How to answer the phone in Danish in Denmark

If you’re just learning Danish and have recently moved here, answering the phone can be quite daunting, especially because many people find it a lot more difficult to understand over the phone than when they’re speaking to someone face to face.

Although Denmark is a highly digitised society, you’ll still need to use the phone (and answer it) sometimes when interacting with authorities and businesses such as banks, especially when resolving or querying matters related to your specific circumstances which can’t be answered online.

Many authorities, such as the Danish Tax Agency, for example, offer you the chance to select English when calling. Nevertheless, you might find yourself preferring Danish to English because of the specificity of many Danish tax terms.

One way of becoming more confident in speaking on the phone in Denmark is to begin by learning how to answer the phone correctly like a native speaker.

There are several different ways you can choose to answer, here are some of the most common.

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Det er [first name]

The most common way you’ll probably hear Danes answer the phone, and a method you can easily apply yourself, is to say det er (‘this is’) followed by your first name only.

This way is probably the most often-used phone greeting because it’s the most versatile. It works when answering a call from a private number, colleague, boss or even a close friend. 

I’ve even heard someone use it to answer the phone to their partner, whose photo was flashing up on the screen of the phone as it rang.

Ja, det er [first name]

Saying ‘Yes, this is (name)’ is a slightly more relaxed version of the above and can be disarming in nature. You might want to use it in a situation where you know the caller, or if someone you spoke to very recently is calling you back.

Hallo?

Answering the phone with a ‘hello’, like you might in English if you don’t want to introduce yourself by name, is possible in Danish. But it’s worth keeping in mind that it comes across a little differently. 

Hallo doesn’t mean ‘hello’ in most situations (where the usual greeting is hej), and outside of phone calls you’ll only really hear people use it to shout at someone, either to get their attention or warn them about something. Think of a cyclist shouting at an inattentive pedestrian standing in the bicycle lane as an example. In other words, it’s not usually a polite greeting.

If you’re answering the phone with hallo, make sure to voice it like a question and put emphasis on the end of the word, to avoid seeming confrontational.

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Goddag, du taler med [first name]

This phrase translates to ‘Good morning/afternoon, this is (name) speaking’ and is a good formal way of introducing yourself. If it’s a business call or the bank ringing, and you want to keep things professional, this is a good option.

While it’s an accepted formal way to pick up the phone, it’s probably more common to use this phrase to introduce yourself when you are the caller. After the other person has picked up and said hello, you can say goddag, du taler med… then state your name and the reason for your call.

It’s a nice smooth way to get the call started and somehow feels laid back while also keeping things professional, perhaps reflecting the flat hierarchical structure you’ll often find in business contexts in Denmark.

[Name of company], det er [your name]

When answering the phone at work, you might well be instructed to use this particular formulation which confirms the name of the business before introducing yourself as the employee.

Even if it’s not company policy to answer the phone this way, you might find it the most appropriate way to answer (unless asked to say something else).

Depending on the job, you might need to say the name of a specific department or location instead of the company itself.

Hej [other person’s name]

At the opposite end of the formality scale, you can simply say hello and then the name of the caller, just as you would if meeting them in person. Obviously, you should only do this if you’re certain who the caller is and have a familiar relationship with them.

Hva såååå?

A well-placed hva’ så? can kick off a phone call on a humorous note and will also make you sound pretty fluent, since it is slang. 

It translates to ‘what’s up?’ or ‘what’s going on?’ and has the advantage of sounding very similar to the ‘wasssup’ from the classic Budweiser ads of the early 2000s.

Be sure to only use it informally with someone you know very well, or it will definitely come off as being out of place.