, I’ve chosen to divide the words into where the stress is. We’ll start with words where the stress is on the last syllable.

Hereafter, the focus will be on words that have their emphasis on the second-to-last (aka penultimate) syllable.

Finally we’ll look at special cases. This part will also include loan words that have been adopted from French.

Please note that I am not a language historian (even though this topic interests me a lot). So there is a big chance of mistakes when I for example say that a certain word entered the Danish language from Latin. It might as well be a Latin word that entered the French language and then later the Danish language via French. Please accept my excuses and feel free to comment on this article if you know something that I don’t know.

How you should work with this article

My suggestion is that you look at (and listen to) all the words, at least the ones you don’t know beforehand, as this will make it more likely that you will remember them later on, both with regards to pronunciation and their existence. Try to figure out what each word means in English. I have chosen to include the meaning of each individual word only when the word and/or its meaning differ significantly from English. This requires more from your brain than just looking at a word list with Danish words and English equivalents, which is a good thing because we learn a lot better if we put in some effort than if we just sit back passively. By the way, I am not a big believer in those YouTube videos with titles like “Learn Danish While you Sleep”, or “All the Danish you Need in just Two Hours”.

If you want to learn something, you have to put in the work. This is a truism that for some might be a sad truth, but it’s totally possible to feel good when you exercise your brain…or your body. I personally feel bad when I don’t learn anything new or when I don’t move my body in challenging ways for more than a day or so. We have so often been told that exercise is HARD, TOUGH, and if we can avoid it and still get into shape, we should go for that. Well, f… that! I want to do things, not just sit and watch Netflix. If you don’t feel like that now, I hope you are open to changing that mentality. Okay, enough about that.

Here’s the first group we’ll look at:

Loan words with stress on the last syllable

The majority of Latin and Greek loan words in Danish seem to have their main stress on the last syllable. Having the last syllable emphasized is not a pattern that is normal for the Danish language. Let me give you an example of a “normal” proto-Danish word with two syllables:

MAN-ge

The stress is on the first syllable. I have marked the syllable stress with capital letters.

English functions exactly the same way. Compare the above word MANGE with the English MANY:

MA-ny

In English, loan words that were taken from Latin, Greek and French have mostly been adapted to the standard English pronunciation system, i.e. they have the first syllable stressed in the case of two-syllable words.

But in Danish, as already mentioned, this is not the case. The majority of loan words that entered the Danish language retained their original stress patterns.

Let’s look at a work that exists in Danish and in English, in order to hear the difference:

lo-GIK

LO-gic

All the words that you will see in this category (loan words with stress on last syllable) have a different syllable stress pattern in Danish compared to English.

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Words ending in ION

Just like in English, there are loads of words with ION in Danish. They are generally spelled exactly the same way, or sometimes with some minor differences, for example K in Danish instead of the English C. All of these words are nouns.

What’s special is the pronunciation. These words generally have their stress on the last syllable, contrary to English, where it’s on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable.

Another interesting thing that happens is with words that end in TION. If we were to write the actual pronunciation with Danish letters, it would be like this: SJON. That’s very similar to how these words are pronounced in French.

Also be aware of the “stød” on the O in the end of the words. Stød is an important part of the Danish language, and I have several videos about it on my Youtube channel. The following video is a basic introduction to this topic:

Let’s look at a list with important words that end in ION. Try to pronounce them together with the audio files. Active learning is WAY more powerful than passive learning.

acceleration
administration
aktion
attraktion
autorisation
civilisation
depression
distribution
frustration
funktion
illusion
infektion
invasion
invitation
kompensation
konstruktion
konvention
korruption
kreation
kvalifikation
magtposition		EN: position of power
manipulation
metrostation
million
motivation
nationalkomission
naturreligion
opposition
pension
politistation
prævention
produktion
reaktion
reduktion
reproduktion
reservation
sanktion
situation
specifikation
telefonkonsultation
tradition
transaktion
union
variation
version
vibration

Did you get the hang of it? Don’t be lazy or shy, make sure you say the words out loud! If you dind’t do it this time, why don’t you go back and start again. Give yourself a second chance. That’s how we grow.

