Comparison of Norwegian Bokmål and Standard Danish

Danish and Norwegian Bokmål (the most common standard form of written Norwegian) are very similar, but significant differences between them exist. The languages are mutually intelligible, with the primary differences being in pronunciation and in the sound system as a whole.

Mutual intelligibility

Generally, speakers of the three largest Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish) can read each other's languages without great difficulty. This holds especially true of Danish and Norwegian.[1] The primary obstacles to mutual comprehension are differences in pronunciation. Danish speakers generally do not understand Norwegian as well as the extremely similar written norms would lead one to expect. Many Norwegians – especially in northern and western Norway – also have problems understanding Danish, but according to a recent scientific investigation Norwegians are better at understanding both Danish and Swedish than Danes and Swedes are at understanding Norwegian.[2] Nonetheless, Danish is widely reported to be the most incomprehensible language of the three.

In general, Danish and Norwegian speakers will be able to understand one another's language with only a little training.[3]

History

In the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway (1536–1814), the official language was Danish. The urban Norwegian upper class spoke Dano-Norwegian, a form of Danish with Norwegian pronunciation and other minor local differences. After the two countries separated, Danish remained the official language of Norway, and remained largely unchanged until language reforms in the early 20th century led to the standardization of forms more similar to the Norwegian urban and rural vernaculars. Since 1929, this written standard has been known as Bokmål. Later attempts to bring it closer to and eventually merge it with the other Norwegian written standard, Nynorsk, constructed on the basis of Norwegian dialects, have failed due to widespread resistance. Instead, the most recent reforms of Bokmål (2005) have included certain Danish-like constructions that had previously been banned.[4]

Sample

Danish text1
I 1877 forlod Brandes København og bosatte sig i Berlin. Hans politiske synspunkter gjorde dog, at Preussen blev ubehagelig for ham at opholde sig i, og han vendte i 1883 tilbage til København, hvor han blev mødt af en helt ny gruppe af forfattere og tænkere, der var ivrige efter at modtage ham som deres leder. Det vigtigste af hans senere arbejder har været hans værk om William Shakespeare, der blev oversat til engelsk af William Archer og med det samme blev anerkendt.
Norwegian (moderate Bokmål)1
I 1877 forlot Brandes København og bosatte seg i Berlin. Hans politiske synspunkter gjorde imidlertid at det ble ubehagelig for ham å oppholde seg i Preussen, og i 1883 vendte han tilbake til København, der han ble møtt av en helt ny gruppe forfattere og tenkere, som var ivrige etter å motta ham som sin leder. Det viktigste av hans senere arbeider er hans verk om William Shakespeare, som ble oversatt til engelsk av William Archer, og som straks ble anerkjent.
Translation of the Bokmål sample into Danish1
I 1877 forlod Brandes København og bosatte sig i Berlin. Hans politiske synspunkter gjorde imidlertid at det blev ubehageligt for ham at opholde sig i Preussen, og i 1883 vendte han tilbage til København, hvor han blev mødt af en helt ny gruppe forfattere og tænkere, som var ivrige efter at møde ham som deres leder. Det vigtigste af hans senere arbejder er hans værk om William Shakespeare, som blev oversat til engelsk af William Archer, og som straks blev anerkendt.

English translation
In 1877 Brandes left Copenhagen and took up residence in Berlin. However, his political views made Prussia an uncomfortable place to live, and in 1883 he returned to Copenhagen, where he was met by a completely new group of writers and thinkers, who were eager to accept him as their leader. The most important of his later works is his work about William Shakespeare, which was translated to English by William Archer and received recognition immediately.
  1. ^ Excerpts from the articles about Danish critic Georg Brandes from the Danish Wikipedia, version from May 19, 2006, 09:36 and Norwegian (bokmål) Wikipedia, version from April 4, 2006, 01:38. The translation of the Bokmål sample into Danish was created for the purpose of this article.

