The fastest words to learn are the ones you see most. This deck lists the 60 most common Danish words, each with a clear English meaning and a real example sentence. Study them below, or download the deck for Anki or Quizlet.
The best Danish flashcards to learn first are the words you meet most often. This free deck pairs the 60 most common Danish words, like jeg, du, vi, with a plain English meaning and a real example sentence for each. Download it as a CSV for Anki or Quizlet, or learn the words in context by reading.
CSV columns are word, translation, example (with a header row). Ready to import into Anki, Quizlet, or any spaced-repetition app.
60 most common Danish words · Updated July 2026
| Danish | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| jeg | I | Jeg hedder Peter. |
| du | you | Hvad hedder du? |
| vi | we | Vi bor i Danmark. |
| de | they | De kommer i morgen. |
| og | and | Jeg kan lide te og kaffe. |
| eller | or | Vil du have te eller kaffe? |
| men | but | Jeg er træt, men glad. |
| ikke | not | Jeg forstår ikke. |
| hvor | where | Hvor bor du? |
| hvad | what | Hvad laver du? |
| hvorfor | why | Hvorfor græder du? |
| i | in | Bogen ligger i tasken. |
| på | on | Bogen ligger på bordet. |
| til | to | Jeg skal til København. |
| med | with | Jeg går en tur med hunden. |
| være | to be | Det er godt at være her. |
| have | to have | Jeg vil gerne have en kop kaffe. |
| gøre | to do | Hvad skal jeg gøre? |
| gå | to go; to walk | Vi skal gå nu. |
| komme | to come | Han kommer i morgen. |
| se | to see | Jeg kan se dig. |
| tale | to speak; to talk | Vi taler dansk. |
| spise | to eat | Jeg spiser morgenmad. |
| drikke | to drink | Han drikker kaffe hver morgen. |
| sove | to sleep | Barnet sover. |
| vide | to know | Jeg ved ikke. |
| sige | to say | Hvad siger du? |
| give | to give | Jeg giver dig en gave. |
| tage | to take | Jeg tager bussen. |
| elske | to love | Jeg elsker dig. |
| hus | house | Vi bor i et stort hus. |
| bil | car | Jeg har en ny bil. |
| bog | book | Jeg læser en bog. |
| vand | water | Jeg drikker vand hver dag. |
| mad | food | Jeg laver mad. |
| dag | day | Det er en smuk dag. |
| år | year | Jeg er tyve år gammel. |
| tid | time | Jeg har ikke tid nu. |
| mand | man; husband | Manden går på gaden. |
| kvinde | woman | Kvinden læser en avis. |
| barn | child | Barnet leger i haven. |
| hund | dog | Jeg har en hund. |
| kat | cat | Katten sover på sofaen. |
| skole | school | Børnene går i skole. |
| arbejde | work; job | Jeg skal på arbejde. |
| penge | money | Jeg har ikke mange penge. |
| by | city; town | København er en smuk by. |
| ven | friend | Han er min bedste ven. |
| familie | family | Min familie bor i Danmark. |
| hjem | home | Det er et hyggeligt hjem. |
| god | good | Maden er god. |
| stor | big; large | Bilen er stor. |
| lille | small; little | Huset er lille. |
| ny | new | Bogen er ny. |
| gammel | old | Bogen er gammel. |
| smuk | beautiful | Byen er smuk. |
| glad | happy | Jeg er glad. |
| varm | warm | Kaffen er varm. |
| kold | cold | Suppen er kold. |
| let | easy; light | Opgaven er let. |
Flashcards fix words in memory; reading teaches you to use them. Lingo7 lets you read real books in Danish with sentence-aligned translation and native-narrated audio, and save any word to review later. Free to start.
The deck is built from high-frequency words, the ones that make up most of everyday Danish. Learning them first gives you the biggest return per card, because you will meet them again and again the moment you start reading or listening.
Flashcards work best with spaced repetition: review a card, and if you knew it, wait longer before seeing it again. Anki and Quizlet both do this automatically. Download the CSV, import it, and review a few minutes a day. Keep the example sentence on the card so you learn how the word actually behaves, not just its dictionary gloss.
One honest limit: flashcards build recognition, but you learn to use a word by meeting it in real context. Pair this deck with reading. When a word you drilled shows up in a story, it stops being a flashcard and becomes part of the language. That pairing is what reading in Lingo7 is built for.
Best Danish books for your level (A1 to C1) →
Not sure of your level? Take the Danish CEFR test (A1 to C2) →
How long does it take to learn Danish? See the timeline →
Start with the most frequent words. A few thousand high-frequency Danish words cover the majority of everyday text, so each of those cards pays off far more than a rare one. This deck gives you the top 60 to begin with, each with a meaning and an example sentence, so you learn the word in context rather than in isolation. When a card sticks, meet the word again in a real book to lock it in.
Click Download CSV to save the deck, then in Anki choose File, Import and select the file. Map the first column to the front (the Danish word) and the second to the back (the meaning); the third column holds an example sentence you can add to the back too. The first row is a header, so tell Anki to ignore it or delete that one card. For Quizlet, use Copy for Quizlet and paste into the import box with Tab between term and definition.
Flashcards are excellent for building recognition and drilling the first few thousand words, but on their own they teach words out of context. You learn to use Danish, not just recognize it, by reading and hearing the words in real sentences. The efficient combination is flashcards for raw vocabulary plus reading for context, collocation and grammar. That is exactly what Lingo7 is built around.
Roughly 2,000 to 3,000 common words cover most everyday Danish text, and around 5,000 gets you comfortably through many novels. You do not need all of them before you start: with sentence-aligned translation you can begin reading real Danish at a couple of thousand words and pick up the rest from context. This deck is a fast way to front-load the most useful 60.