Danish capitalisation is, for the most part, refreshingly simple and very close to English — capital at the start of a sentence, capital for proper names, lowercase for everything else. But there are three points where it surprises learners: nationalities and language names are lowercase (unlike English), one ordinary-looking pronoun (I, "you" plural) is always capitalised, and a polite pronoun (De) keeps an old capital. Knowing these few exceptions will keep your written Danish clean.
The basic rule: capitals for sentence starts and proper names
Capitalise the first word of a sentence and all proper nouns — personal names, place names, brand names, the names of organisations and titles of works. Everything else is lowercase.
Min ven Anders bor i København.
My friend Anders lives in Copenhagen.
Vi besøgte Tivoli og spiste på en lille café.
We visited Tivoli and ate at a little café.
So Anders, København and Tivoli are capitalised as proper names, but ven ("friend") and café stay lowercase — they're common nouns.
A bit of history: the 1948 reform
If you've ever read older Danish, or you know German, you may have seen every noun capitalised — en Mand, et Hus, Bogen. That was the rule until 1948, when a major spelling reform abolished German-style noun capitalisation (and introduced the letter å to replace aa). Since then, common nouns are lowercase, exactly as in English.
Manden læste en bog om en hund.
The man read a book about a dog.
Every noun here — manden, bog, hund — is lowercase. If you find yourself capitalising common nouns, you're either thinking in German or reading a pre-1948 text.
The capitalised pronoun I ("you" plural)
This is the one that catches everyone. The Danish word for "you" (plural, addressing several people) is I, and it is always written with a capital — even in the middle of a sentence. The reason is purely practical: lowercase i is the very common preposition "in", so capitalising the pronoun keeps the two apart on the page.
Hvor skal I hen i aften?
Where are you (all) going tonight?
Bor I stadig i Odense?
Do you (plural) still live in Odense?
Look at the second sentence: I (capital, "you-plural") and i (lowercase, "in") sit close together, and the capital is what tells them apart. Drop the capital and bor i stadig... would read as "live in still..." — confusing nonsense.
The polite De / Dem / Deres
Danish has a formal "you" — De (subject), Dem (object), Deres (possessive) — used to show respect or distance, much like German Sie or French vous. When used this way it is capitalised, again to distinguish it from the lowercase de/dem/deres meaning "they/them/their".
Vil De have en kop kaffe?
Would you (polite) like a cup of coffee?
Jeg sender Dem regningen i morgen.
I'll send you (polite) the invoice tomorrow.
In everyday modern Denmark the polite De is rare — Danes address almost everyone with informal du — but you'll still meet it in formal letters, addressing royalty, and very deferential service settings. Note the contrast: capital De = polite "you"; lowercase de = "they".
De gik hjem. / De gik hjem.
They went home. / You (polite) went home. — only the capital and context tell them apart.
Nationalities, languages, days and months — all lowercase
Here English speakers transfer the wrong habit. In English, Danish, French, Monday and January are all capitalised. In Danish, they are not. Adjectives of nationality, the names of languages, the names of nationals (a Dane, a Frenchman), weekdays, and months are all written lowercase.
| Danish (lowercase) | English (capitalised) |
|---|---|
| dansk | Danish (language/adjective) |
| fransk | French |
| en dansker | a Dane |
| mandag | Monday |
| januar | January |
Hun taler dansk, fransk og lidt tysk.
She speaks Danish, French and a little German.
Jeg er dansker, men jeg bor i Spanien.
I'm a Dane, but I live in Spain.
Vi mødes hver mandag i januar.
We meet every Monday in January.
The country name itself stays capitalised (Danmark, Frankrig, Spanien) because it's a proper noun — but the derived adjective, language and inhabitant drop the capital. So Danmark is capital, dansk and en dansker are lowercase.
Titles of works and headings
In titles of books, films and articles, Danish capitalises only the first word (and any proper names inside), not every important word the way English title-case does.
Filmen hedder 'Den skaldede frisør'.
The film is called 'The Bald Hairdresser' (Danish capitalises only the first word).
English would write The Bald Hairdresser; Danish writes Den skaldede frisør — only Den is capitalised.
Common Mistakes
1. Capitalising nationality adjectives and languages (English transfer).
❌ Jeg lærer Dansk og taler lidt Fransk.
Incorrect — languages are lowercase in Danish.
✅ Jeg lærer dansk og taler lidt fransk.
I'm learning Danish and speak a little French.
2. Capitalising weekdays and months (English transfer).
❌ Vi ses på Mandag i Marts.
Incorrect — weekdays and months are lowercase.
✅ Vi ses på mandag i marts.
See you on Monday in March.
3. Capitalising common nouns (German transfer / pre-1948 habit).
❌ Manden købte et Hus og en Bil.
Incorrect — common nouns are lowercase since 1948.
✅ Manden købte et hus og en bil.
The man bought a house and a car.
4. Writing the pronoun I ("you" plural) in lowercase.
❌ Hvad laver i i aften?
Incorrect — the pronoun 'you (plural)' must be capital I.
✅ Hvad laver I i aften?
What are you (all) doing tonight?
Key Takeaways
- Capitalise sentence starts and proper names (including country names like Danmark); everything else is lowercase.
- The 1948 reform ended German-style noun capitalisation — common nouns are lowercase.
- I ("you" plural) is always capitalised to keep it apart from i ("in"); polite De/Dem/Deres is capitalised to keep it apart from de ("they").
- Nationalities, languages, the names of nationals, weekdays and months are all lowercase — unlike English.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Danish Spelling and OrthographyA1 — An overview of how written Danish works — the 29-letter alphabet ending in æ ø å, lowercase nouns, the apostrophe-free genitive, closed compounds, and the 1948 reforms — for English speakers.
- Personal Pronouns: Subject and Object FormsA1 — The Danish subject/object pronoun pairs (jeg/mig, du/dig, han/ham…), where each form goes, and the uniquely Danish capital I meaning 'you all'.
- Compound Spelling: Writing Words TogetherA2 — Danish writes compounds as one solid word — rødvin, bordtennis — and splitting them (særskrivning) is a real error that changes meaning.
- Time ExpressionsA2 — Everyday Danish time words — i dag, i går, i morgen, i forgårs, i overmorgen — and the crucial for...siden vs om split for past and future.