Han siger goddag.

Siger is the present tense of at sige, meaning to say.

So Han siger goddag is literally He says good day, but in natural English that usually becomes He says hello or He greets someone.

This is very common in language learning: the most literal meaning of a word and the most natural translation are not always the same.

A simple learner-friendly approximation is:

• Han ≈ han / hahn
• siger ≈ SEE-er or SI-er
• goddag ≈ go-DAI or go-DAY

A few useful notes:

• Danish pronunciation is often much less clear than the spelling suggests.
• The d in goddag is not pronounced like a strong English d in the middle.
• siger is often pronounced more smoothly than the spelling suggests.

If you are just starting out, it is perfectly fine to begin with a careful pronunciation based on the spelling and improve later through listening.

This is the normal Danish word order for a simple main clause:

• Han = subject
• siger = verb
• goddag = what he says

So it follows the common pattern:

Subject + verb + object/complement

That is very similar to English:

• He says hello

Han is a subject pronoun, meaning he.

It is used when a male person is the subject of the sentence:

• Han kommer = He comes
• Han siger goddag = He says hello

Compare:

• jeg = I
• du = you
• hun = she
• vi = we
• de = they

In modern Danish, goddag is normally written as one word when it means hello / good day as a greeting.

Historically, it comes from god dag = good day, but as a greeting it is usually treated as a fixed expression.

So:

• god dag can be understood literally as good day
• goddag is the standard greeting form

For learners, it is best to remember goddag as a set phrase meaning hello.

Normally, no. In Danish, common greetings are not capitalized unless they begin the sentence.

So you write:

• Han siger goddag.

But at the beginning of a sentence:

• Goddag!

This is similar to English in that ordinary words are not capitalized unless they start a sentence, though English and Danish differ in some other capitalization rules.

Goddag is correct and natural, but it often sounds a bit more formal, polite, or traditional than hej.

Very roughly:

• goddag = good day / hello
• hej = hi / hello

In everyday casual speech, many Danes would more often say hej. But goddag is still a real and useful word, especially in more polite situations.

Yes. Han siger hej is a very natural sentence and means He says hi.

The difference is mainly style:

• Han siger goddag = more formal or traditional
• Han siger hej = more casual and common in everyday speech

Both are grammatically correct.

Siger is the present tense.

So:

• at sige = to say
• siger = say / says
• sagde = said
• har sagt = have/has said

In this sentence, Han siger goddag, the present tense can mean:

• he is saying hello
• he says hello
• he says good day

The exact English translation depends on context.

In Han siger goddag, the sentence only tells us what he says, not who he says it to.

So the structure is just:

• Han = he
• siger = says
• goddag = hello

If you want to add the person being greeted, Danish can do that separately, for example:

• Han siger goddag til naboen. = He says hello to the neighbor.

Here, til means to.

Not really in the usual sense. In this sentence, goddag functions as a greeting expression — basically a fixed word or phrase that someone says.

It comes from the expression good day, but in sentences like this, it is best understood simply as a greeting word, similar to hello.

So for a learner, the most useful way to think of it is:

• goddag = a greeting

Yes, depending on context, Han siger goddag can be translated more naturally as He greets someone.

That is because in English we often do not literally say He says good day unless we want an old-fashioned effect.

So possible translations include:

• He says hello
• He says good day
• He greets someone

The best choice depends on the style and context.

In a Danish main-clause question, the verb usually comes before the subject.

So:

• Han siger goddag. = He says hello.
• Siger han goddag? = Does he say hello? / Is he saying hello?

This verb-before-subject pattern is very common in Danish questions.

Sometimes, yes, but the meaning is not exactly the same.

• Han siger goddag = He says hello
• Han hilser = He greets / is greeting

Hilser comes from at hilse, meaning to greet.

So hilser is more general, while siger goddag tells you the exact greeting being spoken.

Compare:

• Han hilser på læreren. = He greets the teacher.
• Han siger goddag til læreren. = He says hello to the teacher.

Yes, it is grammatically correct and natural.

That said, in everyday modern conversation, many speakers might more often use hej than goddag. So the sentence is fine, but it can sound slightly more formal or textbook-like than:

• Han siger hej.

Still, Han siger goddag is perfectly good Danish and very useful for learning.