# Danish: gerne



## CarlitosMS

Hello everybody

I would like to know the meaning of this expression, I haven't found an accurate equivalent anywhere.

Gentag øvelsen 10-20 gange, og gerne flere gange om dagen

Enjoy your weekend

Carlos


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## sindridah

I think I know this! We also have this, "og gjarnan fleirri" It's like "And even more" , I think this sentence says something like you should do it more often at day or something like that. But anyway I wanted to take a shot at this I thought it wouldn't hurt but it's best to wait for some dane to answer this!


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## Alxmrphi

Google Translate says "*og gerne*" is "and preferably" (_y preferentemente_) , and then "*flere gange om dagen*" is "several times a day" (varios vecez por día).
Edit: Beaten to it! 

So it looks like* Repeat 10-20 times, and then even more times during the day (preferably?)*.
Or something like that.


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## zyzzy

My interpretation (as a Swede) is: 

If the "øvelse" (exercise) is a push-up and I would be trying to follow the instructions above, I would do 10-20 push-ups in the morning, 10-20 in the afternoon and 10-20 in the evening or something like that. 

This is how I would translate it: 

_Gentag øvelsen 10-20 gange, og... _
Repeat the exercise 10-20 times, and...

_...gerne... _
...if possible / preferably / if you can / if you want...

_...flere gange om dagen_
...more than once a day / several times a day

The corresponding word to "gerne" in Swedish (gärna), would suggest that it's good to do the exercise once a day, but even better if you can do the exercise several times a day. If I would stress that it really should be done more than once a day to be of any use, I would leave out the "og gerne" part.


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## hanne

zyzzy gets pretty close. I wouldn't translate "gerne" as "preferably" (the latter is a bit stronger), but I agree with the verbal explanation. "Gerne" is something like "it would be nice/good if ...", but English doesn't have an equivalent expression.


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## sindridah

Would for example "Jeg vil gerne noget....." would it be suitable to translate it as "I would love to something...." ?


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## brikken

sindridah said:


> Would for example "Jeg vil gerne noget....." would it be suitable to translate it as "I would love to something...." ?



No, that is too strong. I would rather say "I would like to something ...". If you compare "Jeg vil noget" and "Jeg vil _gerne_ noget", it's just a little plus compared to the more neutral expression, but does not carry a significant change in desire level.


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## NoMoreMrIceGuy

It's a verb that transcribes a sort of eagerness or optional willingness that I don't think has a directly corresponding one in English.
I've always been under the impression that the way to translate it is to use 'gladly':

Ég vil gjarnan gera þetta fyrir þig.
I gladly want to do this for you.


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## zyzzy

NoMoreMrIceGuy said:


> It's a verb that transcribes a sort of eagerness or optional willingness that I don't think has a directly corresponding one in English.
> I've always been under the impression that the way to translate it is to use 'gladly':
> 
> Ég vil gjarnan gera þetta fyrir þig.
> I gladly want to do this for you.


"Gladly" would only cover the core meaning of "gerne" (or "gärna" in Swedish). 

When I say "gerne"/"gärna" about something I do, I express my willingness or desire to do it. 
When I say "gerne"/"gärna" about something someone else does or should do, I express a recommendation. 

So, in the sentence in the first post, "gladly" would sound strange.


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## MindBoggle

I agree that there is no exact english equivalent to *gerne* in this sentence. It means both *you have permission to *as in *det må du gerne*, but it also indicates that *although doing it once a day should be enough, it's not going to hurt you if you do it several times, if anything it's going to benefit you. 
*
I think I'd translate it like this:

Repeat the exercise 10-20 times; feel free to do this several times a day if you wish.


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