Writing system

Generally, Norwegian orthography is more simplified and regularized and closer to actual pronunciation than Danish. As a rule, the graphic differences between the two languages do not reflect actual differences in pronunciation; while there are significant phonetic and phonological differences, they are rarely expressed in writing. The few exceptions are noted below.

Danish Jeg ved, hvordan manden, (som) du snakker om, ser ud.
Norwegian Jeg vet hvordan mannen (som) du snakker om, ser ut.
English I know how the man (that) you're talking about looks.

Note, however, Norwegian John, som hadde sett mannen, visste hvordan han så ut (John, who had seen the man, knew what he looked like), where the dependent clause is parenthetic.

Pronunciation and sound system

The difference in pronunciation between Norwegian and Danish is much more striking than the difference between Norwegian and Swedish. Although written Norwegian is very similar to Danish, spoken Norwegian more closely resembles Swedish.

The Danish pronunciation is typically described as 'softer', which in this case refers mostly to the frequent approximants corresponding to Norwegian and historical plosives in some positions in the word (especially the pronunciation of the letters b, d, and g), as well as the German-like realisation of r as a uvular or even pharyngeal approximant in Danish as opposed to the Norwegian alveolar trills or uvular trills/fricatives.

Note that in the following comparison of Danish and Norwegian pronunciation, the East Norwegian pronunciation of Oslo is taken as the norm. In practice, most Norwegians will speak a local dialect in most contexts; furthermore, Bokmål itself is not a spoken standard, and is likely to be pronounced with clearly regional features. The most obvious instances are the uvular (rather than alveolar) pronunciation of /r/ and the lack of retroflexes in much of Western Norway, and the pronunciation, in some cases, of a retroflex flap instead of /l/ in much of Eastern Norway, including the less "refined" forms of the Oslo dialect. All of this is ignored in the following exposition.

Vowels

Arguably the most acoustically striking differences in vowels are that:

As a whole, Norwegian still preserves the old pairs of short and long vowels, as suggested by the writing system, pretty close to each other, even though the long ones are usually closer. Thus, the grapheme e corresponds to long [eː] (sene [seːnə], late [plural]) and short [ɛ] (sende [sɛnːə], to send), while the grapheme i corresponds to long [iː] (sine [siːnə], his/her/its/their own) and short [ɪ] (sinne [sɪnːə], anger). In Danish, the tendency of differentiation has led to a qualitative overlapping: also here, e can stand for long [eː] (sene [seːnə], late [plural]) and for short [ɛ] (sende [sɛnə], to send), but i, besides signifying long [iː] (sine [siːnə], his/her/its/their own), has come to correspond to short [e] ([nogen]sinde [senə], ever) and, to complicate things further, a short [i] pronunciation is maintained in some cases (sidste [sistə], last). Most Danish vowels have also many segmentally conditioned allophones, especially more open ones when preceded or followed by /r/ .

The following is a table that compares the most common Danish and the Norwegian pronunciations of a letter (without taking into account the grouping of sounds into phonemes, as well as many sub-rules, exceptions and subtleties). Note that in many cases, even when the same IPA transcription is used, the sounds may still be somewhat different in the two languages.

