Differences between the Norwegian and Danish languages

Danish, Norwegian (including both written forms: Bokmål, the most common standard form; and Nynorsk) and Swedish are all descended from Old Norse, the common ancestor of all North Germanic languages spoken today. Thus, they are closely related, and largely mutually intelligible. The largest differences are found in pronunciation and language-specific vocabulary, which may severely hinder mutual intelligibility in some dialects. All dialects of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish form a dialect continuum within a wider North Germanic dialect continuum.

Mutual intelligibility

Generally, speakers of the three largest Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish) can read each other's languages without great difficulty. The primary obstacles to mutual comprehension are differences in pronunciation. According to a scientific study of the three groups, Norwegians generally understand the other languages the best, while Swedes understand the least. (Norwegian)

Danish and Norwegian are especially comprehensible to one another. In general, Danish and Norwegian speakers will be able to understand the other's language after only a little instruction or exposure. However, 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.

Because Norway’s largest cities have received signals from Sweden’s two national TV channels since the 1960s through private antennas, Norwegians generally have a better grasp of Swedish than vice versa; Sweden did not get Norwegian TV until decades later.

History of Norwegian

In the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway (1536–1814), the official language was Danish, not Norwegian. 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''. The other Norwegian written standard, ''Nynorsk'', was constructed on the basis of Norwegian dialects. Attempts to bring Bokmål closer to and eventually merge it with Nynorsk have failed due to widespread resistance. Instead, the most recent reforms of Bokmål in 2005 have included certain Danish-like constructions that had previously been banned. (Norwegian)

Sample text

; Danish: 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): 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.

; Norwegian (Nynorsk): I 1877 forlet Brandes København og busette seg i Berlin. Dei politiske synspunkta hans gjorde likevel at det vart ubehageleg for han å opphalde seg i Preussen, og i 1883 vende han tilbake til København, der han vart møtt av ei heil ny gruppe forfattarar og tenkjarar, som var ivrige etter å få han som leiaren sin. Det viktigaste av hans seinare arbeid er verket hans om William Shakespeare, som vart omsett til engelsk av William Archer, og som straks vart anerkjent.

;Swedish: År 1877 lämnade Brandes Köpenhamn och bosatte sig i Berlin. Hans politiska åsikter gjorde emellertid det obehagligt för honom att uppehålla sig i Preussen och år 1883 återvände han till Köpenhamn, där han mötte en helt ny grupp av författare och tänkare, som var ivriga att anta honom som sin ledare. Det viktigaste av hans senare arbeten är hans verk om William Shakespeare, som översattes till engelska av William Archer och som med det samma vann erkännande.

;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.
# 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 and Swedish was created for the purpose of this article.

Writing system

Danish and Norwegian

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.

