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LEARNING DANISH

How to think in Danish: tænke, tro or synes?

Danish has at least three different ways of expressing the English word "think": tænke, tro and synes. Learning when to use each of these words correctly is a good way to sound like a true Dane and to make sure your point gets across.

Published: 18 August 2022 17:24 CEST
Updated: 1 March 2024 11:46 CET
How to think in Danish: tænke, tro or synes?
You think it's a nice restaurant, but is this your opinion or your belief? File photo: Thomas Lekfeldt/Ritzau Scanpix

Despite the fact that tænke, tro and synes words can all be translated to “think” in English, choosing the wrong verb in Danish can change the meaning of what you’re trying to say. 

As a general rule, you should use tænke when talking about the act of thinking, tro when talking about a belief you hold, and synes when you’re talking about a personal opinion. That might seem confusing, so let’s go into a bit more detail below.

Tænke

The act of thinking

Tænke is the most literal of these three verbs. It describes the act of thinking, such as in sentences like jeg tænker på dig (“I’m thinking of you”) or kan du være stile, jeg prøver at tænke! (“Can you be quiet, I’m trying to think!”).

If someone seems lost in thought, you can ask hvad tænker du på? (“what are you thinking of?). In a different context, the same sentence can be reproachful: Du glemte at sætte mælken i køleskabet og nu er den blevet dårlig. Hvad tænker du på! (“You forgot to put the milk back in the fridge and now it’s gone off. What were you thinking!”)

I’d quite like…

Another way of using the word tænke is to say that an idea appeals to you or that you’d quite like to do something – like in the phrase jeg kunne godt tænke mig et stykke kage (literally “I could think me a piece of cake”, actually “I would like a piece of cake”).

If, for example, you were discussing with your partner what you should order for dinner on a Friday night, you might say jeg kunne godt tænke mig sushi, which is more like a suggestion compared to jeg skal have sushi (“I want sushi”).

I was wondering

Tænke can also be used to make a tentative or polite suggestion if you use the past tense: Jeg tænkte på, om du havde lyst til at ses til et glas vin på fredag? (“I was wondering if you might like to meet for a glass of wine on Friday?).

Synes and tro

These two verbs are closer in meaning and slightly harder to explain than with the word tænke. The best way to distinguish synes and tro is to be more specific when translating them in to English. Although “think” can be used as an umbrella term for both of these concepts, the differences start to become clearer if you use more specialised verbs when translating them instead.

An opinion, usually based on experience

Synes has the same meaning as the English words “deem”, “regard” and “consider”, which are all used when expressing an opinion about something.

To use synes, you would say jeg synes, at (“I think that”) followed by your opinion. In spoken Danish, the at is often left out. Jeg synes, (at) du er sød (“I think you’re nice”) and jeg synes, (at) her er koldt (I think it’s cold here) are two examples.

A belief or speculation

Tro, on the other hand, can be translated as “believe”, which can be used when speculating about something or expressing a belief, such as jeg tror på Gud (“I believe in God”) or jeg tror, det bliver regnvejr I morgen (“I think it will rain tomorrow”).

Here’s an example to illustrate the difference between saying synes or tro:

Jeg synes, det er en god restaurant would mean “I think it’s a good restaurant”, in the sense of “I consider that to be a good restaurant”. You may have eaten at the restaurant before and you can recommend it based on the food that you ate.

Jeg tror, det er en god restaurant would also mean “I think it’s a good restaurant”, but in the sense of “I believe that’s a good restaurant”. Maybe a friend has told you that they had a nice meal there, but you’ve not been there yourself so you can’t say for certain. 

Synes om

You may also have come across the phrase synes om, which has a slightly different meaning than synes. Synes always requires some sort of elaboration – it should be followed by a statement about what your opinion is – whereas synes om simply means that you like something.

Jeg synes, (at) han er sød, jeg synes, (at) chokolade smager godt

(“I think (that) he is nice”, “I think (that) chocolate tastes good”)

Jeg synes om ham, jeg synes om chokolade

(“I like him”, “I like chocolate”)

So, how do I think in Danish?

Essentially, you should use tænke when describing actual thoughts in your head, synes when expressing an opinion or a recommendation based on something you’ve experienced, and tro when expressing a belief, or a recommendation based on something you’ve heard or read from another source.

