Culture Minister Zenia Stampe says she wants to curb the growing use of English words in Danish, and to give the language council Dansk Sprognævn a more active role in protecting the language.
Stampe, of Radikale Venstre, set out her plans in an interview published on August 20, 2026, by DR. She pointed to everyday borrowings such as “deale”, “like”, “nice” and “chatte”. According to the minister, Danish is a fine but very small language, and heavy screen use exposes people to English words daily.
Stampe told DR that young people are not to blame for the shift. She said older generations carry the responsibility for passing on Danish expressions and old sayings. She also warned that losing Danish words means losing part of the history stored in the language.
DR spoke with two 18-year-old students at Teknisk Gymnasium in Holstebro, Julian Norden Søndergaard and Tobias Hjortkjær Jensen. Søndergaard said he mostly speaks Danish, but reaches for English when he cannot find the Danish word, since his vocabulary is largest in English. Jensen said society changes and so does language, and that he is unsure whether older Danish is worth holding onto.
What the minister proposes
Stampe said she wants Dansk Sprognævn to take a more active role, and to bring public service media’s responsibility for the Danish language into the coming media negotiations. As she described it to DR, the council will not get the power to issue fines. It will instead have the authority to speak up when something makes Danish poorer, particularly toward large institutions with wide reach.
Dansk Sprognævn declined an interview with DR but replied in writing. Director Thomas Hestbæk Andersen wrote that the council looks forward to carrying out the tasks the minister assigns it under the proposed law change. The council published material in January 2026 on hidden anglicisms in Danish, available on its own website.
The policy backdrop
The proposals follow a political agreement reported earlier this year. DK Nyt reported in February 2026 that the government, SF and the Conservatives agreed on a language package giving Dansk Sprognævn a more active, language-protecting role. The same agreement included talks on stricter public service language duties.
MediaWatch reported in February 2026 that the plan would sharpen language obligations for DR, TV 2 and the regional TV 2 stations in a new media deal. In April 2026, Danish News reported that the language council launched a campaign to identify English words that could be replaced with Danish alternatives.
Stampe told DR that the fight over language is also about preserving the link to Danish history. She said everyone has a responsibility to cultivate their own language, rather than swapping good Danish words for English ones. The students in Holstebro told DR they would welcome even more English words in Danish.