*In writing, Danish may employ either the letter ''e'' or the letter ''æ'' to signify the short vowel phoneme . Norwegian almost always uses ''e''. Example: Danish ''lægge'' (to lay), ''sende'' (to send) versus Norwegian ''legge'', ''sende''.
*Danish regularly, although not always, uses the letter combinations ''nd'', ''ld'' instead of the double consonant letters ''nn'', ''ll''. In most cases this is not etymologically justified. In Norwegian and Swedish, only the etymologically justified spellings occur. Example: Danish ''kende'' (to know, Old Norse ''kenna''), ''denne'' (this /common gender/, ON masculine accusative ''þenna'') and ''sende'' (to send, ON ''senda'') versus Norwegian ''kjenne'', ''denne'' (but ''sende''); Danish ''ilde'' (bad, ON ''illa''), ''ville'' (to want, Old Norse ''vilja'') and ''holde'' (to hold, Old Norse ''halda'') versus Norwegian ''ille'', ''ville'' (but ''holde'').
*Unlike Norwegian, Danish often uses ''ds'' instead of double ''s''. Example: ''ridse'' (to scratch) but ''visse'' (certain lural versus Norwegian ''risse'', ''visse''. Likewise in some other contexts, Danish ''bedst'' (best), ''sidst'' (last) versus Norwegian ''best'', ''sist'' (ON ''bezt'', , where z denoted consonant combinations like ds etc.).
*Unlike Norwegian, Danish does not use double consonants at the end of words. Example: Danish ''vis'' can signify both the adjective pronounced (wise) and the adjective pronounced (certain), even though the plural forms of the adjectives, where the consonant occurs medially, are distinguished in writing by means of a double ''s'' in the second word (''vise'' versus ''visse''). In contrast, Norwegian does distinguish between ''vis'' and ''viss'' in the same way as between ''vise'' and ''visse''.
*Danish preserves the above rule both before inflexional and derivational endings, beginning in a consonant, and in ''compounding''. Norwegian, too, prohibits word-final double consonants before inflexional endings, beginning in a consonant, (unless homography needs to be avoided), but not before derivational endings and in compounding. Example: Danish ''al'' (all /common gender/) – ''alt'' (all /neuter gender/) – ''alle'' (all / plural/) – ''altid'' (always, literally "all time"); Norwegian ''all'' – ''alt'' – ''alle'', but ''alltid''.
*Norwegian has preserved the spellings ''gj'', ''kj'', and ''skj'' in the beginning of words when followed by ''e'', ''æ'', ''ø'', while modern Danish has simply ''g'', ''k'' and ''sk''. Today, this in part reflects the fact that these words are also pronounced differently in the two languages, see below. Examples: Danish ''gemme'' (keep, hide), ''kær'' (dear), ''skønt'' (wonderful, lovely) versus Norwegian ''gjemme'', ''kjær'', ''skjønt''.
*A pair of diphthongs are spelled as ''ej'' and ''øj'' in Danish, but as ''ei'' and ''øy'' in Norwegian. The exact pronunciation of these diphthongs is also somewhat different in the two languages, see below, and the different spellings are phonetically justified at least for the second diphthong. Examples: Danish ''vej'' (way), ''løj'' (lied / past tense/) versus Norwegian ''vei'', ''løy''.
*In the oblique case forms of the 1st and 2nd person pronouns and of reflexive pronouns, the ''ei''/''ej'' diphthong is spelled ''ig'' in Danish, but ''eg'' in Norwegian: ''mig'', ''dig'', ''sig'' versus ''meg'', ''deg'', ''seg''.
*In Danish, the preposition ''af'' "of, from" is spelled with ''f'' (pronounced or, in compounds, ), whereas Norwegian has ''av'' with ''v'' like Swedish.
*In loanwords, Danish generally has tended to partly preserve the spelling of the source language, whereas Norwegian traditionally usually has adapted the spelling to its own rules in order to reflect the expected pronunciation. Examples: Danish ''bureau'' (bureau), ''chauffør'' (chauffeur), ''information'' (information), ''garage'' (garage), ''centrum'' (centre), ''zone'' (zone) versus Norwegian ''byrå'', ''sjåfør'', ''informasjon'', ''garasje'', ''sentrum'', ''sone''.
*Traditional Danish punctuation requires that a comma be placed before and after every dependent clause, and although two recent reforms permit, optionally, the dropping of a comma ''before'' the dependent clause, the old system is still in general use. (Danish) In contrast, Norwegian only requires a comma ''after'' the dependent clause; a comma is placed ''before'' it only if the clause is parenthetic (the same rule as in English, but English also does not put a comma after a non-parenthetic clause). Swedish uses the same rule as English: a comma is not required before or after a non-parenthetic clause. Example where the dependent clause is parenthetic – (). Example sentence with nonparenthetic clause:

* Danish capitalizes all words in multi-word proper designations, but Norwegian and Swedish only capitalize the first word: ''Det Hvide Hus'' (Danish) – ''Det hvite hus'' (Norwegian Bokmål) – ''Det kvite huset'' (Norwegian Nynorsk) – ''Vita huset'' (Swedish) – the White House (English).

