Are you familiar with these 'false friends'? If you've been to Denmark or Norway, or had Danish or Norwegian friends or colleagues visiting, you've probably come across words that are similar but don't mean the same thing. Many times we can understand each other in Scandinavia without any problems, but sometimes our similar languages confuse more than they help. Are you aware of these 12 so-called false friends?
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1. calm
If you are in Norway or Denmark and hear about a fun activity, don't expect anything too fancy. Fun means calm or peaceful, both in Norway and Denmark. What we in Sweden mean by fun is called "sjov" in Danish and "morsom" in Norwegian.
2nd Semester
In Sweden we think holiday means leave, but both Danes and Norwegians mean the same thing as the English when they say holiday. So they are talking about a term. Holiday? It's called ferie.
3. by
If a Dane or Norwegian says he has visited a village, it is quite possible that he has been to London, Paris or Barcelona. By in Danish and Norwegian simply means city.
4. enterprise
When Danes and Norwegians talk about 'achievement', it is hardly because they want to talk about something great. No, they simply want to talk about a company.
5. lunch
Have you been invited to breakfast in Denmark? Don't rush off too early in the morning ... it's lunch! In Norwegian, however, it's lunch, which is more understandable for us Swedes.
6. Fast
No, we're not talking about someone who is particularly cheeky. Hurtig simply means fast, both in Danish and Norwegian.
7. the frog
Could it be that the Dane is now talking about his seeds? No, it is much more likely that he is talking about his frogs. And if the Norwegian enters the conversation, be prepared for him to call a frog a "frog".
8. Room
Are they perhaps talking about some creature in the room? No, they are simply talking about the room. Rooms are called værelse, both in Danish and in Norwegian.
9. Bulls
If you and a Dane are talking about a bull, chances are you are talking about completely different things. The Dane probably means a capercaillie.
10. Hose
When Danes see a 'snake' in the forest, it's not an old bicycle snake lying around. It is far more likely that we are talking about a viper or similar! Slange simply means snake.
11. shortly/right away
If someone wants you to come right away, there's no hurry, is there? Just remember that Norwegians and Danes now expect you to come immediately!
12. string
Snor does not sound very nice, but in Danish it simply means string or rope.
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Veiken says:
Elementary my dear Watson!
My maiden name was Hansen if that explains anything! ?
07 November 2018 - 7:34
Helena says:
Ah, then I understand that this was elimentary! 😉
07 November 2018 - 11:44
åsa/nalta norrland says:
Ha ha ha 😀 fun.
When I went to school 100 years ago 😉 we had to read Norwegian & Danish and it was relatively incomprehensible 😉 remember we had to translate text and we read poems and stories by Norwegian & Danish authors.
07 November 2018 - 7:50
Helena says:
I think we also did some reading in school, but it feels like it was only a few lessons ...
07 November 2018 - 11:47
Frank Olsen says:
You probably didn't watch enough Norwegian TV series then, Åsa 🙂.
Here in Norway, half of all TV series in my childhood and youth were in Swedish...Pippi, Vi på Saltkråkan, Albert and Herbert and many more. Then came all the crime series such as Beck and Wallander, so we "norrbaggar" probably understand Swedish better than you understand Norwegian yes 🙂.
07 November 2018 - 11:58
Helena says:
I also think that's how it is Frank! And the fact that people from Skåne understand Danish better than other Swedes is mostly due to the fact that they have a greater exchange with Denmark (think "Bron" ;)).
07 November 2018 - 12:53
Emma, Sol som sol? says:
A snake in the forest sounds more like it would fall into the same category as tallefjant, guleböj, giant cod and shower chair. Great fun!
When a former work colleague from Norway was getting married to her Swedish husband, they had a little competition among the guests at the wedding. They had compiled a list of these made-up words mixed with real ones. The guests had to guess what was real and what it meant. Great fun!
Like I said, languages are great fun!
07 November 2018 - 7:56
Emma, Sol som sol? says:
Oh yes, I forgot ...
