Home / Best apps to learn a language / Danish
Prices and language coverage checked in September 2026.
Danish is the language of Denmark, 6,032,304 people in August 2026 by Statistics Denmark’s count, a compulsory subject in Faroese schools and the language of about 50,000 minority members in Schleswig-Holstein, by Wikipedia’s figures. It reads close to Norwegian and easy for an English speaker, but it is the hardest Scandinavian language to follow by ear, by the scores below, and Danes switch to English at the first pause (7th of 123 in EF’s 2025 English index). What Danish asks of an app is sound: native audio beside every line, a slow speed and a person who keeps talking Danish.
The app courses are short for Danish. Duolingo’s course is A1 by an unofficial tracker’s label, Babbel’s stops at A2 by its own help centre, Pimsleur sells one level and Michel Thomas one 8 hour course, and Busuu, Rosetta Stone, Speak, Lingopie, FluentU and Language Transfer have no Danish. The free state course, Danskuddannelse, needs a Danish CPR number, so it is closed to a learner abroad. So the apps below are compared on where they stop, what is free on day 30, how much native Danish you hear at a speed you can follow, and who corrects you.
The US Foreign Service Institute puts Danish in category I (of I to IV), about 750 class hours for an English speaker to reach professional working proficiency.
Written Danish and Norwegian Bokmål are close enough that Danes read Bokmål better than Nynorsk, by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ INS study of 2005. Speech differs: in that study’s neighbour-language tests, out of 10, Norwegians scored 6.07 on Danish and 6.21 on Swedish, Danes 4.18 on Norwegian and 3.53 on Swedish, and Swedes 3.80 on Danish. Danish radio news runs at 6.21 syllables a second against 5.37 in Norwegian, by a 2011 study in the Nordic Journal of Linguistics. Learn Danish for Denmark; it will read Norwegian, but the ear needs Danish input from the first week.
Danish has 27 vowel phonemes by Wikipedia’s count, and a 2020 study in Language and Speech counts 29 vowel qualities against 19 consonants, with dropped schwas that leave few cues to where one word ends. Add the stød, a creak that can be the only difference between two words, and the soft d, not a d at all. Danish children score lowest in vocabulary comprehension across the CDI studies from age 1, by a 2008 paper in the Journal of Child Language. Pick apps with native audio and a slow speed, and listen every day before you read.
The grammar is kind: verbs do not change with the person (jeg er, du er), and the definite article is an ending by gender (en bog, bogen; et hus, huset). En or et is learned per noun, the verb comes second, and the numbers from 50 count by twenties: halvtreds 50, tres 60, halvfjerds 70, firs 80, halvfems 90. False friends: gift is married and also poison, barn a child, fart speed, slut the end. Babbel explains these in writing; Duolingo and Pimsleur leave them to patterns. Learn every noun with en or et from the first day.
Duolingo’s Danish is A1 by an unofficial tracker’s label, 62 units and 1,004 lessons, and Danish was not among the 9 courses Duolingo took to B2 on 22 April 2026. Babbel’s help centre stops Danish at A2, its shortest course beside Russian. Pimsleur has one Danish level of 30 lessons and Michel Thomas one 8 hour Foundation course. Danskuddannelse, the state course, has been free for self-supporting learners since 1 July 2020, but it needs a CPR number, residence and a start within your first 5 years in Denmark. Past A2, plan on easy news, a tutor and books.
The state tests are Prøve i Dansk 1, 2 and 3 and Studieprøven, sat only in Denmark, twice a year. Prøve i Dansk 3 is B2 by the agency’s own page and Studieprøven C1; each Prøve i Dansk costs 1,646 kr for self-study candidates in 2026 and Studieprøven 1,974 kr. Permanent residence asks for Prøve i Dansk 2, per 2026 legal guides; citizenship asks for Prøve i Dansk 3 and the Indfødsretsprøven per lifeindenmark.borger.dk; the test is 45 questions, 36 to pass, on 25 November 2026. A work permit needs no language test. Book the test your office names.
Best free daily course
The Danish course is A1 by an unofficial tracker’s label, 62 units and 1,004 lessons, and Danish was not among the 9 courses Duolingo took to B2 in April 2026. There are no Stories for Danish. It builds a daily habit for the first months, then hands you to Babbel, a tutor and listening.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A free daily Danish habit from zero to A1; on a laptop, without the Energy cap.
