• Modern Standard Danish has 16 vowel phonemes, i.e., sounds that make a difference in word meaning.
• Danish has 9 rounded vowels, i.e., vowels pronounced with rounded and protruding lips. Some of these vowels do not have counterparts in English. Try pronouncing the vowels as in the English word cat with rounded lips.
• With the exception of and , all vowels, including rounded ones, can be long or short.

Click here to listen to Danish vowels.

• Modern Standard Danish has 17-19 consonant phonemes, depending on the analysis.
• /p/, /t/, /k/ are aspirated.
• Danish r is a pharyngeal* fricative.
• Danish has a glottal stop.
  Click here to hear it pronounced in Danish.

Pharyngeal consonants are articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx, part of the throat above the vocal cords.

• Nouns have two grammatical genders: common and neuter. Inanimate objects are usually neuter. Gender is not usually predictable.
• There are no cases, except for genitive used to express possession. It is formed by adding -s to the nouns, e.g., kvindes hus "woman's house."
• There is an enclitic definite article, e.g., en mand "a man," manden "the man," et hus "a house," huset "the house." Before adjectives, the definite article is den, e.g., den store man "the big man.".

• Verbs do not conjugate according to person or number, e.g., jeg venter "I wait," du venter "you wait," wi venter "we wait."
• There are three tenses: present, past, and future. Weak verbs form the past tense by adding the suffixes -ede or -te, e.g., jeg ventede "I waited." Strong verbs forms the past tense with a zero ending and internal vowel changes (umlaut), e.g., jeg tager "I take," jeg tog "I took."
• The future tense is formed with the modal verbs vil or skal and the infinitive, e.g. vi skal komme "we will come."
• The past is formed with the auxiliary verb har "have," e.g., jeg har et bil "he has bought a car," jeg havde et bil "he had bought a car."
• There are three moods: indicative, imperative, and subjunctive.
• There are two voices: active and passive.