There are a few exceptions as well. Words that end in ION, but have a different syllable stress. Exceptions will in the rest of the article be marked with red/orange, as in the table below.

stadion
aircondition
actionfilm

The last two words are taken from the English language, they are fairly recent additions to the Danish language. And in Danish we generally keep the syllable stress from the source language. Especially when it fits the pronunciation patterns of originally Danish words, which it actually does in the above three cases.

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Words ending in ID

The next group doesn’t have that many members. The stress is still on the last syllable. In English it’s on the penultimate.

Note the soft D. If you still don’t know how to pronounce the soft D, make sure you watch my video on my YouTube channel, and make even more sure that you PRATICE it!

hybrid
hydrogenperoxid		synonym: brintoverilte
individ		meaning: as in “each person”
solid
stupid		the synonym “dum” is used a lot more

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Words ending in K

I didn’t find many words ending in K. Those that I found have their stress on the last syllable.

I have put words ending in IK and ISK in separate categories, so I will not list them here. You can find them later in this article.

grotesk
kakerlak		EN: cockroach
kiosk

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Words ending in L

In English, these words have their emphasis on the second-to-last or third-to-last syllable. In Danish, most of them have the last syllable emphasized.

One exception to this rule are words endning in BEL, for example acceptabel. They have the second-to-last syllable stressed.

Note the sound of A in the last syllable of the words. Generally, the sound is the same as in the Danish word “abe” (= monkey). But when we have RAL, the sound of the A changes into sound that we use in “tak” (= thank you). This is due to the influence of the R: The combination RA (and actually also AR) will always result in the sound from “tak”. See my videos on the Danish R to learn about this more in detail.

The same happens with E. Note the difference between “panel”, “officiel” and “generel” (in the latter, the R gives us a sound in the E which normally can’t occur with E).

Note also that in the words in this group, the final syllable generally has a long vowel sound. For example: “brutal”. Together with the long vowel we have a “stød”.

When the vowel is pronounced with a short sound on the other hand, I have written “short vowel” in the third column of the table.

Now let’s go. Remember to read along.

acceptabel
bibel
brutal
central		note the sound of RA
decimal
egenkapital		note difference to “kapital” (read below)
fossil
fundamental
general		note the sound of RA
generel		note the sound of RE
kabel
kapital
kompatibel
kontrol		short vowel
maksimal
metal		short vowel
model		short vowel
national
normal
officiel		short vowel
original
panel
pistol
protokol		short vowel
rentabel		EN: profitable
reol
sekventiel		short vowel
senil
sensibel		EN: sensitive
sensuel		short vowel
signal		the G is silent
social
stabil
subtil
symbol
total
traditionel		short vowel
vokal		English translation: vowel

I have also included the following words, even though they actually have the second-to-last syllable stressed. But they are kind of the same as the above words, just with an added E.

finale
kabale		EN: solitaire (= type of card game)
skandale
speciale		EN: specialty

Now some exceptions. Here the stress is NOT on the last syllable.

alkohol
asocial		main stress on prefix
heavymetal		same writing as the others, but this is an English word
international		main stress on prefix
simpel

The word “heavymetal” ends in an L, but is obviously not a Latin loan word. It comes from English, and we keep the English pronunciation.

The dictionary Den Danske Ordbog says that “simpel” comes from French, which might be the reason why it’s pronounced differently from the other words (which mostly come from Latin).

The words “asocial” and “international” have their mains stress on the first syllable, which is a thing that normally happens with words that have a prefix. Try to notice this pattern in the rest of the article.

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Words ending in M

This group functions the same as the above (-L): Stress on last syllable, long vowel sound with stød (unless it says “short vowel”)

anonym
aspartam
astronom
diagram		short vowel
diplom
ekstrem		note sound of RE
emblem
intim
legitim
økonom
problem
program		short vowel, note: RA
synonym
system

The following has been included here, even though the stress technically is on the second-to-last syllable.

eksamen

Now some exceptions:

balsam
denim
gennem		EN: through (this is not a loan word, so it follows “normal” Danish pronunciation patterns
sygdom		EN: disease (this is not a loan word, so it follows “normal” Danish pronunciation patterns)

“Denim” comes from English and keeps the English stress pattern.

I’ve also included two Danish words, just to keep you awake. These two words end in an M, so you might be inclined to stress the last syllable. But no no, they are not loan words!

