At best, separating compound words is a minor error. At worst, særskrivningar (literally: "separate writing") can lead to major misunderstandings. If you speak any other Germanic languages, like Dutch, German or another Scandinavian language then this shouldn't be much of an issue for you as the rules are more or less the same.
English, however, is more or less the only Germanic language which does not form compound words -- sammensatte ord in Danish -- in this way. (Særskrivningar in Dutch are considered to be a sign of Engelse ziekte, or 'English sickness', a range of common linguistic errors blamed on English influence over the language. If that wasn't confusing enough, English sickness is also the name for the bone disease rickets in both Dutch and Swedish).
Særskrivning is not a new problem – debates over the linguistic error have raged since the 1800s, where they were often considered to be major mistakes when featured in a text, and they're considered one of the most irritating mistakes by many Danish grammar obsessives.
So, when should you write a compound word together and when should you write it apart?
The answer is: it depends. Compound words in Danish can be a mix of different word types. The first part of the word can be more or less anything (a preposition, a pronoun, a verb, an adjective or noun, and so on) but the second part is usually an adjective, noun or verb.
Let’s use chicken liver as an example.
In English, this is written as two separate words: chicken burger. In Danish, however, two nouns describing a single thing must be written together, which means that the correct Danish translation is kyllingelever.
If these words are written separately then they cannot both be nouns describing the same thing. In this case, there’s an extra layer of confusion as lever is also a verb: lives. Kylling lever, then, can only mean ‘the chicken lives’ and not ‘chicken liver’.
Here’s another example: telephone call, which in Danish has to be written as one word: telefonsamtale.
Email address: mailadresse. Chocolate cake: chokoladekage. Wine bottle: vinflaske. You get the idea. It’s important to note that the gender of compound words with two nouns is always determined by the second noun, so en sommer and et hus together make et sommerhus (a summer house).
Sometimes, you’ll see an e or occasionally an s added between the two words in a compound – child + clothing becomes børnetøj, and evening + meal is aftensmad, for example. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, and probably something you can only learn by getting a 'feel' for when it is used.
In general, Danish uses compound words rather than hyphens or spaces in English, but you will see hyphens in some cases, particularly English loan words which often, but not always, retain their original form: Wi-Fi and open source are both written as they are in English, but fastfood, an older term, loses its space.
Danish compound words can also be written with a hyphen if there is a repetition or unusual combination of letters at the 'join'. This can be seen in words like stress-symptom. Words that combine more than two words, concepts or expressions can also use hyphens: VM-vinder, "World Cup winner", for example.
Hopefully now you feel better equipped to fend off Danish sticklers for grammar for whom a sær skrivning ("strange writing") is the ultimate sin.
Did you find this Danish grammar explainer useful, or do you have more grammar or vocab topics you want us to go through? Let us know in the comments below.
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