Swedish differences

Swedish orthography differs from Danish and Norwegian in the following respects:
* Danish and Norwegian use the letters ''æ'' and ''ø'', but Swedish uses ''ä'' and ''ö''. All the three languages use the letter ''å''.
* Danish and Norwegian use ''kk'', but Swedish uses ''ck''. Danish might also use a single 'k' finally, even for short vowels.
* Swedish uses the letter ''x'' in native words, but Danish and Norwegian use ''ks'' instead.
* In Swedish orthography, the etymological ''hv'' was abolished in 1906. Danish and Bokmål Norwegian still use it, although in some Norwegian words it is simplified to ''v'' (''verv, virvel, veps'' and optionally in ''verken/hverken''). In Nynorsk, it is written ''kv'' following truly Norwegian pronunciation.
* Swedish uses ''g, k, sk'' before all front vowels like Danish, although pronounces them as palatals unlike Danish.
* Swedish, like Norwegian, mostly spells /kt/ as ''kt'', whereas Danish uses ''gt''.
* Swedish uses the spelling ''och'' (and), whereas Danish and Norwegian use ''og''.
* Use of double consonants in Swedish generally coincides with that in Norwegian, but Norwegian uses ''at, et, skal, vil, til, mis-, mann, menn, munn, venn, inn, enn'' and Swedish uses ''att, ett, skall, vill, till, miss-, man, män, mun, vän, in, än''.
* Swedish uses double consonants before ''l, n, r, j, d, t'', but Norwegian uses single consonants.
* Danish and Norwegian preserve the morphological spelling ''-dt'', but in Swedish it was replaced by ''tt'' (or by ''t'' after consonants and unstressed vowels) by the 1906 spelling reform.
* The use of the letter ''ä'' in Swedish is much more frequent than the use of ''æ'' in Danish, not to mention Norwegian. In particular, Swedish uses ''ä'' in the combination ''jä'', which mostly corresponds to ''je'' in Danish.
* Swedish ''ts'' corresponds to Danish ''ds'' and Norwegian ''s'' or ''ss''.
* Some verbs in Swedish have two infinitives: more commonly used short one and more formal long one: ''be/bedja, bli/bliva, ge/giva, ha/hava, ta/taga''. In Norwegian, only short form is used (except ''be/bede''); written Danish has only long form.
* Spelling of loanwords is intermediate between conservative Danish and progressive Norwegian. In particular, various spelling of ''s'' and ''sj'' sounds are usually retained in Swedish, but replaced in Norwegian.
* Danish and Norwegian use ordinal dot for writing ordinal numbers, but Swedish uses colon and ending: ''5.'' (Danish and Norwegian), ''5:e'' (Swedish). Although ordinal dot in Swedish was formerly used, now it occurs only in military contexts, such as ''5. komp'' (5th company). Dates in Swedish are written without the ordinal suffixes, e. g. ''5 juni''; in Danish and Norwegian the ordinal dot is used: ''5. juni''.

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.

Danish pronunciation is typically described as 'softer', which in this case refers mostly to the frequent approximants corresponding to Norwegian, Swedish 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, Norwegian and Swedish 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 and the lack of retroflexes in much of Western Norway, and the pronunciation, in some cases, of a retroflex flap instead of 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:
*In Danish, the grapheme ''a'' corresponds, in most contexts, to the pronunciation of a front, often even open-mid front vowel (), closer to the English short ''a''. In Norwegian and Swedish, ''a'' is invariably an open back vowel . Example: Danish ''bane'' versus Norwegian ''bane'' (course, orbit).
*The grapheme ''u'' corresponds to (more or less close) ''back'' vowels in Danish, but usually to a close ''central'' vowel () in Norwegian and Swedish. Example: Danish versus Norwegian .

As a whole, Norwegian and Swedish still preserve 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 (Norwegian and Swedish ''sene'' , late lural and short (Norwegian ''sende'' , to send; Swedish ''hetta'' , heat), while the grapheme ''i'' corresponds to long (Norwegian ''sine'' , Swedish ''sina'' , his/her/its/their own) and short (''sinne'' , anger orwegianmind wedish. In Danish, the tendency of differentiation has led to a qualitative overlapping: also here, ''e'' can stand for long (''sene'' , late lural and for short (''sende'' , to send), but ''i'', besides signifying long (''sine'' , his/her/its/their own), has come to correspond to short ('' ogeninde'' , ever) and, to complicate things further, a short pronunciation is maintained in some cases (''sidste'' , last). Most Danish vowels have also many segmentally conditioned allophones, especially more open ones when preceded or followed by .

The following is a table that compares the most common Danish, Norwegian and Swedish 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 three languages.

