Same word, new meaning
News Danish uses six words you already know in a new sense:
| Danish | you know it as | in the news |
|---|---|---|
| valget | the choice | the election |
| skatten | the treasure | the tax |
| prisen | the price | the prize, the award |
| kampen | the match | the fight, the struggle |
| grænsen | the limit | the border |
| stoffet | the fabric; the drug | the substance |
Let the verb decide
The words around the noun usually settle the meaning. You win or lose an election, you pay tax, and you win a prize:
| The government lost the election. | Regeringen tabte valget. |
| How much tax do you pay? | Hvor meget skat betaler du? |
| The film won three awards. | Filmen vandt tre priser. |
A price, by contrast, is high or low, and a treasure is something you find. Skat is also a pet name, "darling" (Hej skat!), so the context matters there too.
For or against
A kamp on the sports pages is a match. With for after it, it is usually a struggle for a cause. With mod, the context decides: a football team plays kampen mod Sverige, but an army fights the enemy:
| The struggle for freedom is not over. | Kampen for frihed er ikke forbi. |
| The army won the fight against the enemy. | Hæren vandt kampen mod fjenden. |
Grænsen is a limit, but grænsen til Tyskland is the border with Germany:
| The border with Germany is open again. | Grænsen til Tyskland er åben igen. |
Stof
Stof is cloth, but also any substance: a chemical in the water, something in the food.
| The researchers found a dangerous substance in the water. | Forskerne fandt et farligt stof i vandet. |
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