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Words ending in N

The same as the previous categories.

citron
dæmon
elektron
gardin		EN: curtain
harpun
hormon
hydrogen		more common synonym: brint
iman
immun
melon
membran		note sound of RA
mikrofon
momentan
mondæn
monsun
neopren		note sound of RE
obskøn
person
porcelæn
profan
suveræn		note sound of RÆ
telefon
tyfon

Exceptions:

ballon		comes form French => different sound in the ending
bison
gluten
Iran
neon

I am treating “ballon” as an exception, even though it has the last syllable emphasized. The final N is pronounced as an NG due to the fact that it’s a word taken from French (we try to emulate the original French pronunciation). In the end of the article you will find a lot more words in this category.

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Words ending in R

Here we have some important nouns ending in UR (e.g. kultur), important nouns in ØR (denoting a person) as well as nouns and adjectives ending in ÆR.

All of them have the last syllable emphasized, which is mostly different from the same words in English. In the stressed syllable, the vowel sound is long with stød.

agentur
akupunktur
autoritær
basar
chauffør
direktør
distributør
EU-kommisær		EN: EU-commisionary
familiær
fraktur
guvernør
importør
ingeniør
inventar		EN: inventory
kardiovaskulær
komfur		EN: stove
kommandør
kommentar
kommunitær
kontur
kreatør
kulør
kultur
militær
millionær
monetær
populær
postyr		EN: fuss
prekær
programmør
redaktør		EN: editor
revolutionær
sekretær
struktur
tekstur
visir		EN: visor (to cover your face)

Exceptions:

meter
motor

“Meter” is pronounced with the same syllable stress as in English and many other languages.

“Motor” and other words with the suffix OR are special and will be treated in a special category towards the end of the article.

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Words ending in T

Now let’s look at words ending in T. Since there are many, I’ve broken them up into several groups.

First let’s start with those that end in vowel+T. It seems like all of these are nouns.

Again the rhythm pattern is quite different from English.

affinitet
apparat
astronaut
cypriot
demokrat
fallit		EN: bankrupt, bankruptcy
farmaceut
favorit
format
funktionalitet
hobbit
idiot
institut
kahyt		EN: cabin aboard a ship
kammerat		EN: friend, comrade
kasket		EN: (baseball) cap
konkret
konvolut		EN: envelope
koordinat
kredit
kvadrat		EN: square
pilot
portræt
realitet
resolut
robot
satellit
spinat		EN: spinach
stakit		EN: fence
sulfat
syndikat
terapeut

Exceptions:

boykot		comes from English
facit		EN: result, list of correct answers

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Words ending in KT

These are also mostly nouns. Here are some of the most important ones.

abstrakt
arkitekt
autodidakt
defekt
dialekt
distrikt		note the sound of RI
effekt
insekt
konflikt
konstrukt
produkt		note the sound of U
projekt		note the sound of J
respekt

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Words ending in NT

Loan words with the suffix NT are mostly nouns, but some are adjectives.

There are many important words.

Remember to READ ALONG! ! ! 😀

absint
assistent
butiksassistent		EN: shop assistant, clerk
clairvoyant
dement
deodorant
dokument
dominant
elefant
element
fabrikant		EN: producer
fedtprocent
fundament
højfrekvent
horisont
incitament		EN: incentive
intelligent
interessant
interessent		EN: stakeholder
konkurrent		EN: competitor
konstant
konsument
kontant
kontinent
kontingent		EN: membership fee
kontorassistent
markant		EN: notable, significant
medikament		EN: medication, remedy
musikinstrument
originaldokument
pikant		EN: spicy
præsident
procent
producent
relevant
repræsentant
skribent
student
talent
tankeeksperiment
tolerant
transparent

Exceptions:

advent		in the month of december
restaurant		French pronunciation

“Restaurant” is an exception, not because of the syllable stress, but because of the last sound which is pronounced in a wannabe-French manner. More about these words later.

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Words ending in PT

There are a few words with PT.

koncept
korrupt
manuskript
recept		EN: prescription (for medicine)

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Words ending in RT

Loan words with the suffix RT seem to be all nouns.

dessert		This is not the place (English: desert), but the food
ekspert
import
insektart		EN: insect species
koncert
rapport
start
transport

Exceptions:

T-shirt
yoghurt

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Words ending in IST (inkl. ISTER)

The following words are for the most part people.

