Shopping is where polite Danish pays off, because the difference between sounding friendly and sounding like a tourist barking orders comes down to two small words: gerne and må. A bald jeg vil have ("I want") is grammatically fine but socially blunt — it's how a toddler demands a toy. The everyday request frames are jeg vil gerne have ("I'd like") and må jeg få ("may I have"). This page gives you those frames plus the rest of the checkout toolkit: asking prices, asking what's in stock, haggling gently, and handling cash, card, receipts and change. Each phrase comes with its register and the grammar it quietly relies on.
Asking the price
The opening move in any shop is hvad koster det? ("how much is it?", literally "what costs it?"). The verb koster comes second, right after hvad, with the subject det after it — the standard question inversion you'll see again and again; see inversion.
| Danish | Literal | Idiomatic |
|---|---|---|
| Hvad koster det? | what costs it | How much is it? |
| Hvad koster den her? | what costs this here | How much is this one? |
| Hvor meget bliver det? | how much becomes it | How much does that come to? |
| Er det på udsalg? | is it on sale | Is it on sale? |
Undskyld, hvad koster den her trøje?
Excuse me, how much is this jumper?
Hvor meget bliver det i alt?
How much does it come to altogether?
Er kjolen på udsalg?
Is the dress on sale?
The two polite request frames
This is the heart of the page. Danish has no word for "please" (see courtesy), so politeness is built into the request itself. Two frames do almost all the work.
jeg vil gerne have... — "I'd like..." (literally "I will gladly have"). The little gerne ("gladly") is what turns a want into a polite wish. This is the standard way to order or ask for something.
må jeg få...? — "may I have...?" (literally "may I get"). The modal må ("may / am allowed to") frames it as a request for permission, which is even softer and very common at counters. See modal verbs.
| Danish | Literal | Idiomatic | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeg vil gerne have et rugbrød. | I will gladly have a rye-bread | I'd like a loaf of rye bread. | polite, everyday |
| Må jeg få en kop kaffe? | may I get a cup coffee | May I have a coffee? | polite, everyday |
| Kunne jeg få en pose? | could I get a bag | Could I have a bag? | extra polite |
| Har I den i en større størrelse? | have you (pl.) it in a bigger size | Do you have it in a bigger size? | neutral |
Jeg vil gerne have to rundstykker og en kanelsnegl.
I'd like two bread rolls and a cinnamon roll.
Må jeg få en kvittering, tak?
May I have a receipt, please?
Har I mælk uden laktose?
Do you have lactose-free milk?
Note har I...? ("do you have...?") for stock questions. The I (capital, the plural "you") addresses the shop as a group — Danes ask the staff collectively, not the one person in front of them.
Saying it's too expensive
If you want to push back on price — at a market, a flea market (loppemarked), or just to decline — the everyday phrase is det er for dyrt ("it's too expensive"). The for here means "too" (excessively), not "for".
Tre hundrede kroner? Det er lidt for dyrt for mig.
Three hundred kroner? That's a bit too expensive for me.
Har du noget billigere?
Do you have anything cheaper?
Jeg tror, jeg venter til udsalget.
I think I'll wait for the sale.
Paying: cash, card, receipts and change
The checkout vocabulary is small and high-frequency. Note that byttepenge ("change") literally means "swap-money", and kvittering is the receipt.
| Danish | Literal | Idiomatic |
|---|---|---|
| kontant | cash | cash |
| kort | card | card |
| en kvittering | a receipt | a receipt |
| byttepenge | swap-money | change |
| på udsalg | on sale | on sale |
| Skal det være andet? | shall it be other | Anything else? |
Betaler du kontant eller med kort?
Are you paying cash or by card?
Du glemte dine byttepenge!
You forgot your change!
Vil du have en kvittering? — Ja tak.
Would you like a receipt? — Yes please.
The phrase you'll hear from the cashier is skal det være andet? ("anything else?", literally "shall it be other?"). The natural replies are nej tak, det var det ("no thanks, that's it") or ja, jeg vil også gerne have... For the kroner amounts themselves, see dates and time / numbers in context.
A short dialogue putting it together
A bakery counter, running through prices, the request frames, paying and the cashier's prompts.
— Hej! Hvad koster et rugbrød? — Det koster femogtyve kroner.
— Hi! How much is a rye loaf? — It's twenty-five kroner.
— Så vil jeg gerne have et. Og må jeg få to boller? — Ja, værsgo. Skal det være andet?
— Then I'd like one. And may I have two rolls? — Yes, here you are. Anything else?
— Nej tak, det var det. Betaler jeg her? — Ja. Kontant eller kort? — Med kort, tak.
— No thanks, that's it. Do I pay here? — Yes. Cash or card? — By card, please.
— Det bliver toogtredive kroner. Vil du have en kvittering? — Ja tak. — Værsgo, og hav en god dag!
— That comes to thirty-two kroner. Would you like a receipt? — Yes please. — Here you go, and have a nice day!
Every request here is softened by structure: jeg vil gerne have and må jeg få carry the politeness, hvad koster... and kontant eller kort? use question inversion, and ja tak / nej tak handle the small courtesies. For the wider "wanting and liking" patterns these frames belong to, see likes and wants.
Common Mistakes
1. A bald jeg vil have without gerne. Grammatically correct, socially blunt — it sounds like a demand, not a request.
❌ Jeg vil have en kaffe.
Too blunt — sounds like 'I want a coffee', a demand.
✅ Jeg vil gerne have en kaffe.
I'd like a coffee.
2. Translating "too expensive" with også or the wrong for. "Too" (excessively) is for; don't confuse it with også ("also").
❌ Det er også dyrt. (meaning 'too expensive')
Incorrect — også means 'also', not 'too/excessively'.
✅ Det er for dyrt.
It's too expensive.
3. Asking har du...? (singular) of a shop. Address the staff as a group with the plural I: har I...?
❌ Har du friske jordbær? (to a shop in general)
Marks the question as to one person; shops are addressed as a group.
✅ Har I friske jordbær?
Do you have fresh strawberries?
4. Word order in the price question. The verb must come second, right after hvad.
❌ Hvad det koster?
Incorrect — the verb koster must come before the subject det.
✅ Hvad koster det?
How much is it?
5. Treating kontant as a verb or byttepenge as singular. Kontant is "cash" (you pay kontant), and byttepenge is a plural-only word — there's no en byttepeng.
✅ Jeg har ingen byttepenge — kun et stort beløb.
I have no change — only a large note/amount.
Key Takeaways
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Saying What You Like and WantA1 — Building Danish sentences with kunne lide, vil gerne have, elske and foretrække — and why 'like' and 'want' don't translate word for word.
- Please, Thank You and SorryA1 — How politeness works in Danish — the missing word for 'please', the many faces of tak, the difference between undskyld, beklager and desværre, and the untranslatable værsgo.
- Dates, Time and MoneyA2 — Telling the time in Danish (including the half-hour trap where halv ti means 9:30), reading dates with ordinals, saying years, and handling kroner and øre.
- Modal Verbs: An OverviewA2 — The six core Danish modals — kunne, ville, skulle, måtte, burde, turde — their present and past forms, and the iron rule that they take a bare infinitive with no at.
- 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.