A useful phrase

I think I am pretty adept at speaking and writing and using English, but much as I love and am interested in other languages, I really am not good at learning – and in particular speaking them. I learned French at school and did it as part of my degree, and I can still read it quite well – but orally and aurally, not so hot – pas si chaud! I’ve tried to learn other languages – I spent a dozen and more years struggling with an Ghaelge, Irish, all to no avail despite my efforts.

Like many people I now use Duolingo – and again, I’ve tried many of the languages on offer, however, the one I have stuck with for years and years, plodding through Duo-wise, is Danish. I have no idea why I started, I’m not sure I could ever say much to a Danish person (most Danes speak wonderful English, so I understand) even if Duo enabled me to say very much at all! To be honest, I’m not sure it’s the best way to learn a language, but I enjoy plodding on. Back to Danish – I’m fascinated by the words I recognise, because of course, England was once invaded and ruled by the Danes and they gave us a lot of our language! One thing which particularly tickled me, the Danish word for spider – edderkop still exists as attercop in the north of England.

In Duo Danish the other day, there was a new sentence “jeg er faret vild”. I know it begins ‘I am’ but faret? Does it mean danger? ‘Wild” – does that mean wild? My imagination raced – wild danger? Out in the wild? Out in the wild in danger? I imagined dark forests, wandering lost in dark forests – but was the sentence literal, or was it just one of those idioms? Of course, in actual fact, it meant none of these crazy imaginings – there is no longer a place to discuss such things on Duo, it was updated and a lot of helpful parts of it disappeared. Fortunately there is a great Facebook page for Duo Danish learners and I asked for help with this sentence.

Lois: I just had this sentence: “Jeg er faret vild” meaning “I’m lost” – does it literally mean in danger of the wild? If so, I think that it’s a wonderful expression!
A: Sadly not that meaning. It’s more like “I’ve gone lost” with the verb being “fare”, which is something akin to “go” in its original meaning (still the default word in other Nordic languages for plain “go”).
E: Like in farewell or how is he faring.
A: Præcis.
Lois: thank you, that makes it very clear. Oh well, it was a lovely thought! Thank you for explaining!
P: Fare meant travel in ancient Danish.
M: Ah, related to ‘fahren’ in German?
Lois: yes, in old English too, but I didn’t think of that at the time! Thank you! We have it in farewell, and wayfarer of course.