Learn Danish from German at PBC Languages
German speakers learning Danish: free 1-on-1 exchanges with natives plus small-group classes. See what's easy, what trips you up, and why.
Create your free accountNo card needed. Exchanges between members are always free.
If you speak German, Danish word order will feel familiar almost immediately: the verb-second rule works the same way, and sentences like 'I dag skal jeg arbejde' map onto 'Heute muss ich arbeiten' without much rewiring. What trips up German speakers is the sound system. Stød - that glottal catch in words like 'hund' or 'mand' - doesn't exist in German at all, and the soft, almost swallowed pronunciation of b, d and g (say 'god' or 'bade' out loud and notice how little consonant is actually left) makes spoken Danish sound nothing like its spelling. Reading Danish is easy for a German speaker; understanding it spoken at normal speed takes real exposure to natives, not textbook audio.
Vocabulary is a mixed bag. Cognates like 'hund'/Hund, 'brød'/Brot, 'svag'/schwach or 'rolig'/ruhig genuinely help and let you guess meaning fast. But there are traps: 'øl' means beer, not Öl (oil); 'frokost' means lunch, not Frühstück (breakfast); 'flink' means kind or nice in Danish, while in German it means quick or nimble; 'rar' means pleasant in Danish and scarce in German. Danish also collapses masculine and feminine into one common gender, so a German speaker who's used to tracking der/die/das has to unlearn that reflex rather than transfer it.
Where you'll move fast: modal verbs, question formation and basic sentence building feel almost like a dialect of German at first. The hard part isn't grammar, it's training your ear on stød and vowel length, which is exactly what a 30-minute conversation with a Danish native does better than any app - you hear where you're being misunderstood and correct it on the spot.
Words you will actually hear
| Here | Elsewhere | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| øl | Öl | False friend: 'øl' is beer in Danish, while 'Öl' is oil in German - they sound almost identical. |
| frokost | Frühstück | False friend: 'frokost' means lunch in Danish, not breakfast, even though it looks like a cousin of 'Frühstück'. |
| flink | flink | Same spelling, different meaning: in Danish 'flink' means kind or nice; in German it means quick or nimble. |
| rar | rar | In Danish 'rar' means pleasant or nice; in German it means rare or scarce - easy to mix up mid-sentence. |
| gift | Gift | Both mean poison, but Danish 'gift' also means married - context does a lot of work here. |
| hund | Hund | Identical cognate: dog. One of the easy wins that builds confidence early on. |
| brød | Brot | Cognate that helps: bread. Close enough in sound and spelling to recognize instantly. |
| svag | schwach | Cognate that helps: weak. The consonant shift (v/w) is a pattern that repeats across many words. |
| slem | schlimm | Cognate that helps: bad or naughty. Once you spot the sch-/s- pattern, more pairs like this become guessable. |
| rolig | ruhig | Cognate that helps: calm. Almost a direct match, useful for building sentences fast. |
How it works here
-
Sign up and say your level
Two minutes. If you do not know your level, we place you in the first class.
-
Pick a class or an exchange
Classes are led by a native teacher. An exchange is with another member: half the time in their language, half in yours.
-
Join by video, nothing to install
From your phone or your computer. If you cannot make it, cancel and get your place back.
Questions about this
How long does it take a German speaker to get comfortable in Danish?
There's no fixed number, since it depends on how many exchanges and classes you fit in each week. Word order and basic grammar transfer fast from German, so early sentences come together quickly. Stød and the reduced consonant sounds take longer, and that part only improves through actual conversation with natives, not reading or apps.
Is the exchange really free?
Yes. You get paired with a Danish native for a session split into two halves: 30 minutes in Danish, 30 minutes in German, so both people practice the language they're learning. No payment involved on either side - it's a straight swap of time and language.
What level do I need to start doing exchanges?
You can start close to zero, since your partner is there to help you through it, but knowing basic articles, common gender and a handful of verbs makes the half hour far more useful than just translating word by word. The small-group classes with native teachers are a good way to get that base before jumping into exchanges.
How exactly is the time split during an exchange?
Half the session runs in Danish, half in German, usually with a clear switch partway through so neither language dominates. Some pairs alternate day by day instead of splitting each session - it's flexible as long as both sides get equal practice time.
Keep looking around
Start this week
A free account, a free first group class, and exchanges that never cost anything.