Grapheme Quantity Norwegian Danish
/V/ /rV/ /Vr/
a long [ɑː] [æː] [ʁɑː] [ɑː]
short [ɑ] [a > æ], [ɑ]1) [ʁɑ] [ɑː]
e long [eː] [eː] [ʁæː(ɪ̯)] [eːɐ, ɛːɐ]
short [ɛ] 2) [ɛ] [ʁa > ʁɑ], [ʁa > ʁaɪ̯] 2)3) [aɐ]
unstressed [ə] [ə] [ɐ] [ɐ]
i long [iː] [iː] [ʁiː] [iːɐ]
short [ɪ] [e], [i] [ʁæ], [ʁi] [iɐ]
o long [uː] 4) [oː] [ʁoː] [oːɐ]
short [ɔ] 5) [ʌ], [ɔ] 6) [ʁʌ] [ɒː], [o]
u long [ʉː] [uː] [ʁuː > ʁoː] [uːɐ]
short [ʉ], [u] [ɔ] 7), [u] [ʁɔ] 7), [ʁu > ʁo] [uɐ]
y long [yː] [yː] [ʁyː] [yːɐ]
short [y] [ø] 7), [y] [ʁœ] 7), [ʁy] [yɐ], [ɶɐ] 8)
æ long [æː] 9) [ɛː] [ʁæː(ɪ̯)] [ɛːɐ]
short [æ] [ɛ] [ʁa > ɑ], [ʁa > ʁaɪ̯] 3) [aɐ]
ø long [øː] [øː] [ʁœː] [øːɐ]
short [œ] [ø] [ʁœ], [ʁɶ] 10) [ɶɐ]
å long [oː] [ɔː] [ʁɔː] [ɒː]
short [ɔ] [ʌ] [ʁʌ] [ɒː]
1) before labials and velars
2) But [æ] before /r/
3) before velars
4) But [oː] before /ɡ, v/
5) but, in some cases, [u] (notably before rt, nd, and sometimes st)
6) in some words before /ʋ/, /s/, /n/, /m/ (< older ō)
7) almost universally before /m, n, ŋ/
8) only in fyrre "40"
9) But [ɛː], when, by exception, not followed by /r/
10) before /n/

Interestingly, while the more open realisations of /ɛ/ and /ɛː/ before /r/ are allophonic in Danish, they have acquired phonemic status as /æ/ and /æː/ in Norwegian, and the Norwegian letter æ has come to be used almost only to signify them. The phonologisation of /æ/ was mostly a collateral effect of the merger of some other sounds: Danish æ /ɛː/ vs. e /eː/ and sj /sj/ vs. rs /ɐ̯s/ have come to be pronounced in the same way in Norwegian (respectively /eː/ and /ʂ/), thus rendering the occurrences of /æ/ unpredictable.

Diphthongs

The Danish diphthongs [aɪ̯] and [ʌɪ̯] (spelled as ej and øj) correspond to the Norwegian diphthongs (in Oslo pronunciation) [æɪ̯] and [œɥ̯] (spelled as ei and øy). Besides that, a great many letter combinations are pronounced as diphthongs in Danish, but as usual vowel-consonant combinations in Norwegian. That is mostly due to the Danish letters g and v (colloquially also b) being pronounced as semivowels [ɪ̯] and [ʊ̯] after a vowel: thus, dag (day) is pronounced [d̥æ(ɪ̯)] in Danish, but [dɑːɡ] in Norwegian; lov (law) is pronounced [lʌʊ̯] in Danish, but [loːv] in Norwegian. Similarly, [aɪ̯] and [ʌɪ̯] are often spelled as eg and øg in Danish (eg may be pronounced [æɪ̯] in Norwegian, too, e.g. in regne, "to rain"). The Danish pronunciation is therefore, as with a above, closer to English, while the Norwegian is more conservative, closer to its spelling.

Consonants

The most notable differences are, as already mentioned, the pronunciation of approximants in Danish, corresponding to voiced and voiceless stops in Norwegian and of r as a uvu-pharyngeal approximant in Danish, corresponding to an alveolar trill in (East) Norwegian (skrige [sɡ̊ʁii], "shriek" vs skrike [skriːkə]). Furthermore, Danish has replaced the voiced/voiceless opposition in /p, t, k/) vs /b, d, ɡ/) with an aspirated/nonaspirated one ([pʰ, tˢ, kʰ] vs [b̥, d̥, ɡ̊]), and the contrast between the two is neutralized syllable-finally and before schwa (in practice, in the core of native words, this means it is lost everywhere except word-initially). Thus, begge (both) and bække (brooks) are pronounced alike as [b̥ɛɡ̊ə]. In Norwegian, the opposition is still voiced vs voiceless and it is preserved everywhere, with /p, t, k/ being aspirated in the onset of a stressed syllable (as in English and German).