Best structured course
Babbel’s help centre takes Danish “up to level A2”, its shortest course beside Russian, where Dutch runs to B1. Its lessons of 10 to 15 minutes explain en and et and the word order in writing, and the first lesson is free. It is the paid syllabus for the first year, and it ends early.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A1 to A2 learners who want en and et and the word order explained in order, no games and no ads, and will pay for it.
Best live tutors
Preply’s Danish page lists 64 tutors at US$15 to US$100 an hour, typically US$49. Danes switch to English easily (Denmark is 7th of 123 in EF’s 2025 English index), so a tutor is the one place the switch cannot happen. Below B1, pick a teacher who can explain in your language; from B1 on, a weekly lesson corrects your Danish.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Anyone from A1 who needs a person to talk to in Danish.
Best for reading real books
Lingo7 puts a translation in your own language under every sentence of a Danish book (49 languages), reads it aloud and drills saved words in 12 kinds of exercise. By our estimate 8 of its 60 books are B2 and 52 C1; A2 and B1 readers start with the Stories. It is our app, and it has no course.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: B2 and C1 readers who want the Danish classics with their own language under the text, A2 and B1 learners starting with the Stories, and anyone with their own EPUBs.
Best for speaking from lesson one
Pimsleur’s Danish is one level: 30 audio lessons, about 15 hours, in which you answer out loud and words come back at spaced intervals. Pimsleur publishes no CEFR level and sells no Danish Level 2. It is a first month of speaking, the right start for a language whose sound is the problem, and then it ends.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A trip in a month, a commute, or anyone who wants to say their first Danish sentences out loud before they read.
Best for learning by ear
Anne Grydehøj teaches Foundation Danish by ear: 8 hours of audio, 20 to 30 hours of study by the vendor’s count, ending at “basic Danish” in its words. Language Transfer has no Danish, so this is the course if you want the sentences explained by ear.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A0 learners who want to build Danish sentences by ear, as Language Transfer does for other languages.
Best free course with a library card
A course built on conversations, with native audio, grammar and culture notes and a voice comparison tool, per its Danish page, where we could not confirm a lesson count or level. Many US public libraries give it free with a library card, which makes it a second free start beside Duolingo. A0 to A2 by our estimate.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A0 to A2 learners with a US library card who want a course at no cost.
Best for daily easy news
DR Ligetil is DR’s news “for uncertain readers”, in its words: short articles in plain Danish, current on 29 September 2026 with pieces on the defence agreement between the US, Greenland and Denmark and on the new PISA results. As text, it works abroad, where DRTV’s video does not. It is the free daily reading we would add from A2.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A2 and B1 learners who want a few minutes of real Danish news a day, at no cost and from anywhere.
Best for reading with audio
LingQ’s Danish library promises “1000’s of hours” of audio lessons with matching transcripts, in the vendor’s words, and its importer turns any Danish article, ebook or YouTube video into a lesson. It is the reading and listening tool for Danish past the courses, and the free tier is a demo.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: B1 and up with a podcast or article habit you want to turn into study, and the budget for it.
Best for video input
Danish subtitles and a translation into your language side by side on YouTube, with a dictionary on click, free for subtitles and lookups. It works on any Danish video with subtitles, and on Netflix’s Danish series such as The Rain and Kastanjemanden when the Netflix side works. That side broke in June 2026 and in September works with known bugs.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: B1 and up with a laptop, turning Danish YouTube into listening practice.
Best for phrases with native video
Memrise has an official Danish course, one of the 23 languages its site names, with video clips of native speakers saying the phrases and MemBot, an AI chat, for trying them out. It publishes no lesson count or level for Danish and teaches no grammar, so it sits beside a course, not in place of one.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: The first few hundred Danish phrases with real voices, at the yearly price.
Best sentence drill
Fill the blank in real Danish sentences, in collections of the 100, 1,000 and 10,000 most common words and a Fast Track from level 0 to 3, on the Danish from English pair. Its Danish page says it suits intermediate and advanced learners rather than beginners, and the free 30 sentences a day are enough beside a course.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Ten minutes a day from A2 on top of a course, once you have a few hundred Danish words.
