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Most candidates walk into the PD2 oral hoping to get a good partner. That is the wrong thing to hope for, because it is the one variable you cannot influence — and it is not what you are marked on.
Here is the reframe that changes how you prepare: you are not graded on the conversation. You are graded on your contribution to it. In Delprøve 2 the examiner steps back and the two of you talk to each other, and what is being assessed is whether you can keep a real exchange alive — invite, respond, build, disagree, land an agreement. A partner who makes that hard is not bad luck. A partner who makes that hard is the assessment.
And this matters more than any other single thing in your PD2 preparation, because oral communication counts double: the weighted average is (Reading + Writing + 2 × Speaking) ÷ 4, and you need at least 2.0 to pass.
Always confirm the current format and your exact dates with your language school and at danskogproever.dk, as the framework can change.
The setup, in one paragraph
PD2 mundtlig kommunikation is taken with another candidate and lasts about 20 minutes in total for the two of you. Delprøve 1 is individual — your own prepared topic and the examiner's follow-up questions. Delprøve 2 is where the partner problem lives: you each get a photograph and answer questions on it, and then the two of you discuss a situation the examiner sets out, with the examiner acting as mediator rather than as your conversation partner.
Two facts about the grade should lower your blood pressure straight away:
- You get your own grade. Your partner's Danish does not become your Danish. A weak partner cannot fail you.
- You cannot be marked down for their silence — only for your own. If they go quiet and you let the silence sit, that silence is now yours too.
For the full format and the Delprøve 1 tactics, start with the PD2 speaking guide. This post is only about the four partners who make Delprøve 2 hard.
1. The rule that covers all four situations
Whatever goes wrong, the fix has the same shape: talk to your partner, not about them to the examiner.
The instinctive move, when a partner stalls or steamrolls you, is to turn your body and your eyes to the examiner — to appeal, to explain, to show that you know what should be happening. Every candidate who does this loses marks, because the examiner is not your conversation partner in this part, and a conversation conducted at a third person is not a conversation.
So: keep your eyes on your partner, keep addressing them by "du", and solve the problem inside the dialogue. Everything below is a variation on that one move.
2. The Freezer — one-word answers, long silences
The most common difficult partner. They answer "Ja." and stop. They look at the table. Nothing you ask seems to open them up.
The mistake is to fill the gap with your own monologue. It feels helpful and it reads as domination.
Ask questions they cannot answer with one word. A yes/no question hands a nervous person an exit; take the exit away:
- Instead of "Er du enig?" → "Hvad ville du selv gøre i den situation?"
- Instead of "Synes du, det er en god idé?" → "Hvad er det bedste og det værste ved den løsning, synes du?"
Hand them a choice instead of a blank page. A freezing candidate can often pick even when they cannot generate: "Skal vi tale om prisen først, eller om tiden?" — this is the single most effective unlock, because it converts an open question into a two-option one.
Give them a sentence stem. "Jeg synes, vi skal starte med at… Hvad synes du, vi skal gøre bagefter?" You have modelled the grammar and left a slot for them.
Then wait. Count two full seconds of silence before you rescue it. Most candidates rescue at half a second and never discover that their partner was about to speak. That pause is free, and it is the difference between a dialogue and a solo.
3. The Monologuer — they will not stop talking
The opposite problem, and the one candidates handle worst, because interrupting feels rude and they have not learned how to do it in Danish.
Understand this clearly: in the exam, interrupting your partner is not rude — it is the assessed skill. If you sit politely through four minutes of someone else's Danish, you have produced almost no Danish of your own, and you will be marked on the almost-nothing.
Danish gives you polite, completely normal ways in:
- "Må jeg lige sige noget?" — the direct one. Use it without guilt.
- "Undskyld, jeg afbryder lige —" — softer, and it signals you know what you are doing.
- "Lige præcis det, du siger om…, det vil jeg gerne bygge videre på." — the yes-and pivot: you agree with a fragment of what they said, and that agreement is your entry.
The pivot is the best of the three because it takes the turn and scores you interaction points at the same time — you have demonstrably listened.
Then close your own turn deliberately, and hand it back. "…Det var min tanke. Hvad siger du til det?" A monologuer will otherwise simply resume, and you will have to fight for the next turn all over again.
If they talk over your interruption, do not retreat into silence. Say it again, slightly louder, with their name if you know it. Two attempts is normal. The examiner is listening to who is trying.
4. The partner far above your level
They speak quickly, use vocabulary you do not have, and the gap makes you shrink. The danger here is not them — it is that you respond to feeling outclassed by saying less.
Asking for clarification is a graded skill, not an admission of weakness. Every one of these is a positive signal to an examiner, not a negative one:
- "Kan du sige det lidt langsommere?"
- "Hvad betyder det ord?"
- "Forstår jeg dig rigtigt, at du mener…?" — the strongest of the three, because you also demonstrate that you can summarise.
Do not borrow their vocabulary. Reaching for a word you heard ten seconds ago and do not control produces a sentence that collapses. Say it in the Danish you own. Simple, accurate, well-connected Danish at B1+ scores better than ambitious Danish that falls apart mid-sentence.
Stay on content, not on performance. You cannot out-vocabulary them, but you can have the better example, the clearer proposal, the concrete "Hos os i…". Content is a fair fight.
