Once you can give an opinion, the next move is reacting to someone else's — agreeing warmly, pushing back politely, or flatly contradicting. Danish has a compact toolkit of one-word and short-phrase reactions for exactly this, and two of them will feel foreign to an English speaker: the preposition split inside være enig (you agree with a person and a point differently), and the word jo, a special "yes" that exists only to contradict a negative. Master those and you can carry your weight in any disagreement.
Agreeing: from neutral to emphatic
The workhorse for "I agree with that" is Det er jeg enig i — a fronted, inverted block worth memorising whole. Around it sits a ladder of agreement words from neutral to enthusiastic.
| Phrase | Force | Literal / note |
|---|---|---|
| Det er jeg enig i. | neutral | "I agree with that." |
| Du har ret. | neutral | "You're right." (lit. "you have right") |
| Præcis! / Lige præcis! | emphatic | "Exactly! / Precisely!" |
| Nemlig! | emphatic | "Exactly! / That's just it!" |
| Helt enig. | strong | "Completely agree." (often verbless) |
Det er jeg helt enig i.
I completely agree with that.
Du har ret — det er for dyrt.
You're right — it's too expensive.
Vi burde have booket tidligere. — Nemlig!
We should've booked earlier. — Exactly!
A word on nemlig. It has two lives. As a connective inside a sentence it means "namely / that is / because" (Jeg kan ikke komme, jeg er nemlig syg = "I can't come; I'm ill, you see"). But as a standalone reaction, Nemlig! is an emphatic "Exactly!" — full-throated agreement. The same goes for Lige præcis! and Præcis! Learners almost never hear the standalone agreement sense, so it is worth flagging.
The enig i / enig med split (again, because it matters)
You are enig med a person but enig i a point or statement. English uses "agree with" for both, so this is the highest-yield rule for sounding native when you agree.
Jeg er enig med dig.
I agree with you. (a person → med)
Jeg er enig i din konklusion.
I agree with your conclusion. (a point → i)
Vi blev enige om en pris.
We agreed on a price. (mutual decision → om)
So: med a person, i a point, om a mutual decision. And remember enig becomes enige with a plural subject (vi er enige).
Disagreeing politely
Danish disagreement is usually softened. The mirror of Det er jeg enig i is Det er jeg ikke enig i ("I don't agree with that"), and the mirror of an opinion is Det synes jeg ikke ("I don't think so" — see choosing/synes-tro-taenke for why it's synes and not tror here).
Det er jeg ikke enig i.
I don't agree with that.
Det synes jeg ikke. Jeg synes faktisk, den var god.
I don't think so. I actually thought it was good.
Det passer ikke.
That's not true / that's not the case. (denying a claim of fact)
Nej, slet ikke.
No, not at all. (firm but not aggressive)
Note the difference between Det synes jeg ikke (disagreeing with an opinion — a matter of taste) and Det passer ikke (denying a fact — "that's incorrect"). To "Er filmen god?" you answer Det synes jeg ikke; to "Toget kører klokken otte" you answer Det passer ikke if it's actually wrong.
Jo: the yes that contradicts a no
Here is the construction with no English equivalent. When you want to say "yes" in response to a negative statement or question — to contradict it — Danish does not use ja. It uses jo.
The logic: ja confirms a positive; jo overturns a negative. If someone says "You don't like coffee" and you do, answering ja would be ambiguous or wrong — you must answer Jo ("Yes I do / on the contrary").
Du kan ikke lide kaffe, vel? — Jo, det kan jeg godt.
You don't like coffee, do you? — Yes, I do. (jo overturns the negative)
Du har vist ikke læst bogen. — Jo, det har jeg.
I don't think you've read the book. — Yes, I have.
Der er ikke mere mælk. — Jo, der står en ny karton i køleskabet.
There's no more milk. — Yes there is, there's a new carton in the fridge.
This is the single most common spot where English speakers slip: they answer a negative with ja, which sounds wrong (or even agrees with the negative). The fix is mechanical: negative trigger → answer with jo, never ja. See questions/yes-no for the full ja/jo/nej system.
"It depends" — the diplomatic non-answer
When you neither agree nor disagree, det kommer an på ("it depends") buys you room.
Er det en god løsning? — Det kommer an på, hvem du spørger.
Is it a good solution? — It depends who you ask.
A short dialogue
A: Jeg synes, vi skal aflyse mødet i morgen. (I think we should cancel tomorrow's meeting.) B: Det er jeg ikke enig i. Vi har for meget at nå. (I don't agree with that. We've got too much to get through.) A: Men folk er trætte. — Det passer ikke, de er helt friske. (But people are tired. — That's not true, they're perfectly fresh.) B: Vi kan jo ikke nå det hele på én dag... — Jo, det kan vi godt, hvis vi går i gang nu. (We can't get it all done in one day... — Yes we can, if we start now.) A: Okay, du har ret. — Nemlig! (Okay, you're right. — Exactly!)
Common Mistakes
The two signature errors: answering a negative with ja instead of jo, and using "agree with" indiscriminately, which breaks the med / i split.
❌ Du kan ikke lide kaffe? — Ja, det kan jeg godt.
Incorrect — a negative must be contradicted with jo, not ja.
✅ Du kan ikke lide kaffe? — Jo, det kan jeg godt.
You don't like coffee? — Yes, I do.
❌ Jeg er enig med din konklusion.
Incorrect — you agree with a point (a conclusion) using i, not med.
✅ Jeg er enig i din konklusion.
I agree with your conclusion.
❌ Jeg er ikke enig i dig.
Incorrect — with a person, use med: 'I don't agree with you.'
✅ Jeg er ikke enig med dig.
I don't agree with you.
❌ Det synes jeg ikke. (svar på 'Er det rigtigt, at toget kører kl. 8?')
Odd — denying a fact uses det passer ikke, not synes (which is for opinions).
✅ Nej, det passer ikke. Det kører klokken ni.
No, that's not right. It leaves at nine.
❌ Vi er enig om prisen.
Incorrect — plural subject takes the plural form enige.
✅ Vi er enige om prisen.
We agree on the price.
Key takeaways
- Agreement ladder: Det er jeg enig i / Du har ret (neutral) → Præcis! / Nemlig! (emphatic) → Helt enig (strong).
- Standalone Nemlig! and Præcis! mean "Exactly!" — don't confuse with connective nemlig ("namely/because").
- enig med a person, enig i a point, enig om a mutual decision; plural → enige.
- Disagree with an opinion using Det synes jeg ikke; deny a fact using Det passer ikke.
- Contradict a negative with jo, never ja — this has no English equivalent.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Expressing Opinions and AgreementB1 — The everyday phrases for giving an opinion, hedging and agreeing in Danish — including the enig i/med split and when to use synes, mener or tror.
- Yes/No QuestionsA1 — Form yes/no questions by fronting the finite verb, and answer them with ja, nej — or the special jo that contradicts a negative.
- Synes, Tro, Tænke: Three Ways to ThinkB1 — How to choose between synes (opinion), tro (belief/guess) and tænke (the mental activity) — Danish splits English 'think' three ways.
- Ikke: Placement and ScopeA1 — Where 'not' goes in Danish — after the finite verb in main clauses but before it in subordinate clauses — plus its scope, object shift, and how it negates single constituents.