:¹⁾ before labials and velars
:²⁾ But before
:³⁾ before velars
:⁴⁾ But before
:⁵⁾ but, in some cases, (notably before ''rt'', ''nd'', and sometimes ''st'')
:⁶⁾ in some words before (< older ''ō'')
:⁷⁾ almost universally before
:⁸⁾ only in ''fyrre'' "40"
:⁹⁾ But , when, by exception, not followed by
:¹⁰⁾ before
:¹¹⁾ before realised as and , long and short respectively.

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

Diphthongs

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

*A significant sound correspondence (rather than simply a difference in pronunciation) is the fact that Danish and Swedish have long monophthongs (''e'' , ''ø'' ) in some words, where Norwegian has restored the reflexes of old Norse diphthongs (''ei'' , ''øy'' and ''au'' ) as alternatives or, sometimes, replacement of the Danish ones. Examples: Danish ''ben'', Swedish ''ben'' (leg, bone) – Norwegian ''ben'' or ''bein''; Danish ''hø'', Swedish ''hö'' (hay) – Norwegian ''høy''; Danish ''høj'', Swedish ''hög'' (hill) – Norwegian ''haug''.
*Another correspondence: Old Norse ''jó'' and ''jú'' became ''ju'' in Swedish but ''y'' in Danish. Norwegian sometimes uses Danish forms, sometimes forms with ''jo'' and ''ju'' as in Old Norse. For example: Old Norse ''ljóss'' – Danish ''lys'' – Norwegian ''lys'' (Bokmål), ''lys'' or ''ljos'' (Nynorsk) – Swedish ''ljus'' (light).

Consonants

The most notable differences are, as already mentioned, the pronunciation of approximants in Danish, corresponding to voiced and voiceless stops in Norwegian and Swedish and of ''r'' as a uvu- pharyngeal approximant in Danish, corresponding to an alveolar trill in (East) Norwegian and Swedish (except southern dialects) (''skrige'', "shriek" versus ''skrike'', ''skrika''). Furthermore, Danish has replaced the voiceless/ voiced opposition (in versus ) with an aspirated/nonaspirated one ( versus ), 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 . In Norwegian and Swedish, the opposition is still voiced versus voiceless and it is preserved everywhere, with being aspirated in the onset of a stressed syllable (as in English and German).

The Danish 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 , similar to 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" versus Danish ''sige'', "law" versus ''lov'', "wrath" versus ''vrede'').

Some letter combinations that are pronounced quite differently are:
*''rd'', ''rl'', ''rn'', ''rs'', ''rt'' are pronounced as spelled in Danish (with the dropped), but in the part of Norway using trilled ''r'', they are always or almost always merged into retroflex consonants (, , , , ), as in Swedish.
*''sj'' is pronounced in Danish, but as in most of Norway and as [] in Swedish.