5. The partner far below your level
The most dangerous partner, precisely because it feels like the easy case. Three well-meant instincts each cost you marks:
- Do not translate for them — least of all into English. Switching out of Danish is the most expensive thing you can do in this room.
- Do not correct their Danish. You are not the examiner, and correcting reads as taking over.
- Do not answer the question that was asked to them. Wait. It is not your turn, and taking it is exactly the domination the criteria penalise.
What actually helps you both: downshift your own Danish. Shorter sentences, common words, one idea per turn. Adapting your language to your listener is a genuine communicative skill and it is visible to an examiner — you are not "dumbing down", you are demonstrating range.
Then use the freezer moves from section 2: closed-to-open questions, two-option choices, sentence stems. Being the person who makes a struggling partner produce Danish is the clearest possible evidence of the thing being assessed.
6. Rehearse it alone, because you cannot pick your partner
You will meet your partner minutes before the exam. So the preparation cannot be "find a good partner to practise with" — it has to be drills that work regardless of who you get.
- Drill the four openings out loud until they arrive without retrieval: the two-option question, the sentence stem, "Må jeg lige sige noget?", and "Forstår jeg dig rigtigt, at…?" Phrases you have to search for under pressure are not yet usable.
- Practise the two-second pause. Record yourself answering a question, then deliberately stop and stay stopped. It feels much longer than it is.
- Rehearse the same scenario twice — once as if your partner says almost nothing, once as if they never stop. Same topic, two very different jobs.
- Practise landing an agreement. Set a timer, discuss any everyday decision, and force yourself to close with "Så er vi enige om, at…" Delprøve 2 asks for a decision, and running out of time without one is a wasted ending.
Common mistakes
- Appealing to the examiner with your eyes or your body when the conversation stalls.
- Filling every silence yourself — it reads as domination, not helpfulness.
- Sitting politely through a monologue and producing almost no Danish of your own.
- Switching to English to help a struggling partner.
- Correcting your partner's mistakes, which is the examiner's job, not yours.
- Asking only yes/no questions, which hands a nervous partner a way out.
- Ending with no decision because the two of you never converged.
Danish phrase bank
Opening someone up (the freezer)
- Hvad ville du selv gøre? · Skal vi starte med… eller med…? · Hvad er det bedste ved det, synes du? · Hvorfor lige det? · Kan du give et eksempel?
Taking the turn back (the monologuer)
- Må jeg lige sige noget? · Undskyld, jeg afbryder lige… · Det, du siger om…, vil jeg gerne bygge videre på. · Lige et øjeblik — jeg vil gerne tilføje noget.
Handing the turn over
- Det var min tanke — hvad siger du til det? · Nu har jeg talt længe. Hvad synes du? · Er du enig, eller ser du det anderledes?
Asking for help without losing face
- Kan du sige det lidt langsommere? · Hvad betyder det ord? · Forstår jeg dig rigtigt, at du mener…? · Kan du forklare det på en anden måde?
Disagreeing politely
- Jeg ser det lidt anderledes… · Det kan godt være, men jeg synes… · På den ene side… på den anden side…
Landing the decision
- Jeg synes, vi skal… · Skal vi sige, at…? · Så er vi enige om, at… · Lad os blive enige om…
Drill these out loud, not in your head. Oral communication is a physical skill.
FAQ
Does a bad exam partner lower my PD2 grade?
No. You receive your own grade for oral communication, so your partner's level is not your result. What can lower your grade is how you react to them — going quiet because they dominate, or talking non-stop because they do not.
Is it rude to interrupt my partner in the PD2 oral?
No. Taking your turn is part of what is being assessed, and Danish has neutral ways to do it — "Må jeg lige sige noget?" is completely normal. Sitting silently through a long monologue costs you far more than interrupting does.
What if my partner says almost nothing?
Ask open questions, offer a choice between two options, and give them sentence stems to complete. Being the person who keeps the conversation alive is exactly the skill being marked — a struggling partner is an opportunity, not a handicap.
Can I ask my partner to repeat or slow down?
Yes, and it counts in your favour. "Kan du sige det lidt langsommere?" and "Forstår jeg dig rigtigt, at…?" show communicative competence. Guessing and answering the wrong question does not.
Do I get to choose who I take the PD2 oral with?
No. Pairs are arranged by the test centre, and you will usually meet your partner shortly before you go in. That is exactly why these moves are worth drilling in advance.
Related guides
- PD2 Speaking: How to Pass Mundtlig Kommunikation — the full format, Delprøve 1 topic choice, and the photo task.
- How to Pass Prøve i Dansk 2 — the whole exam, and where candidates actually lose points.
- PD2 exam overview and score calculator — format, timings, and how the double weighting works out.
- How to Pass the PD3 Oral Exam — if you are aiming one level higher.
Practise PD2 speaking in Bestå
You cannot rehearse an unpredictable partner at home — but you can make sure that your own Danish is not the thing that fails under pressure. Bestå has PD2-format speaking practice for both delprøver: you speak on a topic and an AI examiner asks follow-up questions in Danish, and there are picture tasks to describe out loud. It listens while you speak and gives feedback on communication, vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar and fluency — so that on exam day your attention is free for your partner instead of your grammar. Download free on iOS and Android.