Phone calls and written correspondence run on a small set of fixed formulas, and Danish has its own — most of which do not translate word-for-word from English. Get these right and you sound like someone who has answered a Danish phone before; get them wrong and the very first thing you say on a call gives you away. This page collects the high-frequency phrases, grouped by what they actually do, flags their register, and points out the bit of grammar each one quietly leans on.
Answering and identifying yourself
The single most important phrase: when you say who you are on the phone, Danish uses det er ("it is"), never jeg er ("I am").
Det er Mette.
This is Mette. (literally: it is Mette)
Goddag, det er Lars Holm fra Novo.
Hello, this is Lars Holm from Novo. (formal-neutral)
Hej, det er mig — har du et øjeblik?
Hi, it's me — do you have a moment? (informal)
Why det er? Identifying a voice on a phone is treated as pointing at something out in the world — "the one speaking is Mette" — rather than equating yourself with a role. This is the same impersonal det that fronts weather and time sentences (det regner, det er fredag). English does exactly the same thing in "this is Mette," but learners overwrite it with the literal "I am" from "I am Mette," which in Danish sounds like you are stating your identity in the abstract, not answering a phone. See the impersonal det and the anticipatory det.
Asking for someone and checking who you've got
Kan jeg tale med Anne?
Can I speak to Anne? (neutral)
Må jeg tale med chefen, tak?
May I speak to the boss, please? (a touch more formal)
Hvem taler jeg med?
Who am I speaking to? (literally: who do I speak with)
Du taler med Sofie fra receptionen.
You're speaking to Sofie from reception. (how the other side answers 'hvem taler jeg med')
Note the word order in Hvem taler jeg med? — the question word leads, then the verb, then the subject, with the preposition med stranded at the end exactly as in English "who am I speaking with." This is standard Danish question inversion; see verb-second inversion.
Managing the call
Jeg ringer tilbage om lidt.
I'll call back in a bit. (ringe tilbage = to call back)
Kan du ringe tilbage senere?
Can you call back later?
Lige et øjeblik, jeg henter ham.
Just a moment, I'll get him.
Du må undskylde, jeg hører dig dårligt.
Sorry — I can hardly hear you. (literally: you must excuse, I hear you badly)
Sign-offs: hanging up and ending letters
This is where Danish has two phrases English lacks a neat equivalent for. Vi høres ("we'll be heard / talk soon") and vi ses ("see you") are the standard friendly ways to end a call or a message. Both are built on a reciprocal -s form of the verb (høre → høres, se → ses), which carries a "to each other" meaning — literally "we get heard (by each other)," "we get seen." There is no single English word for this; "talk soon" and "see you" are the working translations.
Okay, vi høres! Hej hej.
Okay, talk soon! Bye. (informal phone sign-off; 'hej hej' = bye)
Tak for nu — vi ses på fredag.
Thanks for now — see you on Friday. (informal)
In writing, the workhorse closing is med venlig hilsen, almost always abbreviated mvh in emails. It is the Danish equivalent of "kind regards / best regards" and is safe in nearly every register.
Med venlig hilsen, Karen Sørensen
Kind regards, Karen Sørensen (standard letter/email closing)
Mvh Jonas
Best, Jonas (informal email sign-off; the abbreviated form)
The matching opener for a letter or formal email is Kære... ("Dear..."):
Kære Hr. Andersen
Dear Mr. Andersen (formal opening)
Kære Emma, tak for din mail.
Dear Emma, thanks for your email. (warm, can be informal or formal)
A note on du vs. De
Modern Danish overwhelmingly uses du (informal "you") even with strangers and in business calls — far more than English speakers expect from a formal-sounding situation. The polite De survives only in very formal correspondence, with the royal family, and in some letters to the elderly. On an ordinary phone call you say kan jeg tale med... with du throughout. See du vs. De for when the polite form still applies.
A short phone call
— Goddag, det er Thomas Birk. (This is Thomas Birk — phone ID with det er.) — Hej Thomas, du taler med Line. Hvad kan jeg hjælpe med? (You're speaking to Line. What can I help with?) — Kan jeg tale med Mads? (Can I speak to Mads?) — Han er optaget lige nu. Kan han ringe tilbage? (He's busy right now. Can he call back?) — Ja tak, det er fint. (Yes please, that's fine.) — Super. Vi høres! (Great. Talk soon!) — Tak, hej hej. (Thanks, bye.)
Common Mistakes
❌ Hej, jeg er Mette.
Incorrect for a phone ID — 'jeg er' states your identity abstractly, not who is calling.
✅ Hej, det er Mette.
Hi, this is Mette. — phone identification always uses 'det er'.
❌ Med venlig hilsen, vi ses!
Incorrect — don't stack a written closing on a spoken sign-off; pick one register.
✅ Med venlig hilsen, Mette
Kind regards, Mette. — the standard written close, on its own.
❌ Vi høre snart.
Incorrect — the sign-off needs the reciprocal -s form: høres, not høre.
✅ Vi høres snart.
Talk soon. — reciprocal -s form ('heard by each other').
❌ Hvem taler jeg til?
Incorrect preposition — Danish 'tale' pairs with 'med' here, not 'til'.
✅ Hvem taler jeg med?
Who am I speaking to? — 'tale med' is the fixed collocation.
❌ Kære, tak for din mail.
Incorrect — 'Kære' needs a name or title after it; it can't stand alone.
✅ Kære Emma, tak for din mail.
Dear Emma, thanks for your email.
Key takeaways
- Identify yourself on the phone with det er [name], never jeg er.
- Vi høres and vi ses are reciprocal -s sign-offs with no one-word English match — "talk soon," "see you."
- Letters and emails open with Kære... and close with med venlig hilsen / mvh.
- Default to du; reserve De for genuinely formal correspondence.
Now practice Danish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Impersonal Verbs and Det-subjectsB1 — Danish impersonal constructions with dummy det (weather, evaluations, experiencer verbs), the obligatory subject rule, and the det er vs der er contrast.
- Anticipatory and Dummy DetB1 — The non-referential det — weather (Det regner), evaluatives (Det er svært at lære dansk), extraposition (Det glæder mig, at du kom), and clefts (Det er ham, der ringede) — collected in one place.
- Du vs De: The Informality of DanishB1 — Why Danish uses the informal du for almost everyone, when the polite De still survives, and why defaulting to De can sound cold rather than respectful.
- Inversion After a Fronted ElementA1 — Whenever a non-subject opens a Danish main clause — an adverb, object, prepositional phrase, or subordinate clause — the verb stays second and the subject moves behind it.