Grapheme Danish Norwegian
In stressed onset Elsewhere (single) Elsewhere (double) In stressed onset Elsewhere
b [b̥] [b̥, ʊ̯] [b̥] [b] [b]
d [d̥] [ð̪] [ð̪] [d] [d]
g [ɡ̊] [-, ɪ̯, ʊ̯] [ɡ̊] [a] [a]
k [kʰ] [ɡ̊] [ɡ̊] [kʰ] [k]
p [pʰ] [b̥] [b̥] [pʰ] [p]
r [ʁ] [ɐ̯, -] [r] [r]
t [tˢ] [d̥] [d̥] [tʰ] [t]
v [ʋ] [ʊ̯] [ʊ̯] [ʋ] [ʋ]

The Danish /r/ is either vocalized or dropped altogether, after having influenced the adjacent vowels, in all positions but word-initially and pre-stress, making the Danish r very similar to the standard German r. Also, note the Danish pronunciation of initial t as [tˢ], displaying a hint of the High German consonant shift wherein German changed t to z/tz (cf. Danish tid, German Zeit).

Meanwhile, syllable-final b, v, d, and g may be compared to English syllables that end in y, w, and th (English "say" vs. Danish sige, "law" vs. lov, "wrath" vs. vrede).

Some letter combinations that are pronounced quite differently are:

Some notable sound correspondences are:

Prosody

In Norwegian, each stressed syllable must contain, phonetically, either a long vowel or a long (geminate) consonant (e.g. male [mɑːlə], "to paint" vs malle [mɑlːə], "catfish") . In Danish, there are no phonologically long consonants, so the opposition is between long and short vowels ([mæːlə] vs [malə]). Both languages have a prosodic opposition between two "accents", derived from syllable count in Old Norse and determined partly phonologically, partly morphologically and partly lexically. However, the exact nature of this prosodic contrast is very different. In Norwegian, the contrast is between two tonal accents, accent 1 and 2, which characterise a whole word with primary stress; in Danish, it is between the presence and the absence of the stød (a kind of laryngealisation), which characterises a syllable (though usually a syllable that bears at least secondary stress). Example: Danish løber "runner" [ˈløːb̥ɐ] vs løber "runs" [ˈløːˀb̥ɐ], Norwegian løper2 [lø̂ːpər] vs løper1 [lø̀ːpər]. Note Danish landsmand [ˈlanˀsmanˀ] "compatriot" (one word, two støds) as opposed to Norwegian landsmann [lɑ̀nsmɑnː] (one word, one accent).

Note: The pronunciation of the tone accents varies widely between Norwegian dialects; the IPA tone accent transcriptions above reflect South-East Norwegian pronunciation (found e.g. in Oslo). There is usually also high pitch in the last syllable, but it is not transcribed here, because it belongs to the prosody of the phrase rather than the word.

Grammatical differences

Nominal morphology

Gender

Danish has two grammatical genders – common (indefinite article en and definite article -en) and neuter (indefinite article et and definite article -et). In Norwegian, the system is generally the same, but some common words optionally use special feminine gender declension patterns, which have been preserved from Old Norse in Norwegian dialects and were re-introduced into the written language by the language reforms of the early 20th century. Hence, three genders are recognized – masculine (morphologically identical to Danish common, with indefinite article en and definite article -en), feminine (indefinite article ei and definite article -a) and neuter (morphologically identical to its Danish counterpart, with indefinite article et and definite article -et, pronounced /ə/). The likelihood of a feminine as opposed to common form being used depends on the particular word, as well as on style: common gender forms are often more formal or sometimes even bookish, while feminine forms tend to make a more colloquial and sometimes even rustic impression. Examples: Danish en mand – manden ("a man – the man"), en sol – solen ("a sun – the sun"), et hus – huset ("a house – the house") vs Norwegian en mann – mannen ("a man – the man"), ei sol – sola or en sol – solen ("a sun – the sun"), et hus – huset ("a house – the house").

