Formal and Academic Writing | Danish Grammar

Formal and academic Danish is not just "polite Danish" — it is a recognisably different variety, with its own vocabulary, sentence shapes and connective words. A text that is grammatically perfect can still read as conspicuously informal if it uses spoken particles, phrasal verbs and breezy first-person commentary. This page is a concrete upgrade list: the structures that mark educated written Danish, the connectives that signal it, and the casual habits to strip out. Used in the right place, these features make you sound like you belong in print; used in a text message, they sound absurd, so register-matching cuts both ways.

Nominal style: pack the action into nouns

The most pervasive feature of formal Danish is nominal style (nominalstil) — expressing actions and processes as nouns rather than verbs. Where casual speech says fordi priserne steg ("because prices rose"), formal prose prefers på grund af prisstigningen ("because of the price increase"). This compresses information and lends an impersonal, analytical tone. The trade-off is density: overdone, it becomes turgid, which is why good academic writers use it deliberately rather than reflexively. The mechanics are covered in full on the nominal style page; here, just note that the derived-noun suffixes (-ing, -ning, -else, -tion) are the engine of this register.

Undersøgelsen viste en markant stigning i antallet af ansøgninger.

The study showed a marked increase in the number of applications.

Beslutningen om en nedlæggelse af afdelingen mødte stor modstand.

The decision to close the department met with great opposition.

The passive and the impersonal man

Academic Danish prefers to keep the writer out of the sentence. Two tools do this. The passive (formed with -s or with blive + past participle) removes the agent, and the impersonal pronoun man ("one") generalises a claim without naming who acts. Both replace the chatty jeg and vi of informal writing.

Resultaterne kan sammenfattes i tre punkter.

The results can be summarised in three points. (s-passive)

Materialet blev indsamlet over en periode på to år.

The material was collected over a period of two years. (blive-passive)

Man kan diskutere, hvorvidt den konklusion holder.

One may discuss whether that conclusion holds.

💡

Danish academic style tolerates a measured vi ("we") for the authorial voice — Vi argumenterer for, at... — more readily than older English style did. But jeg ("I") and direct address to the reader (du) still read as informal in most academic genres.

Formal connectives: the upgrade list

This is the most portable thing on the page. A short set of connectives is strongly register-marked: using them signals educated writing, and they have plainer everyday equivalents you should consciously trade up from.

Formal connective	Meaning	Everyday equivalent
følgelig	consequently, therefore	derfor / så
hertil kommer (, at)	in addition; moreover	desuden / og så
idet	as, since; in that	fordi / da
hvorvidt	whether	om
såfremt	provided that, if	hvis
eftersom	since, as (causal)	fordi
dels ... dels	partly ... partly	både ... og
hvorimod	whereas	mens / men

Følgelig må hypotesen forkastes.

Consequently, the hypothesis must be rejected. (formal)

Det er uvist, hvorvidt effekten kan generaliseres.

It is uncertain whether the effect can be generalised. (formal: hvorvidt for 'om')

Såfremt betingelserne er opfyldt, kan ansøgningen behandles.

Provided that the conditions are met, the application can be processed. (formal: såfremt for 'hvis')

Resultatet skyldes dels metoden, dels det begrænsede datagrundlag.

The result is due partly to the method, partly to the limited data. (formal: dels...dels)

💡

Idet is a precision tool: it both gives a cause ("since/as") and can mark simultaneity ("just as, while"). It is unmistakably written register — you will almost never hear it in casual speech, where fordi or da does the job.

Hedged claims

Academic writing rarely asserts bluntly; it hedges, signalling the strength of evidence. Danish has a set of standard hedging frames that mark a claim as inferred rather than certain. Mastering these is what separates a confident undergraduate essay from a careful one.

Tallene synes at antyde en sammenhæng mellem de to faktorer.

The figures seem to suggest a connection between the two factors.

Resultaterne kan tyde på, at hypotesen er holdbar.

The results may indicate that the hypothesis is tenable.

Det er nærliggende at antage, at effekten er midlertidig.

It is reasonable to assume that the effect is temporary.

Useful frames: synes at antyde (seems to suggest), kan tyde på (may indicate), det er nærliggende at antage (it is reasonable to assume), alt tyder på, at (everything indicates that), der er meget der taler for, at (there is much to suggest that).

What to strip out

Formality is as much about subtraction as addition. The features below are perfectly correct in speech but mark a text as informal.