I have included ISTER even though the stress is on the penultimate syllable.

bilist		EN: car driver
cyklist
medisterpølse		specific type of Danish sausage
minister
opportunist
realist
register

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Words ending in OG

Here there are some important words for professions, which in English often will end in GIST (e.g. biologist).

Note that these words for professions occur, when the word for the field ends in I (or more precisely GI). Example:

biologi -> biolog

sociologi -> sociolog

Words for fields ending in I will be treated in a short while.

arkæolog
biolog
dialog
eskimolog
gynækolog
pædagog
sociolog

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Adjectives ending in OS, ØS

The next group is comprised of adjectives woth the suffix OS and ØS.

Nouns ending in OS as well as all other loan words that end in other vowels + S generally have the second–to-last syllable stressed. We’ll look at those later.

ambitiøs
deliciøs
dubiøs
glamourøs
gloriøs
graciøs
luksuriøs
monstrøs
mysteriøs
nervøs
promiskuøs
prætentiøs
religiøs
seriøs
skandaløs
virtuos
viskos
voluminøs
uambitiøs

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Words ending in I, IK

This is a super important category. There are many many words here. What they have in common is the fact that all of them are nouns and that they have the last syllable emphasized. Again, contrary to English.

As we’ve already touched upon, these words often denote some specific field. When there is a profession related to a specific field, the field will often form the related profession by losing its ending: We have already mentioned biologi -> biolog. Another example is gymnastik -> gymnast. All of these words have their last syllables stressed.

Another case for field -> profession is the addition of IKER. Example: politik -> politiker. Here the professions have a different stress pattern. See later in the article, under Loan words with stress on third-to-last syllable.

akustik
arkæologi
bananrepublik
biologi
dystopi
epidemi
filosofi
fysik
hjernegymnastik
humangenetik
hydraulik
jalousi
kategori
kemi
kernefysik		EN: nuclear physics
logik
massehysteri
matematik
medicinalindustri
meteorologi
politik
problematik		EN: issues, problematics
psykologi
sociologi
specifik		this is actually an adjective
statistik
strategi
taktik
teknokrati
teknologi
traffik
økologi
økonomi

The following words have been added, as they function very similarly. It’s as if we have “Tyrki” with the addition of the definite article “et” (literally “the Tyrkey”).

Tyrkiet
Algeriet

Note that we also have some Danish words that are not from Latin or Greek origin that function exactly the same. Here we can also add a definite article, but the stress remains on the syllable ending in I, just as it does in “Tyrki-et”

bageri		EN: bakery
krydderi		EN: spice
svineri		EN: mess
tyveri		EN: theft

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Loan words with stress on second-to-last syllable

Now, let’s move to loan words where the stress is on the penultimate syllable.

In this category, there are some that have the same stress patterns as English, and some that don’t.

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Words ending in ISK

All of these words are adjectives. They often have a corresponding noun, denoting a “field”. For example:

politik -> politisk

Here, the nouns have the last syllable stressed, whereas the adjectives have their emphasis on the second-to-last syllable.

antipatisk
arabisk
biologisk		note: the G is silent
diplomatisk
dystopisk
energisk
europæisk
farmaceutisk
harmonisk
historisk
idealistisk
imperialistisk
journalistisk
kommunistisk
konspiratorisk
lingvistisk
logisk		G is pronounced
magnetisk
økologisk		note: the G is silent
optimistisk
politisk
realistisk
romantisk
satanistisk
selvkritisk
sensationalistisk
skeptisk
strategisk
sympatisk
teknisk
teknokratisk
teknologisk		note: the G is silent
utopisk

Note how the G is silent in words ending in -LOGISK. But this does NOT happen in the word “logisk” itself, i.e. without any prefix. Here the G is pronounced.

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Words ending in ISME

These are for the most part nouns related to the adjectives we have just looked at. The stress continues on the same syllable as in the adjectives.

ekstremisme
eufemisme
kommunisme
korporatisme
metabolisme
mikroorganisme
minimalisme
professionalisme
racisme
realisme
reduktionisme
shamanisme
skepticisme
turisme

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Words ending in DE

Here we have several nouns with the stress on the penultilmate syllable, different from English.

