Script guide › Latin
How to recognize Danish
Danish is one of 35 languages in Grafle's Latin group. Here's what it looks like, where you'll see it on signs, and how to tell it apart from its lookalikes.
Spot it fast
- Uses æ, ø, å — like Norwegian, unlike Swedish's ä/ö.
- Near-identical to Norwegian: Danish writes 'af' where Norwegian writes 'av', so lean on context.
What Danish looks like
Rødgrød med fløde er en klassisk dansk dessert.
Hyggeligt at møde dig! Kom og få en kop kaffe.
Mange bække små gør en stor å.
Latin scripts: The alphabet you're reading now. Each language gives itself away by its own special letters and accent marks.
Where you'll see it on signs
- Denmark
- Greenland
Easy to confuse with
- Norwegian — The hardest pair — both write æ, ø, å and most words match. Danish spells 'af' where Norwegian spells 'av'; on signs, Denmark marks a zone as Zone where Norway writes Sone, and domains end .dk vs .no.
- Swedish — Swedish dots its vowels (ä, ö); Danish strikes them (æ, ø). Two-dot letters = Sweden.
- Icelandic — Icelandic has þ and ð; Danish doesn't. Both share æ and ø, so hunt for the thorn.