Making Exceptions: undtagen
When organizing an event or managing a guest list, you will often need to talk about who or what is excluded from a group. The most common and direct way to say "except" in Danish is undtagen.
It is typically placed towards the end of the sentence to specify exactly who or what is left out of an otherwise complete group.
| Everyone is coming to the party except the sister-in-law. | Alle kommer til festen undtagen svigerinden. |
| We have invited all the guests except the brother-in-law. | Vi har inviteret alle gæsterne undtagen svogeren. |
Setting Aside: bortset fra
Another very common expression of exclusion is bortset fra, which translates to "apart from".
While it can appear anywhere in the sentence, you will very often see bortset fra placed at the very beginning to establish what is being set aside before making a main point.
Remember your V2 (verb-second) rule! When a sentence starts with a phrase like bortset fra bordplanen (apart from the seating plan), that entire phrase counts as position one. The verb must immediately follow it in position two.
| Apart from the seating plan, everything is ready. | Bortset fra bordplanen er alting klart. |
| Apart from the sister-in-law, there is no one who knows the secret. | Bortset fra svigerinden er der ingen der kender hemmeligheden. |
With the Exception Of: på nær
Finally, you can use the phrase på nær to mean "except for" or "short of".
It functions very similarly to undtagen and is great for highlighting that a scenario, group, or action is entirely complete—minus one specific detail or person.
| The whole family is there except for the nephew and the niece. | Hele familien er der på nær nevøen og niecen. |
| We drink everything except for the alcohol-free wine. | Vi drikker det hele på nær den alkoholfrie vin. |
| I believe we are sending the thank-you card to everyone except for the brother-in-law. | Jeg tror vi sender takkekortet til alle på nær svogeren. |