If we look at modern Danish, the way the language is spoken by most people, we can actually kinda say that these words have their stress on the last syllable. Not if we look at the written word of course. But if we listen to the words spoken, the -DE in the end kind of mingles together with the syllable before it and creates one long sound.

ambassade		EN: embassy
ballade		EN: ballade, mischief
barrikade
chokolade
elektrode
episode
metode
parade
periode
pyramide

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Words ending in ERE, ERING

Wake up!! If you’re sleeping because the article is to long, now you need to get back to the present!

This group contains the loan words that Danish learners probably struggle with the most.

In my one-on-one lessons, my students have presented me many times with alternative versions of these words. Or they have just frozen and didn’t know what to do when they were facing one of these words while reading something out loud.

There are huge amounts of words in this group. So you better get them right NOW!

These are mainly verbs, but also nouns and adjectives that come from the verbs.

They all have the same syllable stress. On the second-to-last syllable.

Well, technically, the verb forms with -erende have the third-to-last syllable stressed, but they are just a different version of the standard verb form.

at fa-sci-NE-re = to fascinate

fa-sci-NE-ren-de = fascinating

In the list, I have put a mixture of nouns, verbs and adjectives.

Words ending in ERE are verbs in the infinitive form. In the present tense, this would be ERER, but still pronunced the same as the infinitive.

Words ending in ERENDE are the form which in Danish is called lang tillægsform, or præsens participium. They are mostly the same as the ING form in English.

Danish Irriterende = English annoying

But we don’t use this form like English does so often, in the sense “I am reading”. Here we have to use other forms in Danish. Check out the following video to see how we solve these situations.

Words ending in ERET are the past participle (dansk: kort tillægsform):

Danish irriteret = English annoyed

Words ending in ERING are nouns.

afbalanceret		EN: e.g. a balanced diet
aflevere		EN: drop off
aktivering
annullere		EN: cancel
argumentere		noun: argumentation
arrangere		noun: arrangement
banalisering
bureaukratisering
camoufleret		noun: camouflage, camouflering
centraliseret
deaktivere
debutere		noun: debut
detaljeret		noun: detalje
diskvalificeret
etableret		EN: established
fabrikere
falsificeret
fascinerende		noun: fascination
formulering
frustrerende		noun: frustration
frustreret
fungere		EN: function, work
globalisering
gruppering
implementere
importere		noun: import
indoktrineret
industrialisering
installere		noun: installation
integrere		noun: integration
internalisere
irriterende		noun: irritation
irriteret
kommunikere		noun: kommunikation
konkurrere		EN: compete; noun: konkurrence
korrumperet		EN: corrupted noun: korruption
kvittering		EN: receipt (e.g. in a store)
legaliseret
levering		EN: delivery
maksimere
mikrodosering
minimere
motionere		EN: to exercise
nedgradering		EN: degradation
optimere
organisere
parkere
parkering
priviligeret
producere
prostitueret
punktere		EN: puncture a tire
redigere		EN: edit
reducere
regering		EN: government
registrere
reguleret
risikovurdering
simplificere
socialisere
sortere
strukturere		noun: struktur
studerende		EN: student
temperaturregulering
torturere		noun: tortur
transformere
transportere		noun: transport
turnering		EN: tournament
uddelegere		EN: delegate
undervurdere		EN: underestimate
venstreorienteret		EN: left-wing
vurdere		EN: assess, evaluate

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Words ending in ERVE

Here I din’t find that many words.

nerve
reserve

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Words ending in UM, IUM

These are nouns. The words endning in -UM have the second-to-last syllable stressed. The ones in -IUM, in have the third-to-last syllable stressed.

mu-SE-um

STU-di-um

In modern Danish we actually pronounce the -i-um as if it were one syllable. In Danish writing, I’d write it like this: JUM

So I hope you don’t mind that I’ve put them in the same category and pretend that they are exactly the same.

akvarium
centrum		EN: center
delirium
depositum
forum
gymnasium
litium
ministerium		EN: ministry
museum
studium		EN: study, course
territorium

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Words ending in IE

These are also nouns and they are deeply related to the ones we just looked at.

bakterie
ferie
historie		EN: history, story
materie		EN: matter
serie		EN: series

The following words just appeared in the category above. They can be spelled with -IUM as well as -IE. Let me explain why:

an aquarium = et akvarium

the aquarium = akvariet

As you see in the second line, we don’t use UM the definite article form.

