Dansk Sprognævn has published a survey of more than 2,300 Danes on which English loanwords they find most irritating, and which English words they use themselves.
The Danish Language Council, Dansk Sprognævn, asked respondents which English words they would most like to see disappear from Danish, and what they would say instead. The findings were published on September 1, 2026, and reported by DR.
According to Kasper Lind-Hansen Kristjansson, a linguist and project manager at Dansk Sprognævn, the survey shows which words Danes feel they can do without. He notes that respondents gave two main reasons for rejecting a loanword.
As stated by Kristjansson, people are most tired of English words when they believe a Danish word already covers the meaning. Almost as many said they could do without a word simply because it is not Danish.
DR reports that the survey is not representative. It includes answers from respondents across the country, aged between 14 and 93.
Sale, CEO and AI
The word that topped the list of most disliked loanwords was sale. Per DR, it is also the word that most respondents felt has a perfectly good Danish equivalent, namely udsalg. Respondents also pointed to the difficulty of inflecting it in Danish.
The executive title CEO was named the hardest loanword to understand the meaning of. Suggested Danish alternatives included administrerende direktør. AI was named the hardest English loanword to read and pronounce, with kunstig intelligens proposed instead.
Other examples cited by DR include partying on the dansegulv rather than the floor. Respondents also said they use nice themselves, even when they do not find the thing particularly rart.
The words Danes use themselves
Dansk Sprognævn also asked which English words respondents use in their own speech. DR reports that fuck came first, followed by AI, random, nice and computer.
Kristjansson said there can be good reasons to use English words. Some have acquired a specific meaning that does not match the Danish word exactly, and in some settings English is unavoidable, alongside more established Danish phrases.
He pointed to the IT sector as an example, describing an abundance of English terms in a highly international industry. As noted by Kristjansson, it is simply easiest to use words everyone agrees on the meaning of.
The same applies to young people, he said, who spend large parts of their lives on digital platforms where English is the main language. New English words therefore enter their language naturally.
Dansk Sprognævn is now working on a list of Danish alternatives to English loanwords. DR adds that its own P1 program På dansk is running a similar exercise, where a panel replaces English words with Danish equivalents or invents new ones.
