Danish (Denmark) style guide¶
Use this page for Danish written for readers in Denmark. Follow the shared voice, mechanics and localization review guidance. The examples explain language choices, not product features. Check unfamiliar spelling and inflection in the current Retskrivningsordbogen.
Address and meaning¶
Address the reader as du, with dig, din, dit and dine where the sentence requires them. Keep the relationship consistent within a flow. Use vi for a real action by the company or support team. An application can perform an operation: FontLab åbner filen. Do not invent a person behind an automatic operation or add a promise of success.
Prefer familiar wording: hvordan, om, alle, vores and også often work well. A shorter word must preserve the relation. Flere means more countable items; it cannot replace yderligere in every context. Få does not express every meaning of opnå, and kan does not always preserve the opportunity or permission expressed by a longer phrase. Keep approved technical terms even when they are long.
Translate the actual action. Du skal udfylde formularen expresses a requirement; du må may express permission. Klik på Start preserves the preposition and the control's name. Choose Læs mere for something to read, but do not turn every opportunity to learn into reading. Keep app, program and pc consistent with the product terminology.
Retain timing, cause and uncertainty. Tjenesten er midlertidigt utilgængelig keeps a temporary limitation. A risk that older content may display incorrectly is not a claim that all content is faulty because of new features. Cancelling a dialog does not itself guarantee that work is saved. Distinguish watching a gesture from reproducing it.
People and ownership¶
Use a precise role or a natural rephrasing for a generic person. Keep the permission condition in En bruger med de nødvendige rettigheder kan ændre andre brugeres adgangskoder. Vedkommende can refer to one person; a plural rewrite works only when the number and scope still fit. For a real person, use that person's name and pronouns.
Choose an accurate role, not a mechanical replacement. A mødeleder chairs a meeting; personale describes staff collectively. Neither is a universal replacement for every gendered job title or individual employee. Follow the person's preferred description and the shared accessible-content guidance.
Keep ownership when it matters. Din fil, Noors fil and filen are not equivalent if several people's files are present. A reflexive possessive refers back to the appropriate subject: Brugeren åbner sin fil. Repeat the owner where a pronoun would leave the relationship unclear.
Ordinary genitives take s without an apostrophe: filens navn, Noors mappe. Words ending in s, x or z take an apostrophe: Alex’ mappe. Initialisms can require an apostrophe before the ending: EU’s. A group genitive can imply joint ownership, so do not collapse separately owned files into one shared set. A phrase such as indstillingerne i FontLab keeps the product name intact and makes the relationship explicit. See Danish genitive guidance for abbreviation exceptions.
Articles, agreement and variables¶
Danish nouns have common or neuter gender. Keep the noun and its adjective together when choosing a form:
| Construction | Example |
|---|---|
| Indefinite file | en ny fil |
| Indefinite document | et nyt dokument |
| Definite file | den nye fil |
| Definite document | det nye dokument |
| Files | de nye filer |
| Documents | de nye dokumenter |
Without the adjective, use filen, dokumentet, filerne and dokumenterne for these definite nouns. A demonstrative is not always interchangeable with the ordinary definite form. Do not add an English plural s to create a Danish definite plural. Borrowed words have individual accepted forms; their English origin is not a reason to prefer an English plural automatically. Mass nouns can appear without a definite ending: vand and noget vand are both possible constructions.
A placeholder needs a known grammatical role. Filen {name} kan ikke åbnes. works when {name} is a filename. Placing det before an arbitrary substituted object type does not make every noun fit. Check number and gender, including 1 fil, 2 filer, 1 dokument and 2 dokumenter. Use real plural variants instead of fil(er) for a dynamic count.
Keep parser tokens, format specifiers, escapes and markup exact. Do not infer their types from a generic list copied from another program. Test full substituted messages, including long names. Use messages and variables.
Compounds and abbreviations¶
Join ordinary compounds: filnavn, filserver, skrifttype. Use a phrase when it makes a complicated relationship easier to understand. Hyphens are needed in constructions such as USB-port and TrueType-skrifttype; they are not a substitute for ordinary compound spelling. In række- og kolonnetitler, the first hyphen marks an omitted shared element. Keep a real product name exact, and use a phrase if attaching another word would make it awkward.
Keep established multiword expressions such as i dag, i gang and til sidst. Some prepositional expressions allow variants: inden for rammen and indenfor rammen are both accepted. Without a complement, the adverb is joined: indenfor. A preference for two words before a complement must not become a claim that every joined variant is wrong. The one-word and multiword guidance lists the relevant constructions.
Use familiar abbreviations where they help: f.eks., dvs., bl.a., osv., kr. A final abbreviation period also ends the sentence. Do not shorten an unfamiliar word with an ellipsis merely to make a control fit. Rewrite the label or resolve the space problem.
Keep accepted abbreviation case and literal technical names: pc, it, USB, RAM. Explain unfamiliar initialisms when needed, without adding a full English expansion to every occurrence. Unit symbols such as mm, s and kB have meaningful case and no abbreviation period.