Language-history-wise, this has probably made people start to use akvarie instead of akvarium a loong time ago. This has been normal at least since I was born. But I suppose we are talking about a change that happened centuries ago.

The usage of the forms with -IE, such as studie, gymnasie and so on was “legalised” recently – around 2010 – by Dansk Sprognævn, the official authority on the Danish language.

akvarie
gymnasie
ministerie
studie
territorie

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Words ending in a vowel (except I)

We have already looked at nouns ending in I (and IK). Now, we’ll look at words endning in other vowels than I. Most of these words are nouns.

Generally, they have the same syllable stress pattern as English.

base
bodega		EN: pub
brutto
casino
cola
data
ditto
faktura		EN: invoice
fase		EN: phase
feta
finale
flora
guru
inka
inkasso
kontra
lego
mango
margarita
netto
oregano
pasta
propaganda
prosa
rosa
salsa
scene
skandale
soda
speciale		EN: specialty, Master’s thesis
sudoku
tapioka
tempo
torso
turbo
valuta		EN: currency
yoga

In the exceptions that I have found, most words have their emphasis on the third-to-last syllable:

algebra
amerika
hurra
kamera		note the long initial vowel sound, A as in “abe” (monkey)
menu		more about French words later
mexico
paprika

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Words ending in S (except adjectives with OS and ØS)

We have already talked about adjectives on OS and ØS. Words that end other vowels plus S are all nouns, and just as in English, they have the second-to-last syllable stressed.

asparges
bambus
basis
bronkitis
campus
diabetes
dosis
epos
fokus
kanvas
kaos
kosmos
kursus
praksis
tennis
vaccineskepsis

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Loan words with stress on third-to-last syllable

We have covered a lot of ground already. Hopefully you learn lots of new words, and your brain is starting to get used to the different stress patterns. Remember to read the words out loud, if you want to get the most out of this. We learn by doing!

Now let’s take a group of words where the stress is on the third-to-last syllable.

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Words ending in OR

The first group we’ll look at, is nouns ending in OR.

They are special in that they have different stress patterns in the singular form than in the plural.

In the singular, the stress is on the second-to-last syllable. Just like in English. So the stress is on the syllable that comes before the syllable with OR.

In the plural, on the other hand, we stress the syllable with OR. That’s not the case in English.

Let’s listen to the words:

administrator
administratorer
bloddonor
bloddonorer
faktor
faktorer
finanssektor
finanssektorer
flymotor		EN: plane engine
flymotorer
generator
generatorer
kontor
kontorer
koordinator
koordinatorer
metaldetektor
metaldetektorer
motor
motorer
rektor		EN: headmaster, principal
rektorer
risikofaktor
risikofaktorer
sundhedssektor		EN: health sector
sundhedssektorer
transformator
transformatorer

Note the exception kontor, where the stress in the singular is the same as in the plural:

kontor		EN: office
kontorer

The general pattern for words with OR is exactly the same in German.

Actually, most of the loan words in the Danish language have the same stress patterns in German. But one of the few that doesn’t, is the following category.

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Words ending in IV

Words ending in IV are not homogenous in their stress patterns. Therefore I have chosen to divide them by syllable number.

Words in IV with 4 syllables

The following table is yellow. If you’ve read this article with the passion it deserves 😀 , you’ll remember that this means: stress on the third-to-last syllable. This stress pattern is true for most words with 4 syllables that end in IV.

alternativ
demonstrativ
diminutiv
imperativ
informativ
intuitiv
komparativ
konservativ
performativ
præservativ

There are a few words in this category with stress on the fourth-to-last syllable, which in this case corresponds to the first syllable:

dekorativ
nominativ
rekreativ

Words in IV with 3 syllables

Still yellow, still stress on third-to-last syllable (in this case = the first syllable).

defensiv
depressiv
destruktiv
effektiv
eksplosiv
kollektiv
konstruktiv
kreativ
negativ
objektiv		can also have stress on last syllable when noun = lens
offensiv
positiv
præventiv
produktiv
refleksiv
respektiv
substantiv

The next words have the last syllable emphasized. This corresponds to German, where most of the words on IV, no matter how many syllables, have the last syllable stressed.

detektiv
direktiv
perspektiv

Words in IV with 2 syllables

Here we have a blue table => stress on the last syllable.

kursiv		EN: italic (font)
massiv
arkiv
motiv
stativ		EN: rack, mount

But what would Danish be without exceptions? So here you have two words where the stress is on the second-to-last syllable (different from German). There might be more words, but I’ve done my best to include the most important words.

aktiv
fiktiv

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Words of French origin

Okay, now we’ve looked at lots of loan words from Latin and Greek. I hope you’re finding it useful. If you can master most of these words, you will improve your Danish a lot.