Phrasal verbs and particles. Swap the particle verb for a single inseparable verb: finde ud af → fastslå/konstatere (to ascertain), gå ud fra → antage (to assume), lave → udføre/foretage (to carry out). See phrasal verbs.
Casual lexis. snakke → tale (to speak), lave → foretage, en masse → et betydeligt antal, en hel del → en væsentlig del.
Discourse particles. jo, da, nok, vel, altså belong to speech and should disappear from formal prose.
Contractive/breezy first person. No jeg synes bare, at...; prefer det vurderes, at... or man kan argumentere for, at....

Vi fandt ud af, at der var en masse fejl, og jeg synes bare, det er ret dårligt.

Casual: 'We found out there were loads of errors, and I just think that's pretty bad.'

Det konstateredes, at materialet indeholdt et betydeligt antal fejl, hvilket må vurderes som problematisk.

Formal: 'It was established that the material contained a considerable number of errors, which must be assessed as problematic.'

Letters and emails

Formal correspondence has fixed openings and closings. Open with Kære [navn] (Dear …) for a named recipient, or Til rette vedkommende ("To whom it may concern") when unnamed. Close with Med venlig hilsen (kind regards) — often abbreviated Mvh in semi-formal email — and your name on the next line. The more formal Med venlig hilsen is standard for business; Bedste hilsner is warmer and lighter.

Kære fru Hansen, tak for Deres henvendelse af 3. maj.

Dear Mrs Hansen, thank you for your enquiry of 3 May. (formal, with the polite De)

Med venlig hilsen, Anders Sørensen.

Kind regards, Anders Sørensen.

💡

The polite second-person De / Dem / Deres (capitalised) is now reserved for very formal correspondence, official letters and addressing the elderly or royalty. In most modern business email, plain du is normal — using De with a peer can read as stiff or ironic.

Commas

Danish allows two comma systems, and formal writing must be consistent. The traditional grammatical comma (grammatisk komma) places a comma before every subordinate clause, including relative clauses; the newer unit comma (nyt komma) omits the comma before a subordinate clause that starts a unit. Pick one and apply it throughout — mixing the two is the mark of a careless writer. Most academic and official Danish still uses the grammatical comma.

Det fremgår af rapporten, at metoden var mangelfuld, hvilket svækker konklusionen.

It appears from the report that the method was flawed, which weakens the conclusion. (grammatical comma before 'at' and 'hvilket')

Common mistakes

❌ Vi fandt ud af, at modellen ikke holder.

Incorrect for academic prose — 'finde ud af' is a casual phrasal verb.

✅ Det konstateredes, at modellen ikke holder.

Correct — replace the particle verb with the formal 'konstatere' plus the s-passive.

❌ Jeg synes bare, at resultaterne er ret gode.

Incorrect — first-person 'jeg synes bare' and the particle 'ret' are spoken register.

✅ Resultaterne må vurderes som tilfredsstillende.

Correct — impersonal, hedged, no discourse particles.

❌ Det er uvist, om eller ej teorien kan bekræftes.

Incorrect — 'om eller ej' is clumsy; formal Danish uses 'hvorvidt'.

✅ Det er uvist, hvorvidt teorien kan bekræftes.

Correct — 'hvorvidt' is the register-marked 'whether'.

❌ (in a casual text to a friend) Såfremt du har tid, ville jeg sætte pris på et svar.

Incorrect by register — 'såfremt' is over-formal for a message to a friend; it sounds bureaucratic.

✅ (to a friend) Hvis du har tid, ville jeg sætte pris på et svar.

Correct — plain 'hvis' matches the casual context. Register-matching cuts both ways.

❌ Snakke med eksperterne viste, at problemet var stort.

Incorrect — 'snakke' is colloquial; also the bare infinitive as subject is awkward here.

✅ Samtaler med eksperterne viste, at problemet var betydeligt.

Correct — 'samtaler' (conversations) and 'betydeligt' (considerable) raise the register.

Key takeaways

Build with nominal style, the passive, and impersonal man to keep the writer out of the sentence.
Trade up your connectives: følgelig, hertil kommer, idet, hvorvidt, såfremt, eftersom, dels...dels, hvorimod.
Hedge your claims: synes at antyde, kan tyde på, det er nærliggende at antage.
Strip out phrasal verbs, snakke-level lexis and discourse particles — and remember the reverse error: these formal markers sound ridiculous in casual contexts.

Now practice Danish

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Danish→