A Danish job interview is a fascinating register: polite and structured, yet strikingly informal by international standards — interviewer and candidate almost always say du to each other from the first handshake. This page annotates a short interview, focusing on the present perfect for describing experience, the polite modals kunne and ville, and the subordinate-clause word order that fills professional speech.
The text
Interviewer: Velkommen. Kunne du starte med at fortælle lidt om dig selv? Ansøger: Ja, gerne. Jeg har arbejdet som projektleder i fem år, primært med it-projekter. Interviewer: Spændende. Hvorfor har du søgt netop denne stilling? Ansøger: Fordi jeg gerne vil prøve noget nyt, og fordi I arbejder med bæredygtighed, som betyder meget for mig. Interviewer: Har du erfaring med at lede et større team? Ansøger: Ja, jeg har haft ansvar for op til ti medarbejdere. Interviewer: Hvis vi tilbyder dig jobbet, hvornår ville du kunne begynde? Ansøger: Jeg har en måneds opsigelse, så jeg ville kunne starte den første. Interviewer: Tak. Har du selv nogen spørgsmål til os? Ansøger: Ja, jeg ville gerne høre lidt mere om jeres arbejdsmiljø.
Translation:
Interviewer: Welcome. Could you start by telling us a bit about yourself? Candidate: Yes, gladly. I've worked as a project manager for five years, mainly on IT projects. Interviewer: Interesting. Why have you applied for this particular position? Candidate: Because I'd like to try something new, and because you work with sustainability, which means a lot to me. Interviewer: Do you have experience leading a larger team? Candidate: Yes, I've had responsibility for up to ten employees. Interviewer: If we offer you the job, when would you be able to start? Candidate: I have a month's notice, so I'd be able to start on the first. Interviewer: Thanks. Do you have any questions for us yourself? Candidate: Yes, I'd like to hear a bit more about your work environment.
Grammar in action
du, not De — the register of modern interviews
The single biggest surprise for learners from formal cultures is that nobody here switches to the formal pronoun De. Danish abandoned routine De decades ago; today it survives only in writing to the very elderly, in some royal or ceremonial contexts, and on a few formal signs (Tag hensyn til andre — luk venligst døren efter Dem). A modern interviewer who said De would sound stiff, even slightly absurd. Politeness in Danish is carried by modals, particles and tone, not by a pronoun.
Kunne du starte med at fortælle lidt om dig selv?
Could you start by telling us a bit about yourself?
The present perfect for experience: Jeg har arbejdet…
The candidate's whole self-presentation runs on the present perfect (har + past participle): har arbejdet, har søgt, har haft, har erfaring. This is exactly the English "I have worked / I have applied". The perfect is the natural tense for life experience and for past events whose relevance reaches into the present — perfect for a CV summary.
Jeg har arbejdet som projektleder i fem år.
I've worked as a project manager for five years.
Jeg har haft ansvar for op til ti medarbejdere.
I've had responsibility for up to ten employees.
Note the auxiliary: most verbs take have (har arbejdet, har søgt, har haft). A set of motion and change-of-state verbs instead take være (er kommet, er flyttet) — a distinction worth its own page.
Hvorfor har du søgt netop denne stilling?
Why have you applied for this particular position?
Polite modals: kunne and ville
Notice that the interviewer asks Kunne du…? and not Kan du…? The past-tense form kunne of the modal kunne (to be able to) works like English "could": it makes the request hypothetical and therefore more courteous. The same softening happens with ville (the past of ville, to want/will): Jeg *ville gerne høre… = "I *would like to hear" is gentler than the blunt Jeg vil høre.
Kunne du fortælle lidt om dine styrker?
Could you tell us a bit about your strengths?
Jeg ville gerne høre lidt mere om jeres arbejdsmiljø.
I'd like to hear a bit more about your work environment.
Even more striking is the double modal stack ville kunne: hvornår *ville du kunne begynde? = "when would you be able to start?". Danish lets you chain a polite *ville onto a kunne of ability, and only the first modal is finite; the second stays in the infinitive.
Jeg ville kunne starte den første.
I'd be able to start on the first.
Subordinate clauses everywhere
Professional Danish leans heavily on subordinate clauses, and each one flips to subject-verb order. Watch fordi ("because"), som ("which/that"), hvis ("if") and at ("to/that") in the dialogue.
After fordi, the subject precedes the verb: fordi jeg gerne *vil prøve noget nyt. The same goes for the relative *som: bæredygtighed, *som betyder meget for mig*.
Fordi jeg gerne vil prøve noget nyt.
Because I'd like to try something new.
Hvis vi tilbyder dig jobbet, hvornår ville du kunne begynde?
If we offer you the job, when would you be able to start?
A subtle point: when the hvis-clause comes first, the main clause that follows inverts (verb before subject) because the whole subordinate clause has taken the first slot — Danish keeps the finite verb in second position no matter what sits in front of it.
at + infinitive after another verb
Kunne du starte *med at fortælle… and Har du erfaring **med at lede… both use *med at + infinitive ("with -ing / to"). After certain nouns and verbs Danish requires this at before the infinitive, where English uses an -ing form.
Har du erfaring med at lede et større team?
Do you have experience leading a larger team?
Mis-transfer alert
Learners from German, French or other formal-pronoun cultures over-use De and sound archaic; learners who have only met kan/vil skip the polite past forms and sound blunt. Both make a Danish interview feel off.
❌ Kunne De fortælle mig lidt om Deres erfaring?
Over-formal — De/Deres sounds archaic in a modern interview.
✅ Kunne du fortælle mig lidt om din erfaring?
Could you tell me a bit about your experience?
❌ Jeg vil høre om jeres arbejdsmiljø.
Too blunt for an interview — sounds like a demand.
✅ Jeg ville gerne høre om jeres arbejdsmiljø.
I'd like to hear about your work environment.
Structures in this text
- Present perfect for experience har arbejdet, har haft — see verbs/perfect-overview.
- du vs De and how Danish carries politeness without a formal pronoun — see register/du-vs-de.
- Polite modals kunne and ville, including the ville kunne stack — see verbs/modal-kunne and verbs/modal-ville.
- Subordinate clauses after fordi, som, hvis, at — see syntax/subordinate-clauses.
- Courtesy formulas gerne, tak, velkommen — see expressions/courtesy.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- The Present PerfectA2 — How Danish builds the present perfect with have (or være) plus the past participle — and the one rule English speakers need: definite past time takes the simple past, not the perfect.
- 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.
- Kunne: Ability and PossibilityA2 — The modal kunne (kan/kunne/kunnet) — ability, possibility, the kan + language idiom for skills, permission, and the polite past kunne du...?
- Ville: Volition, Future and ConditionalA2 — The modal ville (vil/ville/villet) — wanting (vil have = 'want'), prediction/future, willingness, and the conditional ville gerne ('would like').
- Subordinate-Clause Word OrderB1 — Danish subordinate clauses follow a different template from main clauses: no V2 inversion, and sentence adverbs like ikke come before the finite verb, not after it.
- 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.