Danish: hverdag / hver dag

L

Ludwig Lukasiewicz

Member
Chinese - Mandarin
According to this #Sprogbrug: Hverdag eller hver dag?
“Hverdag” er 5 dage om ugen, mandag til fredag. “Hver dag” er 7 dage om ugen.
There is a space's difference, but they are pronounced the same, or maybe only nuanced different. How should I distinguish the two expressions that the other side doesn't misunderstand me?

For example, if I say "Jeg spiser i kantinen hverdag/hver dag." How can the other part know I eat in the canteen everyday or just Monday to Friday?
 
    • Hello

    In your example there, you could say

    "Jeg spiser på kantinen hver dag" (meaning every day).

    Hverdag is always a noun, so it coud not be used here without a preposition. This is how there is no confusion. (Theoretically one can say, "jeg spiser på kantinen om hverdagen", although this isn't used much for reasons I'll explain in a moment)

    Hverdage are mostly refered to in the context of schedules. To use it casually like this would be oddly specific (it is assumed that you aren't around to eat at the kantine on the weekends I suppose).

    You could use this if you're comparing your life in the week to that of the weekend (example: "om hverdagen spiser jeg på kantinen, men i weekenden spiser jeg derhjemme" -- on weekdays I eat at the kantine, but on the weekend I eat at home)

    An alternative use of hverdag (which you didn't mention) is to refer to one's everyday life (example: "sådan ser hverdagen ud som sygeplejerske" -- this is how a nurse's everyday life looks)

    Hope this helps -- let me know if you have more questions or if something was unclear :)
     
    Hi
    Danish speakers will have to correct me, but I am quite confident that what follows is correct.
    I think the orthographic similarity may have misled you to think that the two expressions are interchangeable, but they have very different properties in terms of meaning, syntactic behaviour and pronunciation. Any confusion of the two made in speech will probably be ignored by Danish speakers. They will just interpret it according to what fits the context.

    Meaning
    Hver dag - is a quantified expression and the interpretation is context-sensitive. It doesn't necessarily pick out Monday to Sunday, it can easily change to any number of days given the context. "During my holidays in Spain, I went to the beach every day."
    Hverdag - is a noun that denotes what is not holiday/weekend etc. The meaning is more connected to routines and fixed schedules. It is not a quantified expression so it does not pick out a specific number of days.

    Syntax (adding to justous' comments)
    Hver dag - can be used as a noun phrase or as an adverbial phrase. As a noun phrase, further modification is very restricted. It works with adjectives, but it is not possible to combine with definiteness, plural formation, possessives...
    Hverdag - is a noun only and can in principle be combined with any modifier that is available to Danish nouns.

    Pronunciation
    What you call a nuance in pronunciation has contrastive effects for native speakers. My guess is that the stress properties are not the same. Moreover, I would guess that the distribution of the famous Danish stød plays a role in distinguishing the two as well but that is just a mere guess.

    Hver dag - main stress fall on "dag"
    Hverdag - main stress falls on "hver"

    To sum up: in your example phrase, "Jeg spiser i kantinen hverdag/hver dag", Danish speakers would not process "hverdag/hver dag" as a noun (a noun is simply not licensed in that position) and they would go for the adverbial interpretation even if your pronunciation could suggest otherwise.
     
    myšlenka said:
    Hi
    Danish speakers will have to correct me, but I am quite confident that what follows is correct.
    I think the orthographic similarity may have misled you to think that the two expressions are interchangeable, but they have very different properties in terms of meaning, syntactic behaviour and pronunciation. Any confusion of the two made in speech will probably be ignored by Danish speakers. They will just interpret it according to what fits the context.

    Meaning
    Hver dag - is a quantified expression and the interpretation is context-sensitive. It doesn't necessarily pick out Monday to Sunday, it can easily change to any number of days given the context. "During my holidays in Spain, I went to the beach every day."
    Hverdag - is a noun that denotes what is not holiday/weekend etc. The meaning is more connected to routines and fixed schedules. It is not a quantified expression so it does not pick out a specific number of days.

    Syntax (adding to justous' comments)
    Hver dag - can be used as a noun phrase or as an adverbial phrase. As a noun phrase, further modification is very restricted. It works with adjectives, but it is not possible to combine with definiteness, plural formation, possessives...
    Hverdag - is a noun only and can in principle be combined with any modifier that is available to Danish nouns.

    Pronunciation
    What you call a nuance in pronunciation has contrastive effects for native speakers. My guess is that the stress properties are not the same. Moreover, I would guess that the distribution of the famous Danish stød plays a role in distinguishing the two as well but that is just a mere guess.

    Hver dag - main stress fall on "dag"
    Hverdag - main stress falls on "hver"

    To sum up: in your example phrase, "Jeg spiser i kantinen hverdag/hver dag", Danish speakers would not process "hverdag/hver dag" as a noun (a noun is simply not licensed in that position) and they would go for the adverbial interpretation even if your pronunciation could suggest otherwise.
    Click to expand...

    Yes, the nuance in the pronunciation is noticable, but difficult to explain in text, but I think you did a good job there :) I concur with everything else you said as well
     
    justous said:
    Yes, the nuance in the pronunciation is noticable, but difficult to explain in text, but I think you did a good job there :) I concur with everything else you said as well
    Click to expand...
    Do you use stød in "hver dag" but not in "hverdag"? Or perhaps there is no stød in any of them?
     
    "hverdag" is a noun - thus it can only be used as a subject or an object. Could be defined as "any day which is just like any other".
    "hver dag" is an adverbial. Means "every day".
    I think that is the simplest way of explaining it.

    justous said:
    Hello

    In your example there, you could say

    "Jeg spiser på kantinen hver dag" (meaning every day).

    Hverdag is always a noun, so it coud not be used here without a preposition. This is how there is no confusion. (Theoretically one can say, "jeg spiser på kantinen om hverdagen", although this isn't used much for reasons I'll explain in a moment)

    ....
    Click to expand...

    "jeg spiser på kantinen om hverdagen" - I never saw that before - can you document it in any way?

    I'd accept "jeg spiser i kantinen til hverdag" if you mean you eat there on an everyday basis.
     
    Last edited:
    Sepia said:
    "hverdag" is a noun - thus it can only be used as a subject or an object. Could be defined as "any day which is just like any other".
    "hver dag" is an adverbial. Means "every day".
    I think that is the simplest way of explaining it.



    "jeg spiser på kantinen om hverdagen" - I never saw that before - can you document it in any way?

    I'd accept "jeg spiser i kantinen til hverdag" if you mean you eat there on an everyday basis.
    Click to expand...

    It was just something I wrote. Prepositions are the bane of my existance lol. Thanks for your suggestion
     
    Hverdag - comparable to weekday and workday both in meaning and stresses
    Hver dag - ditto to every day
     
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