When I worked for Norwegian, we Swedish and Norwegian speakers received calls from both Swedes and Norwegians, it was a mixed bag. However, the Danes had their own customer service.
As I have heard it, Norwegian and Swedish are linguistically the same language, while Scanian is closer to Danish, if I remember correctly. Norwegian in turn is closer to Danish than Swedish. However, culturally and politically, they are considered separate languages.
I think this is quite interesting to think about in this context.
07 November 2018 - 10:41
Helena says:
Haha, what a fun competition at the wedding party! As for the similarity of languages, I don't know exactly what you mean? Norwegian and Danish are very similar in text. However, a certain type of Norwegian can sound like Swedish! Scanian has diphthongs that can make it sound a bit rough, but the diphthongs are usually not so similar to Danish. The fact that the people of Skåne and Denmark often understand each other reasonably well is mostly due to practice, I think (I'm from Skåne ;)) Then again, what is a language is political!
07 November 2018 - 11:53
Emma, Sol som sol? says:
So if you only look at how the languages are structured, words, grammar etc (i.e. linguistically), Norwegian and Swedish are the same language, they are different dialects. Skånskan is apparently so different from Swedish that it is closer to Danish.
At least that's what he told Henrik on the radio programme Språket.
Haha, all the Danes I've met and asked say that they don't understand Scanian, but they understand us Stockholmers better! 😀
Good thing you learn English early!
07 November 2018 - 16:20
Helena says:
Hmmm, interesting Emma! But I don't know if I can agree completely. Skånskan is different in terms of pronunciation from rikssvenskan and has some dialectal words, but otherwise it is Swedish. I am from Skåne, and Danish and Norwegian are much more difficult for me to understand ... However, I completely agree with you that I think it is easier for a Dane to understand Rikssvenska or Stockholmska! That Swedish is much closer to the written language and that makes it easier. Scanian has all the diphthongs that make it difficult, even for a Dane. (That's why I said that the only reason that people from Skåne are better at Danish than people from Stockholm is because they practice more ;)) Anyway, interesting! And there are certainly several angles and ways to see it! 🙂
07 November 2018 - 18:16
Maria/ Magnolia Magis says:
Languages are fun! Even dialects here in Sweden. After a year in Skåne, we have noticed some differences...
07 November 2018 - 8:41
Helena says:
Haha, I can imagine that! (By the way, I'm originally from Skåne ;))
07 November 2018 - 11:54
Maria/ Magnolia Magis says:
What?!!! Are you!? What are you doing in Stockholm then? We can't wait to get back down there.
07 November 2018 - 12:51
Helena says:
I moved with my parents to Stockholm when I was 14 😉 .
07 November 2018 - 18:16
Nils-Åke Hansson says:
After 34 years in Skåne, we/I have learnt from wise words. But when we got Danes on the shop floor, it was hard to understand.
When our son-in-law (Norrman) was home for the first time, there were some misunderstandings.
07 November 2018 - 9:39
Helena says:
It's easy to have some misunderstandings 😉.
07 November 2018 - 12:02
Kari says:
A few more examples:
Our youngest daughter lives and works in Sweden. She was a little uncomfortable at the coffee break a few years ago, when everyone told her what they had done at the weekend, and a colleague told her that she and her husband had spent the whole weekend working in the garage. It was one thing for it to be uncomfortable and unromantic, my daughter thought, but imagine telling about it at work! Pule in Norwegian means to fuck . . - a slightly vulgar word for having intercourse. ?
In Norway, you can often read in the newspaper result lists from samlag championships, which have nothing to do with competition in Swedish samlag, but are a type of shooting competition (Samlag is the Norwegian word for intercourse).
07 November 2018 - 10:11
Helena says:
Haha what fun examples! 🙂 I've probably heard that with pule at some point ... I also think it's inappropriate to talk about snapping (kneppe) something sometimes, but maybe it's when Danes are in the neighbourhood ... 😉 .
07 November 2018 - 12:06
Ama de casa says:
Danish is fairly incomprehensible while some Norwegian is much easier to understand, depending on which part of Norway the dialect comes from. Norwegian from Stavanger is like pure root language.