Some notable sound correspondences are:
*Danish has (spelled ''b''), (spelled ''d''), and (spelled ''g'') after long stressed vowels, where Norwegian and Swedish have restored/preserved the , and from Old Norse. Examples: Danish ''fod'' (foot), ''reb'' (rope), ''syg'' (sick) – Norwegian ''fot'', ''rep'', ''syk''/''sjuk'' – Swedish ''fot'', ''rep'', ''sjuk'' – Old Norse ''fótr'', ''reip'', ''sjúkr''. In a handful of cases, however, Bokmål Norwegian has kept the Danish form (''lege'', doctor, ''tegn'', sign, ''bedre'', better versus Old Norse ''læknari'', ''teikn'', ''betri''). In most of these cases, the Nynorsk equivalents have retained the old consonants (''lækjar'' (variant form), ''teikn'', ''betre'').
*Sometimes Danish has (, spelled ''v'') after originally long stressed vowels, where Norwegian and Swedish have restored/preserved from Old Norse. Example: Danish ''skov'' (forest), ''mave'' (belly) – Norwegian ''skog'', ''mage'' – Swedish ''skog'', ''mage'' – Old Norse ''skógr'', ''magi''. However, in many cases Norwegian has kept the Danish form (''lyve'' "tell a lie" – Old Norse ''ljúga''), and variation is permitted (''mave'', ''lyge'', and even ''ljuge'').
*Danish has , , and (spelled ''g'', ''k'' and ''sk'') in stressed syllable onsets, where Norwegian usually has , and before front vowels (spelled as in Danish before ''i'', ''y'', ''ei'' and ''øy'', and ''gj'', ''kj'' and ''skj'' elsewhere). Examples: Danish ''gemme'' (keep, hide), ''kær'' (dear), ''skønt'' (although), ''gyse'' (shiver), ''kilde'' (source, spring) versus Norwegian ''gjemme'', ''kjær'', ''skjønt'', ''gyse'', ''kilde'' (Bokmål)/''kjelde'' (Bokmål and Nynorsk). Swedish has , and , spelled as in Danish: ''gömma'', ''kär'', ''källa''.
*Additionally, the letter ''g'' is pronounced in Swedish in the final consonant combinations ''-lg'' and ''-rg'', but not in Danish and Norwegian.
*The consonant combinations ''skj'', ''kj'', ''tj'', ''gj'' are pronounced simply as consonant clusters in Danish, but in Norwegian and Swedish they represent single consonants: Norwegian ''skj'' , ''kj, tj'' , ''gj'' ; Swedish ''skj'' , ''kj, tj'' , ''gj'' . The combinations ''dj'' and ''stj'' represent consonant clusters in Danish and Norwegian and the consonants and respectively in Swedish. The combination ''lj'' is pronounced in Norwegian and Swedish, not used in Danish (Norwegian ''ljore'' – Danish ''lyre'', "hole in the roof"; Swedish ''ljus'' – Danish and Norwegian ''lys'' ynorsk also ''ljos'' "light"). On the other hand, ''hj'' is pronounced in all the three languages.
*The consonant combinations ''nd'' and ''ld'' are pronounced the same as ''nn'' and ''ll'' in Danish and Norwegian. In Swedish, they are pronounced as written.

Prosody

In Norwegian and Swedish, each stressed syllable must contain, phonetically, either a long vowel or a long (geminate) consonant (e.g. ''male'' , "to paint" versus ''malle'' , "catfish") . In Danish, there are no phonologically long consonants, so the opposition is between long and short vowels ( versus ).
All the three 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 and Swedish, 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" versus ''løber'' "runs" , Norwegian ''løper''² versus ''løper''¹ , Swedish ''löpare''² versus ''löper''¹ . Note Danish ''landsmand'' "compatriot" (one word, two støds) as opposed to Norwegian ''landsmann'' and Swedish ''landsman'' (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.''

Vowels in inflections

Danish, Norwegian and Swedish in inflections ( declension, conjugation) attach, albeit to a limited extent, endings. These endings are always unstressed and contain only short vowels. The use of vowels in these endings depends on the degree of reduction, which is highest in Danish. It allows only reduced in endings, pronounced as � Bokmål most often has reduced in endings, less often also . Nynorsk uses more often, other vowels less often. Swedish has the lowest reduction rate. It allows most vowels in endings, while the basic vowel in inflections is .

Examples:

Rendering of Graeco-Latin ''ae'' (αι) and ''oe'' (οι)

While Danish renders Graeco-Latin ''ae'' (αι) as ''æ'' (with some exceptions: ''Etiopien, Ægypten/Egypten''), Norwegian and Swedish mostly use ''e''. For example, Danish ''ækvivalent'' — Norwegian and Swedish ''ekvivalent'' (equivalent). In Norwegian, ''æ'' is kept before ''r'': ''æra, kimære, sfære''; Swedish has ''chimär, sfär'' but ''era''. "Caesar" is spelled ''Cæsar'' in Danish and Norwegian; Swedish uses unligatured spelling ''Caesar'', pronounced as if spelled *''Cesar''.

Graeco-Latin ''oe'' (οι) is rendered as ''ø'' in Danish and Norwegian, but as ''e'' in Swedish: Danish and Norwegian ''økologi'' — Swedish ''ekologi'' (ecology).

Grammatical differences

Nominal morphology

Gender

Danish and Swedish have two grammatical genders – common (indefinite article ''en'' and definite article ''-en'') and neuter (indefinite article ''et'' anish''ett'' wedishand 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 ). 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. Both variants are standard in Bokmål, whereas only the three-gender model is accepted in Nynorsk. Examples: Danish ''en mand'' – ''manden'' ("a man – the man"), ''en sol'' – ''solen'' ("a sun – the sun"), ''et hus'' – ''huset'' ("a house – the house") versus 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 uninflected 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'' (''-ar'' in Nynorsk) 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'', versus Norwegian ''en appelsin – appelsiner'', ''en hund – hunder'', ''et hus – hus'', ''et fall – fall'' (singular and plural forms of "orange", "dog", "house" and "fall"). Swedish has five plural endings: ''-er, -or, -ar, -n'' and the zero ending (see the tables above and below).

