Written Danish keeps a thin layer of formality that spoken Danish has largely shed. A formal email is where you still see the Kære… opening, the Med venlig hilsen sign-off, careful subordinate clauses, and — for an older recipient or a very official body — the surviving polite pronoun De. This page annotates a short inquiry email and shows you exactly how much formality modern Danish actually expects.
The text
Kære Sofie Larsen
Jeg skriver til Dem, fordi jeg er interesseret i den ledige stilling som kommunikationsmedarbejder, som I har slået op.
Jeg har tidligere arbejdet med både sociale medier og pressekontakt, og jeg vil meget gerne høre mere om stillingen. Hvis det er muligt, ville jeg sætte stor pris på et kort møde.
Jeg har vedhæftet mit CV og en kort ansøgning. Skulle De have spørgsmål, er De velkommen til at kontakte mig.
Jeg ser frem til at høre fra Dem.
Med venlig hilsen Anders Holm
Translation:
Dear Sofie Larsen,
I am writing to you because I am interested in the vacant position as communications officer that you have advertised.
I have previously worked with both social media and press contact, and I would very much like to hear more about the position. If possible, I would greatly appreciate a short meeting.
I have attached my CV and a short application. Should you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards, Anders Holm
Grammar in action
Opening and closing: Kære… and Med venlig hilsen
A formal Danish email opens with Kære + name ("Dear …"). Unlike English, Danish does not put a comma after the salutation line and does not capitalise the first word of the body merely because of the greeting — though here the sentence starts a new line, so it is capitalised as a sentence. Kære works for both formal and warm contexts; for a stranger at an organisation you may also see Til rette vedkommende ("To whom it may concern").
The standard sign-off is Med venlig hilsen (literally "with friendly greeting"), often abbreviated Mvh in less formal mail. Venlig must be the singular form here — it is a fixed phrase.
Kære Sofie Larsen
Dear Sofie Larsen,
Med venlig hilsen, Anders Holm
Kind regards, Anders Holm
The De/Dem/Deres remnant
This email deliberately uses the formal pronoun De (subject), Dem (object) and Deres (possessive), all written with a capital letter. This is the most formal register modern Danish offers, and it is now optional even in business mail — many Danes would write the very same email with du/dig/din. You will mainly meet capital-De when writing to an older person, a public authority, or to project extra deference.
Jeg skriver til Dem, fordi jeg er interesseret i stillingen.
I am writing to you because I am interested in the position.
Skulle De have spørgsmål, er De velkommen til at kontakte mig.
Should you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me.
The very same email in today's default register would read Jeg skriver til *dig… Du er velkommen… and would offend no one. The capital *De is a register dial you can turn up, not a grammatical requirement.
Polite modals: ville, skulle
Formality in Danish is carried far more by modals than by pronouns. Jeg *ville sætte stor pris på… ("I *would appreciate…") uses the past-tense ville for a hypothetical, courteous request. Skulle De have spørgsmål ("Should you have questions") uses skulle in a conditional, inverted form that is itself a marker of polished written style.
Hvis det er muligt, ville jeg sætte stor pris på et kort møde.
If possible, I would greatly appreciate a short meeting.
Jeg vil meget gerne høre mere om stillingen.
I would very much like to hear more about the position.
Conditional inversion without hvis: Skulle De have…
Skulle De have spørgsmål, er De velkommen… is a polished construction: a conditional formed by inversion (verb first) instead of hvis. It corresponds exactly to English literary "Should you have questions…". The main clause then inverts in turn (er De) because the conditional clause fills the first slot.
Skulle De have spørgsmål, er De velkommen til at kontakte mig.
Should you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me.
Subordinate clauses build the formal tone
Formal writing strings ideas together with subordinate clauses, each with subject-before-verb order. Watch fordi ("because"), the relative som ("that/which"), and hvis ("if").
…den ledige stilling, som I har slået op.
…the vacant position that you have advertised.
Note the present perfect har slået op ("have advertised") and har arbejdet ("have worked") — the perfect is standard for describing relevant past experience, exactly as in a job interview.
vedhæftet — attached
The email word you cannot do without: vedhæfte ("to attach"), past participle vedhæftet. Jeg har *vedhæftet mit CV = "I have *attached my CV". The noun is en vedhæftet fil ("an attached file / attachment"). Danish keeps CV in capitals and treats it as neuter: mit CV.
Jeg har vedhæftet mit CV og en kort ansøgning.
I have attached my CV and a short application.
Du finder rapporten i den vedhæftede fil.
You'll find the report in the attached file.
Mis-transfer alert
The classic English mistake is to over-formalise with De and then immediately slip into du, mixing the two within one email — a jarring inconsistency a Dane notices at once. Pick one register and hold it throughout. (And remember: lower-case de never means polite "you" — it means "they".)
❌ Jeg skriver til Dem… Du er velkommen til at kontakte mig.
Incorrect — mixes formal De with informal du in one email.
✅ Jeg skriver til Dem… De er velkommen til at kontakte mig.
I am writing to you… you are welcome to contact me. (consistent formal)
❌ Jeg skriver til dem, fordi jeg er interesseret.
Incorrect — lower-case dem means 'them', not formal 'you'.
✅ Jeg skriver til Dem, fordi jeg er interesseret.
I am writing to you because I am interested.
Structures in this text
- du vs De and the capital-De/Dem/Deres remnant — see register/du-vs-de.
- Subordinate clauses after fordi, som, hvis — see syntax/subordinate-clauses.
- Polite modals ville, skulle, and conditional inversion — see verbs/modal-ville.
- Present perfect for experience har arbejdet, har slået op — see verbs/perfect-overview.
- Email and courtesy formulas Kære, Med venlig hilsen, vedhæftet — see expressions/courtesy and expressions/phone-email.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- 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.
- 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.
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- On the Phone and in WritingB1 — The fixed phrases that open phone calls and close letters and emails in Danish — and why you say 'det er', not 'jeg er'.
- 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').
- 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.