The Norwegian feminine can also be expressed in the indefinite singular declension of the word liten, which has a special feminine form lita beside the neuter lite. Danish has only lille, which is the definite singular form in both languages.

Number

In Danish, the plural endings are -er, -e or zero-ending. The choice of ending is difficult to predict (although -er is especially common in polysyllables, loanwords and words ending in unstressed e; -e is most usual in monosyllables; and zero-ending is most usual in neuter monosyllables). In Norwegian, the plural suffix -e is used too, but the system is rather regularized, since it is only nouns ending with -er in unbent form that get -e in indefinite plural form, and this is current for both masculine, feminine and neuter nouns; en skyskraper – skyskrapere "a skyscraper – skyscrapers"; en hamburger – hamburgere "a hamburger – hamburgers"; et monster – monstre "a monster – monsters"; et senter – sentre "a center – centers". The ending -er is dominant in masculine/feminine nouns and some neuters with several syllables, while zero-ending is prevalent in neuter gender monosyllables. Examples: Danish en appelsin – appelsiner, en hund – hunde, et hus – huse, et fald – fald, vs Norwegian en appelsin – appelsiner, en hund – hunder, et hus – hus, et fall – fall (singular and plural forms of "orange", "dog", "house" and "fall").

In addition, the formation of the definite plural forms are somewhat different in the two languages. In Danish, plural forms in -er transform into definite plural -erne, while plurals in -e and zero-ending become -ene. Norwegian has generalized -ene for nearly all masculine and feminine words, and an -ene or -a for neuter words. A few masculine words also have an alternative ending -a, derived from -a(ne)/-æne in the spoken language (en feil – feila/feilene, "a mistake/error – the mistakes/errors"). Examples: Danish en sag – sager – sagerne, en dag – dage – dagene, et fald – fald – faldene, et ben – ben – benene vs Norwegian en sak – saker – sakene, en dag – dager – dagene, et fall – fall – fallene, et be(i)n – be(i)n – be(i)na/be(i)nene (singular, plural, and plural definite forms of "thing", "day", "fall" and "bone"/"leg").

Definiteness

In both languages, single nouns use a postpositive definite article. However, in Danish, when a noun is modified by an adjective, a prepositive definite article is used instead of the postpositive one. Norwegian both adds a prepositive article and keeps the postpositive. Example: Danish hus – huset, et stort hus – det store hus, vs Norwegian hus – huset, et stort hus – det store huset (indefinite and definite forms of "a/the house" and "a/the big house"). The same difference applies when a demonstrative pronoun is used: Danish Jeg elsker den mand vs Norwegian Jeg elsker den mannen (I love that man).

Pronouns

Numerals

There are significant differences between the numeral systems of the two languages.

Verbal morphology

Bokmål has also introduced the optional use of the ending -a (taken from Norwegian dialects and used as the only allowed form in Nynorsk) instead of -et: thus, kaste – kasta – kasta, ramme – ramma – ramma, etc. The use of forms in -a is more common in speech than in writing.

Miscellaneous

Certain words present in both languages are used differently in each. This can result in identical sentences meaning different things in the two languages, or in constructions that make sense in one language becoming nonsensical in the other.

Examples include:

Vocabulary

Geographical names

Names of countries

Danish has adopted many German (particularly from Low German variants spoken by the Hanseatic League) words and grammatical structures, while Bokmål has rejected some of these imports. An example is the naming of countries; Danish and Swedish generally use the German names of countries, or at least the German ending.

