"Shall I find a bed for you, sir?"

Translation: Skal jeg finde en seng til Dem, hr.?

[epac-mcl]

Is it wrong to write "Herre" instead of "Hr"?

[hertzum]

Yes, but only because it's in the wrong form. The correct form is "herr". It's extremely rare to see it spelled out; usually people only use the "abbreviation" hr.

[epac-mcl]

Thanks Hertzum. Now I'm up to date on the differences between "Hr, Herr and Herre".

[Monsieur-Xavier]

The german translation of herre is Herr... Weird

[ellowynlunaris]

Yes, herre means master :)

[epac-mcl]

That's interesting. I have always believed "Hr" to be an abbreviation of "Herre", meaning "Sir, Mister or man." As much as I can see from the following link, there is no difference between the full and the abbreviated form. I would be glad if you could enlighten me more, and thanks for answering :)
http://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=herre

[ellowynlunaris]

Well, you're right that it is an abbreviation stemming from "herre", but when you use it in the indefinite, singular form it's " hr."

In definite singular you'd say "den herre" (which I believe it says further down in your link as well). :)

That being said though in Danish everyday language we hardly ever use it (we're overwhelmingly informal), but if we do it's the "hr."-form, which is pronounced like "herr" (omitting the e).

[epac-mcl]

I see. Well, thanks for the explanation Ellowyn (sounds Welsh to me), and much appreciated :)

[Monsieur-Xavier]

Why not "for De"? Why is it "til Dem"?

[Gylej-Gulay]

Because the subject "you" and the object "you" are different in Danish :)

Think of it as the second person singular "you": When it is the subject of the sentence, we say "du"; however when it is the object of the sentence we say "dig":

You have a horse. = Du har en hest.

BUT

I love you. = Jeg elsker dig.

The same with De and Dem; De is used only as the subject; Dem is used as the object.

De har en hest. = You (polite) have a horse.

Jeg elsker Dem = I love you (polite).

Please note that both De and Dem are capitalised. I hope this helps.

[DLAFDEEV]

hr skal ikke udtales h r men... lidt ligesom .,, haer