Goes down well but doesn't come out easily
Rød grød med fløde is a traditional Danish dessert which is very delicious but impossible to pronounce if you aren't a native speaker. The problem is the soft d's at the end of every word. The English translation is 'redberry sauce with cream'.
Sent by: Solveig
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I've only been studying Danish for two months but it's taking me so long to learn the pronounciation. I think I can manage the ø alright (she says hopefully) but the one I have trouble with is 'g'. Sometimes it's silent and sometimes it's not. My Danish friend told me it was cute when I pronounced meget, very, as it was written when actually it's like 'mey-et'. I find this one the most confusing of all because I can't see the rule for it.
I would say that the Danish 'r' is actually slightly further forward than the French one ; but that the tongue is flatter in Danish pronunciation. Being a native speaker of both English and Danish, , it is my experience that most English speakers can soon get a reasonably good grip of 'r' and the 'd'; but have trouble with the 'ø' sound. If the English speaker can master the 'ø', then the rest falls quite easily into place. It is also complicated by the fact that 'ø' changes slightly when it comes after the letter 'l'. Using a French 'r' and 'th' as you would pronounce it when saying 'Rotherham' - Ruth gruth meth flith (with the final 'ø' pronounced like the 'i' in 'flirt') .. as opposed to the instinctive "rod grod med floddie".
If you look at phonetic spellings of Danish words the 'r's' are like the French ones ... rouge in French ... but then I thinks it's even further back than that slightly!
It's very funny to hear foreigners say Rød grød med fløde. They say it's practically impossible!
The problem isn't so much the counterintuitive soft "d"s (pronounced sorta like an English "th"), but the gutteral "r"s. Danish "r"s are made in the back of the throat, very unlike English "r"s - probably why "refrigerator" is hard for Danes to say!
My mother's mother was a Dane; she came to visit us in the US several times when I was a kid. She would try to get us to say Rød grød med fløde, laughing uproariously when we mangled the sounds. In turn, we'd try to get her to say refrigerator, knowing she'd never manage it. In the end though, she got a sly grin on her face, and say "Icebox!"
Yup, I spent a week with Danish guys and it's still impossible to say.
This is funny. I was a Danish exchange student and my family and friends had me trying to say it so many times, just for giggles, that eventually I did learn it! I've heard it's very difficult for Danes to say,"The squirell is in the refrigerator." Is that true?
Another of these kind of sentences, but a little more advanced is Fem flade flødeboller på et fladt flødebollefad, five flat cream puffs on a flat cream puff dish. It's very difficult to pronounce for learners.
My Mother was from Copenhagen and even after 70 years in England still used 'v' for 'w'. When my sister had a boyfriend called Jim West, she called him what sounded like gym vest, which made us giggle.
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