Duolingo + Mango Languages + Pimsleur
Do Duolingo every day for the habit, and Mango Languages as well if your US library card covers it. Learn every noun with en or et from the first week, and count by twenties out loud. Pimsleur’s one Danish level or Michel Thomas Danish is the paid choice if you want to speak before you read, and for Danish that is the right order.
Babbel + DR Ligetil + Preply
Duolingo stops at A1, so move to Babbel if you want the grammar in order to A2 and will pay. Read DR Ligetil every day, drill Clozemaster’s free 30 sentences, and book a Preply tutor once a week who keeps the lesson in Danish. Start reading with Lingo7’s Stories at A2, then graded readers you import; its shelf of classics starts at B2 in practice, by our estimate.
Lingo7 + Language Reactor + Preply
Courses thin out here. Read the classics on Lingo7’s shelf or your own books, watch Danish YouTube with Language Reactor, move from DR Ligetil to DR’s full news, and talk about all of it with your tutor. With a Prøve i Dansk 3 or Studieprøven date ahead, book a tutor who has taught that test.
| App | Role | Levels | Coverage for Danish | Free | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duolingo | Best free daily course | A0 to A1 | Standard Danish, one course from English; A1 by an unofficial tracker’s label; 62 units and 1,004 lessons by that tracker, no Stories | Every lesson; Energy cap on a phone | US$13 to 17 a month, US$7 to 10 a month yearly |
| Babbel | Best structured course | A1 to A2 | Up to A2 by Babbel’s help centre, its shortest course beside Russian; lessons of 10 to 15 minutes; no lesson count published | First lesson per course | About US$9 a month yearly on the web |
| Preply | Best live tutors | A1 to C2 | 64 Danish tutors; US$15 to US$100 an hour, typical US$49, per the Danish page | None | Typical US$49 an hour, subscription only |
| Lingo7 | Best for reading real books | A2 to C1 | 60 public domain books, by our estimate 8 at B2 and 52 at C1; Stories in two versions, adapted for A1 to A2 and original for B1 to B2; your own books in 7 formats (EPUB, PDF, FB2, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, HTML); native audio in a Denmark accent; translation into 49 languages | First page of each book | US$5 a month, US$2.50 a month yearly |
| Pimsleur | Best for speaking from lesson one | A0 to A1 | Level 1 only: 30 lessons, about 15 hours; no vendor CEFR claim | 7 day trial | About US$20 a month, or US$150 once |
| Michel Thomas Danish | Best for learning by ear | A0 to A1 | Foundation Danish, 8 hours of audio, including Start Danish; no intermediate course; about A1 by our estimate | None | US$12 taster, US$100 for the course |
| Mango Languages | Best free course with a library card | A0 to A2 | One Danish course; size and level not confirmed; A0 to A2 by our estimate | Free through many US libraries | Free via many libraries; US$10 a month yearly |
| DR Ligetil | Best for daily easy news | A2 to B1 | Short news articles in plain Danish, text only; current on 29 September 2026; A2 to B1 by our estimate | All of it | Free |
| LingQ | Best for reading with audio | B1 to C1 | Danish library with audio and transcripts, size not published; anything you import | 20 saved words | US$15 a month, US$10 a month yearly |
| Language Reactor | Best for video input | B1 to C2 | Any Danish YouTube video with subtitles; Netflix working with known bugs in September 2026 | Most of it | US$6 a month, US$3.33 a month yearly |
| Memrise | Best for phrases with native video | A0 to A2 | One official Danish course, size unpublished; native speaker video; no CEFR mapping | Limited, with ads | US$25 a month, US$5 a month yearly |
| Clozemaster | Best sentence drill | A2 to C1 | Danish from English; collections of the 100, 1,000 and 10,000 most common words and a Fast Track; no CEFR labels | 30 sentences a day | US$13 a month, US$7 a month yearly |
Prices are US store or vendor prices as of September 2026, yearly plans shown as the monthly equivalent. The same app often costs less on its own site than in the App Store, and more in Europe than in the US.
Free on this site: public domain Danish books you can open in the app, and short Danish texts at A1, A2 and B1 with a translation.
We have no affiliate deals with any app named here, and none of the links pay us. Prices and coverage come from the vendor’s own help or pricing pages or its US store listing, checked in September 2026, and every other figure names its source in the text; the judgement calls lean on independent reviews, and on the one star reviews for the parts a landing page never shows, like what happens on renewal. Where a vendor’s pages contradict each other, the card says so.
