What Languages Are Spoken In Denmark? (Find Out!)

The official language of Denmark is none other than Danish. It is spoken there by over 5 million people. The oldest record of the Danish language is in runic inscriptions dating as far back as 250AD.

Denmark is a country known for being one of the happiest nations in the world.

There are more bikes than cars in Copenhagen, a fact which shows how special Denmark is.

Surprisingly, There are also more pigs than people in Denmark.

Despite an abundance of pigs, Danish people boast a long and proud history.

The Danish language has survived over millennia, and it is still prominent to this day.

This article looks at the languages that are spoken in Denmark.

In This Article

Do Danish People Speak English?

Yes, most Danish people speak English.

In fact, English proficiency in Denmark is very impressive.

English is widely spoken and about 86% of the population are at a conversational level.

Kids are taught English in Danish schools from a young age.

The population is constantly exposed to the language, culture and literature, meaning the proficiency is very high.

Denmark currently ranks 4^th in the world for English proficiency.

The population that does not speak the language are likely to be the elderly.

They are likely to have learnt less in school. The average kid will be proficient in English, virtually all young people are fluent.

If you are travelling to Denmark, it is more likely than not that you will find English speakers.

Are there any minority languages in Denmark?

There are several minority languages spoken in Denmark.

Most notably Faroese, German and Greenlandic.

Faroese- a North Germanic language, like Danish. This is the primary language of the Faroe Islands, a self-governing territory of the Kingdom.

Faroese immigrants also speak the language when they move to Denmark.

The dialect is similar to Icelandic and the Old Norse language.

Greenlandic- not only is Greenlandic the national language of Greenland, it is also the ‘official language’. Adopted in 2009, Greenland now handles their official matters with their own language.

Greenlandic belongs to the Eskimo-Aleut languages and is closely related to the Inuit languages in Canada.

This is entirely unrelated to Danish. Greenlandic is spoken by 0.1% of the Danish population.

German- recognised in the Nord-Schleswig region as an official regional language. The population of German speakers is around 23,000 or 0.4% of the total population.

How many people in the world speak Danish?

Danish is spoken by about 6 million people around the world.

It is mainly spoken by people who live in Denmark.

Danish is also an official language in Greenland and Faroe Islands.

These two countries are independent but part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Danish has a minority status in northern parts of their neighbours, Germany.

There are around 50,000 people of Danish descent living in Germany.

Danish is a North Germanic language, derived originally by Old Norse.

It is also part of the Indo-European language family.

Traditionally, is belongs to the East-Scandinavian languages.

Danish is joined by Swedish.

It is easy to get mixed up, Danish is not part of the West-Scandinavian languages such as Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese.

Can Swedish and Norwegian people understand Danish?

Largely, Norwegian and Swedish speakers can understand Danish.

Fluent speakers of any of the three languages can often understand each other well.

However, studies have shown that the level of understanding is different.

To simplify, Norwegian people can understand both Danish and Swedish pretty well.

Norwegian is a middle-ground language, it shares a border with Sweden, so they share pronunciations.

Norwegians also share the same written language as Danish. Danish and Swedish speakers find it harder to understand each other but both languages can understand Norwegian,

Intriguingly, younger Danes in major cities are worse at understanding Swedish compared to Danes in provinces.

In general younger Danes are not as good at understanding the neighbouring languages.

Is Danish the same as Dutch?

Whilst they are both come from Germanic languages, Danish and Dutch are completely separate languages.

Danish is a North Germanic language and as we have spoken about already; it shares more similarities with Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic.

Dutch, on the other hand, is closer to Germany, Flemish, Gaelic and English.

The names are similar, these two countries are both in Europe- but do not be mistaken, Dutch and Danish are two separate languages.

Can you live in Denmark without speaking Danish?

The answer is most likely yes!

Whilst it cannot be guaranteed you will not come across problems; it is likely you will be alright.

As we have spoken about before, nearly all Danes can speak English.

Whether they are old, young or anywhere in between- Denmark has an excellent English proficiency record.

You may find that by learning Danish, living in Denmark will be easier.

English is not most people’s first language in Denmark, it might be harder for some people to have a fluent conversation.

As a start, moving to Denmark without knowing Danish is not the end of the world.

You may find that, after getting settled in, learning the language will make your stay more comfortable.

Is Danish hard to learn?

It can be a headache, yes.

Danish is similar to their language cousins of German and English.

The written language is fairly easy to get the hang of.

So if the language is similar to English and it is easy to write, it cannot be that hard. Right?

Wrong.

Danes drop letters in words and then mash the shorter words up.

You could be pronouncing a word, look it up in the dictionary and get no luck.

Chances are that you are pronouncing only a little bit of the full word.

Denmark is a stunning country.

It is made up of many islands and has picturesque European views.

There is a reason why Denmark has been consistently voted the happiest country on Earth!

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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