Jeg vil besøge min ven den første juli.

In Danish, vil often means want to or intend to, and it is also very commonly used to talk about the future when there is a sense of intention.

So Jeg vil besøge min ven den første juli can mean:

• I want to visit my friend on the first of July
• or, depending on context, I will visit my friend on July 1st

Danish often uses the present tense for future meaning too, but vil is very common when the speaker is expressing a plan, wish, or intention.

Because vil is a modal verb. In Danish, modal verbs are followed by the infinitive without at.

So:

• Jeg vil besøge = I want/will visit
• not Jeg vil at besøge

This is similar to English:

• I will visit
• not I will to visit

Other Danish modal verbs work the same way:

• Jeg kan besøge = I can visit
• Jeg skal besøge = I am going to / must visit

Min ven means my friend.

Danish has two different patterns:

• ven = friend
• vennen = the friend
• min ven = my friend

When a noun has a possessive word like min, din, hans, hendes, vores, it normally does not take the definite ending.

So:

• en ven = a friend
• vennen = the friend
• min ven = my friend

Not:

• min vennen

Because ven is a common-gender noun: en ven.

Danish possessives agree with the noun:

• min for en-words
• mit for et-words
• mine for plurals

Examples:

• min ven = my friend
• mit hus = my house
• mine venner = my friends

Since it is en ven, the correct form is min ven.

This is a standard way to say a calendar date in Danish.

Breakdown:

• den = the
• første = first
• juli = July

So literally it is something like the first July, but in natural English we say the first of July or July 1st.

This pattern is very common in Danish:

• den tredje maj = the third of May
• den tiende november = the tenth of November

In Danish, dates are usually expressed with den + ordinal number + month.

So:

• den første juli
• den anden april
• den femte januar

The den is part of the normal date expression. English learners often want to leave it out, but in standard Danish it is expected in this kind of phrase.

Because dates use ordinal numbers rather than cardinal numbers.

• en = one
• første = first

When giving a date, Danish normally uses the ordinal:

• den første juli = July 1st / the first of July

Not:

• den en juli

Other examples:

• anden = second
• tredje = third
• fjerde = fourth

Because in Danish, names of months are normally written with a lowercase letter.

So:

• januar
• februar
• juli
• december

This is different from English, where months are capitalized:

• January
• July
• December

So juli with a small j is correct in Danish.

The basic word order is:

• Jeg = subject
• vil = finite verb
• besøge = infinitive
• min ven = object
• den første juli = time expression

So the structure is:

Subject + verb + infinitive + object + time

This is very normal Danish word order in a main clause.

English speakers may notice that the time phrase often comes at the end, just as it often does in English:

• I will visit my friend on July 1st

Yes. Danish allows some flexibility, especially with time expressions.

For example:

• Jeg vil besøge min ven den første juli.
• Den første juli vil jeg besøge min ven.

Both are correct. If the sentence starts with Den første juli, then Danish uses verb-second word order, so the finite verb comes before the subject:

• Den første juli vil jeg besøge min ven.

Not:

• Den første juli jeg vil besøge min ven.

That word order rule is very important in Danish main clauses.

The difficult part for many English speakers is ø.

In besøge, the ø is a rounded front vowel that English does not really have. A rough approximation is something between the vowel in French deux or German schön, if you know those.

Very roughly:

• be-SØ-je or be-SUR-yeh is only an approximation, not exact

A few helpful points:

• ø is its own letter in Danish
• it is not the same as o
• g in besøge is often pronounced softly in modern Danish speech

The best approach is to listen to native audio and repeat it many times, because Danish pronunciation is often less phonetic than learners expect.

Usually ven just means friend.

If Danish speakers want to make it clear that someone is a boyfriend, they often say:

• kæreste = boyfriend/girlfriend/partner

So in this sentence, min ven would normally be understood as my friend, not my boyfriend.

Yes, in writing you may also see dates written numerically, for example:

• 1. juli

But when speaking, den første juli is very natural.

So:

• written:
  1. juli
• spoken: den første juli

Both represent the same date.