In addition, the formation of the definite plural forms are somewhat different in the three 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'' (''-ane'' in Nynorsk) 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'' versus 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"). Swedish adds ''-na'' to ''-er, -or, -ar''; ''-a'' to ''-n''; ''-en'' to zero ending.

Definiteness

In the three 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 and Swedish both add a prepositive article and keep the postpositive. Example: Danish ''hus – huset'', ''et stort hus – det store hus'' versus Norwegian ''hus – huset'', ''et stort hus – det store huset'' and Swedish ''hus – huset'', ''ett stort hus — det stora huset'' (indefinite and definite forms of "a/the house" and "a/the big house"). In proper designations, Swedish only keeps the postpositive article, and Bokmål does not add it: ''Det Hvide Hus'' (Danish) – ''Det hvite hus'' (Norwegian Bokmål) – ''Det kvite huset'' (Norwegian Nynorsk) – ''Vita huset'' (Swedish) (the White House).
The same difference applies when a demonstrative pronoun is used: Danish ''Jeg elsker den mand'' versus Norwegian ''Jeg elsker den mannen'' and Swedish ''Jag älskar den mannen'' (''I love that man'').

Adjectives

The declension of adjectives is basically the same in the three languages. Most of them form two forms in a single number: for the common gender (in Norwegian masculine and feminine) and for the neuter gender. In the plural, both genders have one form, which is at the same time a definite form, which is connected with nouns with a definite article.

In neuter forms, Swedish consistently appends the suffix -t (-tt) - except for the inflected adjectives of type bra (good). In Danish and even more often in Norwegian (especially Nynorsk) for some adjectives -t are not added:

''svensk'' (Danish, Norwegian) - ''svenskt'' (Swedish) = Swedish

''billigt'' (Danish, Swedish) - ''billig'' (Bokmål) - ''billeg'' (Nynorsk) = cheap

In Swedish, the spelling simplifies the group ''-dt'' (in neuter forms) to ''-tt'': ''god'' / ''godt'' (Danish, Norwegian) - ''god'' / ''gott'' (Swedish) = good.

Definite and plural forms have the suffix ''-e'' in Danish and Norwegian, while ''-a'' in Swedish:

''svenske søer'' (Danish) - ''svenske sjøer'' (Bokmål) - ''svenske sjøar'' (Nynorsk) - ''svenska sjöar'' (Swedish) = Swedish lakes

''det gamle hus'' (Danish) - ''det gamle huset'' (nor.) - ''det gamla huset'' (Swedish) = (the) old house

In Swedish, definite forms of the original masculine gender with the ending ''-e'' are also possible in a singular number (only for male people): ''den gamle / gamla mannen'' = (the) old man.