Verbs and sentence structure¶
Use direct imperatives in procedures: Åbn filen, Gem dokumentet, Vælg en mappe. Compact labels can use the same form: Gem, Gem som. Valid imperatives such as Ændr must not be rejected simply because they end in a consonant. A synonym is suitable only if it names the same action.
An accent can prevent a misreading: kopiér, markér, kontrollér. Use it consistently in newly written instructions where it helps; preserve existing labels exactly. The accent is a reading aid, not an obligatory spelling correction in every imperative. See accent guidance.
Keep local word order and prepositions: i menuen, på værktøjslinjen, gem i en mappe, tryk på Enter. A preposition can end a natural clause: det program, filen åbnes i. A conjunction may start a sentence when it connects the ideas. Keep purpose, condition and requirement distinct; do not convert every for at phrase into a conditional instruction.
Adverbs formed from adjectives can need t: tydeligt, månedligt and årligt. Do not treat all adverbs as forms copied unchanged from adjectives. Current spelling rules require t for manner adverbials in -(l)ig and almost all time adverbials of that form. Other adverbial uses need their own check; meget and her do not follow that suffix pattern. See Dansk Sprognævn's explanation.
Use the tense that describes the event. Present, past and completed actions are not interchangeable merely because one form is shorter. A recently saved file need not become a file the reader saved: keep the actor unknown when the source does. Wishes and hypothetical conditions must retain their uncertainty even when a fixed or formal construction is rewritten.
Messages and warnings¶
Choose wording for the actual state:
| Function | Example |
|---|---|
| Action label | Gem |
| Instruction | Gem filen. |
| In progress | Filen er ved at blive gemt. |
| Completed | Filen er gemt. |
| Failed attempt | Filen kunne ikke gemmes. |
| Current impossibility | Filen kan ikke gemmes. |
A short fragment can work when the surrounding interface supplies its context. Keep a decision as a clear question: Vil du fortsætte? Add a question about certainty only where the decision calls for it. Explain an irreversible consequence directly: Denne handling kan ikke fortrydes. Do not turn every error into a warning or add a cause, restart or recovery step that is not known.
Preserve everyone affected by a warning: Hvis du genstarter computeren nu, kan du og andre brugere af denne computer miste arbejde, der ikke er gemt. A past failed search does not establish permanent absence. Hukommelse and diskplads are not interchangeable; a storage-space error on a drive must identify storage. Follow interface feedback.
Capitalization and punctuation¶
Use sentence case for new headings and controls. Keep weekday and month names lowercase: mandag, september. The plural address pronoun I is uppercase, while du is lowercase. Preserve Æ, Ø, Å and accents when capitals are required: ÅBN, KOPIÉR. Quote an existing control with its actual capitalization and ellipsis.
This page uses the optional comma before a subordinate clause, the startkomma. Keep that choice consistent within a text. Both comma systems are accepted; Dansk Sprognævn no longer recommends one over the other. The comma after an initial subordinate clause is still needed: Når filen er gemt, kan du lukke vinduet. Do not copy English serial commas or use an exclamation mark automatically after every alert heading.
Use ”…” consistently for typographic quotations; keep literal quotes in code. Put a full stop outside a closing parenthesis in Danish: Filen er gemt. (Du kan lukke vinduet). A separate sentence is often easier to read. This is a local convention, not an error to repair by applying English punctuation. See Danish full-stop guidance.
Use parallel list items and the shared list guidance. Do not add a period only to the last item of an otherwise unpunctuated fragment list. Prefer a colon to a parenthetical dash; if a dash is needed, space it. Distinguish prose punctuation from a mathematical sign or literal filename character.
Numbers, spacing and speech¶
Use a decimal comma and ordinary Danish grouping for displayed values: 1.526,75, 0,5, 1.250 kr. Keep nonbreaking spaces between a number and a unit or percent sign: 12,5 mm, 50 %, −18 °C. The mathematical minus is different from a hyphen or an en dash. A range can be explicit in words: side 3 til 6. Do not insert grouping in years, versions or identifiers.
Use numerals for measurements, counts, step references and values the reader must match in the interface. Write an ordinal with its period where needed: det 22. tegn. Make dates unambiguous: 13. september 2026. Keep a documented time format consistent and retain the time zone when relevant. A currency translation must preserve the currency and amount; changing the display format does not authorize a conversion.
Verify key names and shortcuts on the actual platform. Distinguish tryk på for a key action from skriv for text input. Piletast, venstre pil and mellemrumstast are useful local terms, but an old shortcut list does not establish current behavior. Explain a numeric-keypad distinction when the task requires it.
Use natural Danish pronunciation and an approved reading of names. Read characters needed to reproduce a URL, command or version, including a meaningful punktum. Link to an English resource with an accurate language label when useful; do not say it may be English without checking. Follow the shared audiovisual guidance for timing, captions and essential visual information.