Youth in Denmark
The use of English is frequent among young people under 25. English is the predominant second language and is in the school curriculum from the first grade. Roughly 90% of 15- to 21-year-olds speak English with other Danes at least once per week. Youth code switch from Danish to English with friends and classmates. English phrases or words are spoken in between Danish words. Codeswitching is a marker of youth identity and sign of opposition to adult culture. Youth use their language style to differ from adults.
Danish language
Danish and English are both Germanic languages, Danish a North Germanic language descended from Old Norse and English a West Germanic language descended from Old English, and Old Norse exerted a strong influence on Old English in the early medieval period. To see their shared Germanic heritage, one merely has to note the many common words that are very similar in the two languages. For example, commonly used Danish nouns and prepositions such as "have", "over", "under", "for", "give", "flag," "salt," and "kat" are easily recognizable in their written form to English speakers. Similarly, some other words are almost identical to their Scots equivalents, e.g., "kirke" (Scots "kirk", i.e., 'church') or "barn" (Scots "bairn", i.e. 'child'). In addition, the word "by", meaning "village" or "town", occurs in many English place-names, such as "Whitby" and "Selby", as remnants of the Viking occupation. During the latter period, English adopted "are", the third person plural form of the verb "to be", as well as the corresponding personal pronoun form "they" from contemporary Old Norse.