These names were used in Norwegian as well, but have in modern times (during the second half of the 20th century) to a large extent been replaced by the Latin endings; this means that the usual ending is -a in Norwegian and -en or -et in Danish (the -en and -et endings are also the definite articles). In the case of Switzerland, which is known in written Danish and Swedish by its German name Schweiz, this is transliterated in Norwegian as Sveits.[8]

As a result, Italien and Spanien are used in Danish, but as Australia, Italia and Spania in Bokmål, although the earlier forms can be heard in speakers of more conservative forms (for instance Queen Sonja of Norway). Similarly, while Mongolia and Slovakia are now used in Norwegian, Mongoliet and Slovakiet are still used in Danish.

In Danish, Latvia is referred to as Letland, similar to German Lettland, whereas in Norwegian, it is referred to as Latvia (although Letland and Lettland were previously used), but Estonia and Lithuania are referred to in both languages as Estland and Litauen, as in German.

Other differences include the use in Norwegian of the native names of countries. In Danish, Greece is referred to as Grækenland but in Norwegian, it is mostly referred to as Hellas (the Greek form of the name), even though the Danish-like Grekenland is sometimes used.[9] Similarly, the name for Cyprus in Norwegian is the Greek-derived Kypros,[10] rather than the Cypern (influenced by the German Zypern) used in Danish.[11]

Nevertheless, Norwegians usually use greker (noun) and gresk (adjective) for "Greek", not hellener (noun) and hellensk (adjective); the latter are used only when talking about Ancient Greece, in the sense of Hellenic, as in English and other languages.

In addition, Norwegian speakers, unlike Danish speakers, refer to the Netherlands as Nederland, as in Dutch, not as Holland, although Nederlandene is used in Danish in the same formal sense as "The Netherlands" would be in English. Similarly the Dutch language is known as nederlandsk in Norway, but is most often called hollandsk in Denmark (the Norwegian dictionary Bokmålsordboka identify both Holland and hollandsk as previously commonly used in Norwegian).[12]

By contrast, both Norwegian and Danish speakers refer to New Zealand by its English name, whereas Swedish speakers call the country Nya Zeeland.[13] However, "New Zealand" as an adjective is newzealandsk or nyzealandsk in Norwegian,[14] whereas newzealandsk, though unofficial, is encountered in Danish,[15] In Danish, "New Zealander" is newzealænder[16] while in Norwegian it can be translated as either newzealender or nyzealender.[17]

English Danish Norwegian
Albania Albanien Albania
Algeria Algeriet Algerie
Australia Australien Australia
Austria Østrig Østerrike
Belarus Hviderusland Hviterussland
Belgium Belgien Belgia
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnien-Hercegovina Bosnia-Hercegovina
Brazil Brasilien Brasil
Bulgaria Bulgarien Bulgaria
Cambodia Cambodja Kambodsja
Cameroon Cameroun Kamerun
Cape Verde Kap Verde Kapp Verde
Central African Republic Den Centralafrikanske Republik Den sentralafrikanske republikk
Chad Tchad Tsjad
Comoros Comorerne Komorene
Congo, Republic of Republikken Congo Republikken Kongo
Croatia Kroatien Kroatia
Cyprus Cypern Kypros
Czech Republic Den Tjekkiske Republik, Tjekkiet Den tsjekkiske republikk, Tsjekkia
Democratic Republic of Congo Den Demokratiske Republik Congo Den demokratiske republikken Kongo
East Timor Østtimor Øst-Timor
Egypt Egypten, Ægypten Egypt
Equatorial Guinea Ækvatorialguinea Ekvatorial-Guinea
Ethiopia Etiopien Etiopia
France Frankrig Frankrike
Greece Grækenland Hellas
India Indien India
Indonesia Indonesien Indonesia
Latvia Letland Latvia
Libya Libyen Libya
Macedonia Makedonien Makedonia
Mauritania Mauretanien Mauritania
Micronesia, Federated States of Føderale statsforbund Mikronesien Mikronesiaføderasjonen
Mongolia Mongoliet Mongolia
Mozambique Mozambique Mosambik
North Korea Nordkorea Nord-Korea
Philippines Filippinerne Filippinene
Romania Rumænien Romania
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabien Saudi-Arabia
Serbia Serbien Serbia
Slovakia Slovakiet Slovakia
Slovenia Slovenien Slovenia
Solomon Islands Salomonøerne Salomonøyene
South Africa Sydafrika Sør-Afrika
South Korea Sydkorea Sør-Korea
South Sudan Sydsudan Sør-Sudan
Spain Spanien Spania
Switzerland Schweitz Sveits
Syria Syrien Syria
Tunisia Tunisien Tunisia
Ukraine Ukraine Ukraina
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Det Forenede Kongerige Storbritannien og Nordirland Det forente kongerike Storbritannia og Nord-Irland