Now it’s time for the last category, loan words from French. We Danes try to emulate the French pronunciation, which sometimes can sound a bit funny, since we adapt it to the Danish “sound system”.

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French loan words with the sound “NG”

These words all have a nasal sound in French, which in the original French versions is spelled either with NT or N. Danish approximates this via the sound NG, the same sound that we have in the Danish word “mange”.

Let’s first take some words with the main stress on the last syllable:

abonnement		EN: subscription
accent
ballon
beton		EN: concrete (material)
bon		EN: receipt
croissant
facon		EN: form
jargon
karton
pendant		EN: counterpart
refræn		EN: chorus
restaurant
sæson
salon		EN: (beauty) salon
supplement
terræn

Note that the word for “lemon” entered Danish form French, at least according to Den Danske Ordbog, but for some reason it does NOT have the NG sound. Don’t ask me why! Listen to it here:

citron

Now some words with the NG sound, but with the stress on the second-to-last syllable:

alliance
ambulance
assistance
chance
distance
konkurrence		EN: competition
tolerance

The next word is interesting. It has two features of French=>Danish pronunciation. One is the NG sound, the other is the SJ sound in the beginning of the word:

genre

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French loan words starting with the sound “SJ”

Here are some other words that like “genre” have the SJ sound. It is a fairly good approximation of the original French sound in these words, but not more than an approximation.

genere		EN: to hassle
genert		EN: shy
genre
jalousi
jaloux
jargon

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French loan words where “U” is pronounced “Y”

For learners of Danish form many different countries (English speaking included), the difference between the sound U and Y is difficult to hear and to articulate. But it’s an important distinction.

In the following words, we try to copy French by saying the U like an Y.

attitude
debut
frisure
friture
menu
parfume
succes

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French loan words where “ET” or “ES” is pronounced “E”

ET in the end of some French loan words is pronunced without the T. Why? Because the French do the same thing in their own words.

bouquet		used for smell of wine etc.
cabriolet
filet
succes

Note the word succes has two features of French pronunciation, the U => Y as well as “ES” => “E”.

But the we have some words, also form French, where we do NOT pronounce “ET” as “E”. WHY???

billet		EN: ticket
budget
buket		for example a bunch of flowers

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Other French loan words

Here two other random French loan words:

chauffør
kompromis

In the word “chauffør”, the AU turns into O in Danish. But it does the same in French, so that’s why we do it.

In “kompromis”, the S is silent, just like in French.

Differences between Danish and German

This is a short overview for those of you who either are German or already speak German.

What are the main differences between these two languages when it comes to pronouncing loan words from Latin, Greek and French:

• Many words in German add an E in the end.
  • DK: ekspert => DE: Experte
  • citron => Zitrone
• Most words ending in IV have their main stress on the IV in German. In Danish it depends more on the number of syllables the word consists of. Link: Words ending IV in Danish
• Some words of course don’t exist in both languages at the same time, for example if German doesn’t use a loan word for a certain concept. Example:
  • bilist = Autofahrer
  • rapport = Bericht
• Words on IK are all pronounced with the stress on the IK in Danish. In German, there are several cases where this isn’t the case, for example:
  • Akustik, Logik, Taktik (stress is on penultimate syllable)
• A few more random words that are different:
  • DK: AD-vent, DE: Ad-VENT
  • DK: I-rak, DE: i-RAK
  • DK: I-ran, DE: i-RAN

Final words

Loan words in Danish are mostly pronounced with the same stress patterns as in the languages they have been taken from. This is different form English, where generally the English stress patterns overrule the foreign ones.

In this article, the words have been grouped together according to their ending and their stress pattern. I recommend that you read it once, and afterwards use it like a lexikon. Whenever you need to be reminded about how to pronunce certain loan words in Danish, you can easily find the corresponding category via the table of contents.

Any questions or other input? Throw me a comment!

God fornøjelse med dansk!