1) Integrity first (names, numbers, facts)
- Proper nouns & diacritics: Keep Æ/Ø/Å in names (e.g., Søren, København). Standardize place names (e.g., Aarhus).
- Dates & times: Convert dd.mm.yyyy and kl. 14.30 → “14 August 2025” (UK) or “August 14, 2025” (US) and “2:30 p.m.”.
- Numbers & units: Danish uses decimal commas and a space before % (“5 %”). English uses 5.0 and 5%. Check currencies and thousands separators.
- Quotes & dialogue: Make sure opening/closing quotes are English style and consistent; Danish dashes used for dialogue often need converting to quotes or proper em dashes.
2) High‑payoff fixes (typical DA→EN pitfalls)
Spend the bulk of your time here.
Articles (the/a/zero)
Danish definite suffixes (‑en/‑et/‑ene) tempt MT to overuse the. Fix “in the nature / at the university” → “in nature / at university (UK) / at the university (specific).”
Word order
Danish V2 and fronting can yield stiff English (“Never had he seen…” in neutral prose). Prefer natural SVO.
Passive voice
Danish ‑s passive is frequent; MT often over‑passivizes. Prefer active where idiomatic: “The committee approved the plan” over “the plan was approved.”
“Blive” overload (“become/be/get”)
- MT often writes become too often.
- State change: often get (“became angry” is fine; “became finished” → “was finished / got finished”).
- Passive with blive: usually simple passive (“was built in 1990,” not “became built”).
Prepositions & calques
- “in the weekend” → at the weekend (UK) / on the weekend (US)
- “take contact” → get in touch / contact
- “drive with the bus” → take the bus
- “control over” sometimes control of; “in TV” → on TV
Compounds
Danish loves compounds (sommerhus, håndarbejde). MT may split them oddly (“house of summer”). Choose the idiomatic English compound/collocation (holiday cottage, handicrafts).
Pronouns & possession (sin/sit/sine)
Ensure the English possessive belongs to the sentence’s subject when Danish intended reflexive: MT can misassign his/her/their.
False friends to watch
- aktuel → current, not actual
- eventuelt → possibly/if needed, not eventually
- sensibel → sensitive, not sensible (which is fornuftig)
- gift (adj./noun) → married / poison depending on context
- eventyr → adventure/fairy tale, not event
Tense/aspect
English avoids present perfect with finished past times: fix “has happened yesterday” → “happened yesterday.” Use progressives where natural (“was waiting,” not “stood and waited” unless literal).
Register & idiom
Replace literal renderings of idioms and fixed phrases with established English equivalents; smooth heavy nominalizations.
3) Quick “Find” sweep (big wins in minutes)
Use your editor’s Find/Regex to surface common issues:
- Extra spaces & punctuation: double spaces; space before punctuation; stray non‑breaking spaces.
- Numbers:
\d+,\d+(decimal commas → points);\d+ ?%(make 5%);\bkr\.?\b(handle DKK formatting). - Articles to sanity‑check:
\bthe (nature|life|society|history|democracy|culture)\b - Calques:
\bin the weekend\b|\bdrive with\b|\btake contact\b|\bmake holiday\b - Overuse of become:
\bbecome(s|ing|came)?\b - Passives:
\bwas\b|\bwere\b(scan for strings of passives to vary voice) - Quote consistency: straight vs curly; orphaned open/close quotes.
- Dialogue dashes:
^–|^—at line starts → convert to your chosen English dialogue style.
4) Mini style sheet (decide once, apply everywhere)
- Dialect: UK vs US (spelling, prepositions like at/on the weekend).
- Numbers: numerals vs words; percent sign; thousands/decimal; time format.
- Punctuation: serial comma; dash style; quotes; dialogue convention.
- Capitalization: titles/headings; honorifics; institutions.
- Terms list: recurring cultural terms (e.g., højskole, hygge)—translate, gloss, or retain?
Tip: keep this on one printed page and apply it ruthlessly for consistency.
5) Old‑school workflow (fast and reliable)
- Side‑by‑side with the Danish source (print or split screen).
- Pass 1 (skim hotspots): titles, headings, captions, numbers, dates, names.
- Pass 2 (consistency + DA→EN pitfalls): articles, become/blive, preps, compounds, passives.
- Pass 3 (read aloud slowly): idiom and rhythm; fix wooden MT phrasing.
- Final spot‑check: title, opening, closing paragraph, and any pull‑quotes.