Danish Genealogical Word List

Back to Denmark Portal Page►

The Danish Genealogical Word List shows Danish words and their English translations for many words that are found in documents used to research Danish ancestors. If the word you are looking for is not on this list, please consult a Danish-English dictionary. (See the "Additional Resources" section below.)

Danish is a Germanic language like Swedish, Norwegian, and Icelandic. A major spelling and grammar reform was introduced in Denmark in 1953. Most differences between modern and old Danish are simply a matter of spelling. The spelling section in "Language Characteristics" below, along with the English to Danish Word list are designed to help you find the words you need.

Variant Forms of Words
In Danish, as in English, the forms of some words will vary according to how they are used in a sentence. Who—whose—whom or marry—marries—married are examples of words in English with variant forms. The endings of a word in a document may differ from those in this list, for example:

Mand man Kone wife Manden the man Konen the wife Mænd men Koner wives Mænderne the men Konerne the wives

This word list gives the standard form of each word.

Alphabetical Order
Written Danish has three additional letters: Æ (æ), Ø (ø), and Å (å). These letters are filed after A-Z alphabetically. The letter Å (å) was officially introduced in 1953, so it never appears in older records. Prior to that time it was usually written as Aa (aa) and filed at the beginning of the alphabet. Danish dictionaries and indexes, this word list, and the Locality section of the Family History Library Catalog use the following alphabetical order:

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z æ ø å

Spelling
Spelling rules were not standardized in earlier centuries. The following spelling variations are common.

aa used for å b used for p c used for k d used for t fi used for v g used for k i used for j x used for ks q used for k w used for v e used for æ ö used for ø u used for v ch used for k tj used for ki

Examples:

skov spelled as schov kvinde spelled as qvinde Århus spelled as Aarhus

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
This word list includes only words most commonly found in genealogical sources. For further help, use a Danish-English dictionary. Several Danish-English dictionaries are available at the Family History Library. These are in the Scandinavian collection. Their call numbers begin with 439.81321.

The following dictionary is also available on microfilm for use in Family History Centers:

Magnussen, Johannes Julius. McKay's Modern English-Danish, Danish-English Dictionary. New York: David McKay, 1957. (FHL book 439.81321 M275m; film 1,440,033, item 1.)

Additional dictionaries are listed in the Subject section of the Family History Library Catalog under DANISH LANGUAGE - DICTIONARIES or in the Locality section under DENMARK - LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES.

Key Words
To find and use specific types of Danish records, you will need to know some key words in Danish. This section gives key genealogical terms in English and the Danish words with the same or similar meanings.

For example, in the first column you will find the English word marriage. In the second column you will find Danish words with meanings such as marry, marriage, wedding, wedlock, unite, legitimate, joined, and other words used in Danish records to indicate marriage.