Names of cities

There are also differences in the names of cities, with one language using a native name, while the other uses one borrowed from another language. For example, in Norwegian, Helsinki is referred to as Helsingfors,[18] as in Swedish, whereas in Danish it is called Helsinki, as in Finnish.[19]

In Danish, Brussels is referred to as Bruxelles, as in French, or sometimes Bryssel as in Swedish, while in Norwegian it is known as Brussel, as in Dutch (but Bruxelles was permitted until 1961).[20] In Norwegian, however, Lisbon is known as Lisboa,[21] as in Portuguese, whereas in Danish it is known as Lissabon, as in German.[22] (However, Lissabon was previously used in Norwegian).[20]

Prague is known in Danish as Prag, as in German, unlike Norwegian, in which the Czech name Praha is used.[23] However, Belgrade, Moscow and Warsaw are known in both languages by their respective Serbian, Russian and Polish names, Beograd,[24][25] Moskva[26][27] and Warszawa.[28][29]

Different meanings

Here are some examples of common words and expressions that are different in the two languages. Note that the Danish variant usually exists in Norwegian as an archaic or less frequent form (and/or vice versa).

English Danish Norwegian
afraid bange, (arch., dial.:) ræd redd, but also bange (archaic, mostly used in standard expressions like "bange anelser")
afterwards bagefter, derefter etterpå, efterpå (conservative), deretter/derefter
angry vred sint, vred (archaic)
autumn efterår, (poet.:) høst høst, etterår/efterår (archaic)
be correct, hold true passe, stemme stemme
boy dreng, (colloquial:) gut gutt, dreng (archaic or used in a more narrow sense)
black sort svart, sort
breakfast morgenmad frokost
breathe ånde puste, ånde
cinema biograf, kino (old-fashioned) kino, biograf (older cinemas)
cold kold kald, kold
to comb (verb) rede gre(ie), kjemme
decade årti, tiår, dekade tiår, årti, dekade
easy nem, let lett, nem
evening aften, (poet.:) kvæld kveld, aften
difficult svær, vanskelig vanskelig
fact kendsgerning, faktum faktum, kjennsgjerning
fast, quick(ly) hurtig, rask fort (adv), rask (adj), hurtig
forward frem(over) frem(over), fram(over)
floor (storey) etage, sal etasje
frog frø frosk
fun sjov moro, gøy
future fremtid fremtid, framtid
hesitate tøve, nøle nøle
girl pige jente, pike
good god(t) bra, god(t)
healthy rask, sund, frisk frisk, sunn
hydrogen brint,[30] hydrogen hydrogen, vannstoff (archaic)
..., isn't it?/didn't he? etc. ..., ikke/vel? ikke sandt?, ikke også? ..., ikke sant?
jealous jaloux, skinsyg, misundelig sjalu, misunnelig
last year sidste år, i fjor i fjor
like (vb. enjoy) kunne lide like
lunch frokost lunsj (alt. lønsj or lunch), formiddagsmat
maybe måske, muligvis, kanske (old-fashioned) kanskje, muligvis
moustache overskæg bart, overskjegg
oxygen ilt,[30] oxygen oksygen, surstoff
potato kartoffel potet
rubbish (nonsense) sludder, vrøvl, vås, nonsens sludder, vrøvl, nonsens, tull, tøys, vås
satisfied/pleased tilfreds, fornøjet fornøyd, tilfreds
sheep får sau, smale (archaic/dialectal), får (archaic/dialectal, used in expressions/ fixed phrases )
short (person) lille, lav kort, lav
sometimes somme tider, iblandt, (colloquial:) nogle gange, af og til, indimellem, iblant, av og til, innimellom
spring(time) forår, (poet.:) vår vår, forår (archaic)
still (yet) stadigvæk, fremdeles (archaic), fortsat fremdeles, fortsatt
team hold lag
there, thither (about direction) derhen dit, dithen
toad tudse padde
ugly grim, (ethically:) styg stygg, grim
usual sædvanlig, vanlig (archaic) vanlig, sedvanlig
[earth]worm orm [meite]makk, [mete]mark, orm (Ambiguous, could mean both worm and snake, cf. wyrm.)
wrong forkert, gal(t) gal(t), feil