Refund rules, the traps to avoid and the same apps compared by level for every language are on the best apps to learn a language page.
For a start, yes, and it is free: the Danish course has 62 units and 1,004 lessons, by an unofficial tracker. On its own it is not enough: the tracker labels the course A1, Danish was not among the 9 courses Duolingo took to B2 on 22 April 2026, there are no Stories for Danish, and on a phone the free plan’s Energy runs out after about 2 to 3 lessons a day, by a third-party count. Add Babbel for the grammar to A2, Pimsleur or Michel Thomas Danish to speak, DR Ligetil to read real Danish, and a person to talk to once you can put a few sentences together.
The language of the country you will live in. If that is open, Norwegian is the middle position: in the Nordic Council of Ministers’ INS study of 2005, out of 10, Norwegians scored 6.07 on Danish and 6.21 on Swedish, while Danes scored 4.18 on Norwegian and 3.53 on Swedish and Swedes 3.80 on Danish. Danish is the small one online, 0.4% of websites (W3Techs), and its courses are the thinnest: Duolingo stops at A1 by an unofficial tracker’s label and Babbel at A2 by its help centre. Danish gets you reading Bokmål; hearing Danish is the work.
None of them is an exam course, so start with the agency’s own sample papers on danskogproever.dk. Prøve i Dansk 3 is B2 by its page, with the oral part weighted double; it costs 1,646 kr in 2026, is sat only in Denmark, and the next written test is on 10 November 2026. Studieprøven, at C1, costs 1,974 kr. Permanent residence asks for Prøve i Dansk 2 with 8 years of residence, or 4 years with 2 of 4 extra conditions, one of them Prøve i Dansk 3, per 2026 legal guides; citizenship asks for Prøve i Dansk 3, the Indfødsretsprøven (45 questions, 36 to pass) and 9 years, per lifeindenmark.borger.dk. Book a Preply tutor who has taught the test.
Reading grows your vocabulary, and Danish shares its Germanic core with English, but the page does not show the stød, the soft d or the swallowed endings. Read with audio. Lingo7, our app, puts a translation under each sentence of a Danish book, reads it aloud in a Denmark accent and drills the words you save in 12 kinds of exercise, for US$5 a month or US$30 a year. Its Danish shelf starts at B2 in practice and 52 of its 60 books are C1, both by our estimate, most in the spelling before 1948, so begin with its Stories or a children’s book, and move to Nexø’s Pelle Erobreren 4: Gryet or Tang Kristensen’s Fra Mindebo around B2.
For a course, Duolingo: every lesson is free, with Energy capping study on a phone, to A1 by an unofficial tracker’s label. Mango Languages is free with many US library cards, though we could not confirm the size of its Danish course. For reading, DR Ligetil every day; for listening, Simple Danish Podcast’s 18 episodes with transcripts and Danish YouTube with Language Reactor’s free dual subtitles; for words, Den Danske Ordbog and Retskrivningsordbogen, and Clozemaster’s 30 free sentences a day. The state course, Danskuddannelse, is free only with a CPR number. For a tutor you pay: Preply at a typical US$49 an hour on a subscription, or italki with no subscription.
Because the sound has moved away from the spelling: 27 vowel phonemes by Wikipedia’s count, the stød, the soft d and dropped schwas that blur where one word ends, by a 2020 study in Language and Speech. Danish children score lowest in vocabulary comprehension across the CDI studies from age 1, by a 2008 paper in the Journal of Child Language, and Danish radio news runs at 6.21 syllables a second against 5.37 in Norwegian, by a 2011 study. Train the ear with native audio you can slow down and repeat: Pimsleur and Michel Thomas Danish by ear, Lingo7’s sentence audio at 8 speeds from 0.6, Simple Danish Podcast with transcripts, and Danish YouTube with Language Reactor.
None can give you a rule, because the gender of most nouns follows none: learn every noun with its article and its definite form together (en bog, bogen; et hus, huset), since the ending follows the gender. Babbel explains en and et inside its A1 to A2 lessons, and Duolingo drills them by exposure. Den Danske Ordbog and Retskrivningsordbogen show the gender of every noun for free. Put en or et on every flashcard you make, in Anki or on paper, and on every word you save in Lingo7, whose word card shows the dictionary form.
Read your first page free, in Danish.