If you’re not sure whether to use synes or tro in a specific situation, try swapping out the word “think” with “consider” or “believe”, and see if that helps.

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DANISH HABITS

Hej hej, på gensyn, vi ses: How many ways can you say ‘goodbye’ in Danish?

There’s no lack of different ways to say hello to somebody in Danish, but what should you do when the time comes to take your leave?

Published: 27 August 2024 15:43 CEST
Hej hej, på gensyn, vi ses: How many ways can you say ‘goodbye’ in Danish?

As we’ve previously discovered, there’s a whole range of ways in which you can say ‘hello’ to someone in Danish, including hej, perhaps the easiest word to pronounce in the entire language.

So are the options equally plentiful when saying goodbye?

We’ll start with hej itself because, believe it or not, you can say hej and mean ‘goodbye’, even though it really means ‘hello’. 

You might feel as though you’re doing an impression of Paul McCartney, but it’s okay to say ‘hello’ when someone else says ‘goodbye’. That’s because the hej in this situation is not a regular hej but a contraction of hej hej, which actually does mean ‘goodbye’.

(As an even more confusing addition to this, Danish people also sometimes say hej hej when they mean ‘hello’… let’s not go there).

Hej hej is probably the most common way of saying ‘goodbye’ and it’s certainly the most versatile. If you want to be a little more formal or final though, farvel or ‘farewell’ is an excellent choice.

This word doesn’t come across with such strong old-fashioned, chivalrous undertones as it does in English. You can say it when leaving polite company at the end of a family event or dinner party, when exiting the office for the day, or also when taking leave of one or more people you don’t expect to see for a while. In a lot of these situations, though, hej hej is equally adequate.

If it’s late in the day godnat (good night) can be swapped in for farvel.

On the other side of the formality scale, vi ses or ‘see you’ is how most younger people take leave of their friends, especially if they are likely to see them again, well, later. That could be later the same day or in the same week, but in either case when you probably see that person regularly. It’s quite comparable to the Spanish hasta luego.

It can also be made more specific if you want to and if you are more sure about the time of your next meeting: vi ses senere (see you later), vi ses i morgen (see you tomorrow) and vi ses i aften (see you this evening) are just three examples of this.

You can also shorten it to a clipped ses!, leaving out the pronoun vi to context and thereby shaving a valuable fraction of a second.

På gensyn is a rather charming way of saying ‘until we meet again’, akin to the German auf Wiedersehen. 

You might also spot the word gensyn in the expression dejligt gensyn or ‘(what a) wonderful reunion’. People most often say this when they come across old songs, objects or other things from their past which they perhaps haven’t thought about for many years, but evoke pleasant memories.

Saying på gensyn doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be years until your next meeting – although it might be a while – but does convey your belief that the occasion will be a pleasant one.

What if you’re on the telephone? Danes don’t hang up on each other without saying goodbye (who does?) but they might express it differently than in an in-person conversation.

This most probably means a vi snakkes ved or the slightly stiffer vi tales ved (both ‘speak to you soon’) at the end of the call, sometimes rounded of with a short hej before the call ends.

More infrequently, you might get vi høres ved, which means ‘we’ll hear each other soon’ but serves essentially the same purpose as the other two forms.

Tak for i dag or sometimes tak for nu is a very popular and common way of saying goodbye in Danish, because it wraps up a ‘thanks’ in your departing greeting.

Say tak for i dag when leaving a birthday party, konfirmation or Easter lunch, or even your place of work when your peers or superiors are still at their desks, and your appreciation for the occasion (or your colleagues’ efforts) will not go unnoticed.

READ ALSO: Six ways to make a great impression at a Danish home

Sometimes, you might feel the need to drop in a hej or a vi ses i morgen after the tak for i dag, just to underline that you really are leaving now.

Finally, we come to mojn mojn, alternatively spelt moin moin. You’ll need to be in South Jutland to use this one, where the local dialect replaces hej with mojn in both the ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ versions (although you can still say hej if you want to).

Mojn is part of South Jutland’s regional identity, so using it in the right way can show your appreciation of local culture.

Are there any Danish goodbyes we left out of the list? Which ones are your favourites? Let us know in the comments.

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