I have had many colleagues from and in Norway, and there are a lot of Norwegians here in Torrevieja as well.
Some words are a bit crazy to use when communicating with Norwegians. I remember being laughed at by a colleague when he called and asked if I had time for something.
- "Absolutely," I said, "I'm just in my room having sex.
Haha! That's when I learnt what "pula" means in Norwegian 😀.
Fun compilation of confusing words across borders 🙂 .
07 November 2018 - 10:34
Helena says:
Norwegian can (sometimes) be a little clearer to listen to. And haha, yes sometimes you have to learn the hard way! 😉
07 November 2018 - 12:10
Steve says:
Fun with your "false friend" posts. Language is fascinating and often a source of misunderstanding.
07 November 2018 - 10:39
Helena says:
Isn't it fun with languages? Between the Scandinavian languages there is much that is similar, but also some that is different 😉.
07 November 2018 - 12:54
Kari says:
Need to include an example that might be more appropriate in the post about Swedish and English words. Kostym(e) means the same in English and Norwegian. Swedish kostym is called dress in Norwegian. Dress in English is called kjole in Norwegian, which is called klänning in Swedish. The Swedish word kjol is skjørt in Norwegian, which is most similar in pronunciation to the English word for shirt. Slightly confused? 🙂
07 November 2018 - 10:56
Helena says:
Haha, so this was good! Really confusing! By the way, Kjóll in Icelandic means dress 😉 (I've lived in Iceland for a year and speak some Icelandic, but not as well as I used to, unfortunately).
07 November 2018 - 18:18
Ditte says:
No problem with these! I am half-Norwegian and have lived in Norway and also in Denmark. But yes, these words can be tricky.
07 November 2018 - 13:42
Helena says:
Understand that this will not be a problem for you Ditte! 🙂
07 November 2018 - 18:18
BP says:
Hahaha! A very funny post! Love it! Vaerelse was probably the only word I recognised. I learnt it the hard way in a hotel in Copenhagen.
I love languages, but I don't understand Danish. Not Norwegian either, come to think of it, but that language is slightly easier to follow.
07 November 2018 - 14:06
Helena says:
It's a bit of a habit, I think, to understand. And then it's a bit about how fast they speak 😉 Different dialects also differ a lot. Sometimes I think it goes very well, and other times it's really tricky 😉.
07 November 2018 - 18:19
åsa/nalta norrland says:
We have Norwegian friends and this summer their daughter came and stayed with us for a couple of days, language wise there were some crazy things 😉 Elin & Charlotte solved it by speaking English when they didn't understand each other 🙂 .
My 8th sister is together with a Norwegian from Bodö and the first few years it was sometimes difficult to understand what he was saying....
When I was about 10, 12 years old I exchanged letters with a girl of the same age from Skåne, the correspondence stopped after she called me and we didn't understand each other 😀.
07 November 2018 - 14:12
Helena says:
Haha, but oh no, with the pen pal ...!!! I'm from Skåne, but I've lived in Stockholm for a long time so you'll understand me! 😉
07 November 2018 - 18:20
Marina says:
Great post! I have no major problems with Norwegian (we are fairly close to the border, so to speak), but I can't handle Danish at all.
07 November 2018 - 18:01
Reiselinda says:
Of course, language is fun and I myself have "suffered" from some false friends during my 17 years here in Sweden. As several others have written, I thought it was a bit embarrassing when my colleagues told me that they had fucked in the garage at the weekend...
I might add that snore has the same meaning in Norwegian as in Danish and that both snake and serpent are used in Norway. A little bonus that is not a false friend, but a word that many Swedes laugh at is that tadpoles are called rompetroll in Norwegian!
07 November 2018 - 21:51
Rolle o Carina says:
Yes, it can get completely crazy wrong sometimes!
Better to take English then 🙂
Have it Nice.....
08 November 2018 - 17:40
Lena - gott för själen says:
Hehe, that was a lot of news for me!
Hug Lena
09 November 2018 - 7:57