Memorize Danish Food Vocabulary: 158 Flashcards for the Menu, the Market and the Table

Despite its name, the Flip It deck Danish Travel & Food Vocabulary (AS0640) is not a travel deck. There is not a single card for trains, hotels, tickets or directions. What you get instead are 158 cards of Danish food, cooking and restaurant vocabulary, plus seven opening courtesies — and judged as a menu-and-market deck, it is a very good one.

What the 158 cards cover

• Fish and shellfish, the largest block: laks (salmon), torsk (cod), sild (herring), rødspætte (plaice), ål (eel), rejer (shrimp), hummer (lobster), muslinger (mussels), østers (oysters), krabbe (crab).
• Meat: oksekød, svinekød, skinke, pølse, lam, kylling, and (duck), gås, lever, frikadelle.
• Produce: kartoffel, gulerod, løg, hvidløg, agurk, kål, rødkål, ærter, bønner, jordbær, hindbær, kirsebær, rabarber.
• Named Danish dishes: smørrebrød, flæskesteg, leverpostej, gravad laks, spegesild, wienerbrød, grød.
• Cooking and taste: stegt, kogt, grillet, bagt, røget, dampkogt, sød, sur, salt, bitter, krydret, lækker.
• At the table: regning, tallerken, gaffel, kniv, ske, flaske, kop, glas, bord.
• Herbs and spices: dild, persille, purløg, kanel, kardemomme, nelliker, ingefær, peberrod, sennep.

Nine cards, front to back

Note the direction: the front is English, the back is Danish. That is production practice, the harder and more useful way round for a vocabulary deck you intend to use in a shop.

Two corrections worth making as you review

Danish has no word for please. The deck offers Vær så venlig, which is technically correct and almost never heard in a café. The card that actually does the work is Jeg vil gerne have — "I would like". Danish politeness lives in gerne, not in a standalone word, so build every request on that frame: Jeg vil gerne have en kop kaffe, Jeg vil gerne have regningen.

Velbekomme is not bon appétit. The deck translates it that way, but Danes say velbekomme after eating, as the reply to tak for mad ("thanks for the food"). Before a meal most say nothing at all, or værsgo when serving. Keep the card, flip the timing in your head, and you avoid the classic tourist mistake.

Two smaller things while you are in there. Every noun is bare, with no gender attached, so add the article yourself as you learn: et rugbrød, en kartoffel, et æble, en pølse. Danish gender is unguessable and this deck will not give it to you. And stegt appears twice, glossed once as "fried" and once as "roasted" — that is not an error, it genuinely covers both, with ovnstegt for oven-roasted specifically.

Finally, ten cards look identical on both sides: Bacon, Salt, Snack, Restaurant, Café, Menu, Dessert, Mayonnaise, Bitter, Gravad laks. Those are not broken cards, they are real Danish words. Free points — just remember the pronunciation is Danish, not English.

Start reviewing

Find AS0640 — Danish Travel & Food Vocabulary in your library on flip-it.app. Ten cards a day covers the deck in about two weeks, and a Copenhagen menu stops being a wall of consonants.

Want broader coverage first? Start with the Danish Vocabulary Study Guide: 952 High-Frequency Words.