False friends

While most words have the same meaning, there are also a number of false friends. These are often cognates that have diverged in meaning. The vulgar nature of some of these differences forms the basis of a number of television sketches by Norwegian comedians.[31]

Word Danish meaning Norwegian meaning
grine laugh cry (both words cognates with English "grin")
kuk mess, problem penis (vulgar)
bolle sexual intercourse/ bun bun (however, can be used for sexual intercourse in some areas)
rask healthy/ fast fast (adj.) or litter (garbage)
svær difficult/ obese large
kneppe to fuck to button/ unbutton
flink nice skilled, clever
rar kind, nice strange, weird

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Håller språket ihop i Norden?". Retrieved 2010-04-12.
  2. ↑ "Nordmenn forstår nabospråkene best". Retrieved 2006-06-04. (Norwegian)
  3. ↑ "Interskandinavisk språkforståelse". Retrieved 2010-04-12.
  4. ↑ "Rettskrivningsendringer fra 1. juli 2005" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-07-04. (Norwegian)
  5. ↑ "Dansk komma". Retrieved 2006-06-05. (Danish)
  6. ↑ "Kommaregler". Archived from the original on 2006-08-13. Retrieved 2006-06-05. (Norwegian)
  7. ↑ Om garpegenitiv (site in Norwegian)
  8. ↑ For norsk næringsliv i Sveits
  9. ↑ Grekenland, Store norske leksikon
  10. ↑ Skal du reise til Hellas eller Kypros?
  11. ↑ Danmark i Cypern - Udenrigsministeriet
  12. ↑ hollandsk, Bokmålsordboka
  13. ↑ Reseinformation Nya Zeeland
  14. ↑ newzealandsk/nyzealandsk, Bokmålsordboka
  15. ↑ newzealandsk, Den Danske Ordbog
  16. ↑ newzealænder, Den Danske Ordbog
  17. ↑ newzealender / nyzealender, Bokmålsordboka
  18. ↑ Utreder tog Helsingfors-Tallinn, NRK, 6 January 2016
  19. ↑ Tip om terror lukkede havne i Helsink, DR, 7 August 2005
  20. 1 2 http://www.riksmalsforbundet.no/faq-category/hvordan-skrives/page/5/
  21. ↑ Praktikantopphold ved ambassaden i Lisboa
  22. ↑ Om Ambassaden
  23. ↑ Kongelig norsk ambassade i Praha
  24. ↑ Beograd - Praktikophold - Udenrigsministeriet
  25. ↑ Serbia - reiseinformasjon - Regjeringen.no
  26. ↑ Ambassaden i Moskva - Danmark i Rusland
  27. ↑ Ambassaden i Moskva - Kontaktinformasjon
  28. ↑ Kongelig norsk ambassade i Warszawa
  29. ↑ Danmarks Ambassade i Warszawa
  30. 1 2 From a 19th-century neologism by Hans Christian Ørsted
  31. ↑ "Danskene tar hevn". Retrieved 2006-06-04. (Norwegian)
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