Pronouns

*To denote second person plural, Danish uses ''I'' (oblique form ''jer'', possessive pronoun ''jeres''), while Norwegian uses ''dere'' (oblique ''dere'', possessive ''deres''). Swedish uses ''ni'' (oblique and possessive ''er''); the variant ''I'' (oblique ''eder'', possessive ''eder'' or ''eders'') is obsolete.
*The 1st person plural possessive pronoun ("our") is ''vores'' ( uninflected) in modern Danish, but ''vår'' (inflected: neuter ''vårt'', plural ''våre'' orwegianor ''våra'' wedish in Norwegian and Swedish. Example: Danish ''vores ven/hus/venner'' versus Norwegian ''vår venn''/''vårt hus''/''våre venner'' or, like in the spoken language, ''vennen vår''/''huset vårt''/''vennene våre'' ("our friend/house/friends"). In Danish, the original inflected variant ''vor'' (''vort'', ''vore'') occurs only in more solemn or archaic style.
*The possessive pronouns always precede what they are modifying in Danish and Swedish; in Norwegian, they may also be placed ''after'' a definite noun or noun phrase. The choice of construction in Norwegian depends on the particular word and on style (the Danish-like construction is more formal or emphatic, the other one is more colloquial). Example: Danish ''min ven'', ''min nye ven'' — Swedish ''min vän'', ''min nya vän'' — Norwegian ''vennen min'' or ''min venn'', ''den nye vennen min'' or ''min nye venn'' ("my friend", "my new friend"). Nynorsk does not allow the Danish construction, which in Bokmål was inherited from Danish.
*The reflexive possessive pronoun ''sin'' ("his/her/its own") can't refer to a plural subject in Danish, but it can do so in Norwegian and Swedish. Example: Danish ''Han vasker sine klæder'' like Norwegian ''Han vasker klærne sine'' and Swedish ''Han vasker sina kläder'' ("He is washing his wnclothes"); but Danish ''De vasker deres klæder'' versus Norwegian ''De vasker klærne sine'' and Swedish ''De vasker sina kläder'' ("They are washing their wnclothes").
*In Danish, the pronoun that expresses an unspecified, generalized person or group (corresponding to English "one", French "on" and German "man") is ''man'' in its main form, but its oblique form is ''en'' and its genitive form is ''ens''. In Norwegian and Swedish, ''en'' can also be used as a main form. Example: Danish ''man kan ikke gøre det'' versus Norwegian ''man/en kan ikke gjøre det'' and Swedish ''man/en kan inte göra det'' ("one/people can't do that").
*In Danish and Swedish, the pronouns "such" and "so (=in this way)" are usually translated with ''sådan'' (''slig'' anish''slik'' wedishis obsolete and solemn). In Norwegian, the most usual form is ''slik'', but ''sådan'' is also correct (''sånn'' can be somewhat colloquial).
*In Danish, Bokmål and Swedish, the pronouns ''han'' and ''hun'' (Danish and Bokmål)/''hon'' (Swedish) refer to male and female people, but ''den'' and ''det'' are used for other common- and neuter-gender nouns. Nynorsk uses ''han'' for masculine nouns, ''ho'' for feminine nouns, ''det'' for neuter nouns.
*In Danish and Norwegian, the pronoun ''de'' (they) is pronounced iː but in Swedish its usual pronunciation is ɔmː the same pronunciation is used for its oblique case ''dem'', which in Danish and Norwegian is pronounced according to the spelling.

Numerals

There are significant differences between the numeral systems of Danish and Norwegian.
*In Danish, the number 7 is called ''syv''. In Norwegian, it is called ''sju'' (although the 2005 language reform re-introduced ''syv'' as an alternative to ''sju'').
*In Danish, 20 and 30 are called ''tyve'' and ''tredive''. These forms (with ''tredive'' shortened to ''tredve'') were replaced in Norwegian in 1951 by the native ''tjue'' and ''tretti''. Like ''syv'', which was replaced by ''sju'' at the same time, they still occur in Norwegian. The unofficial Riksmål standard retains the old forms.
*In Danish, the number 40 is called ''fyrre''. In Norwegian, it is ''førti'', although ''førr'' is permitted in riksmål.
*In Danish, the tens between 50 and 90 have different roots from the ones in most Germanic languages. Etymologically, like French numerals for 70, 80 and 90, they are based on a vigesimal system; in other words, the name of the number is based on how many times 20 it is. Thus, 60 is ''tres'' (short for ''tresindstyve'', "3 times 20") and 50 is ''halvtreds'' (short for ''halvtredsindstyve'', "2.5 times 20" or more literally "half-third times 20"). Similarly, 70 is ''halvfjerds'', 80 is ''firs'', and 90 is ''halvfems''. In Norwegian, these numbers are constructed much like in English and German, as compound words of the respective unit and an old word for "ten": 50 = ''femti'', 60 = ''seksti'', 70 = ''sytti'' , 80 = ''åtti'', 90 = ''nitti''.
*In Danish, units are placed before tens (as in German and Early Modern English); in Norwegian, the reverse applies (as in Modern English), although the Danish order is also used by some speakers. Example: Danish ''enogtyve'' ("one-and-twenty") versus Norwegian ''tjueen'' ("twenty-one") or ''enogtyve''.
*With regard to ordinal numbers, "second" has pretty much the same form in the two languages: ''anden'' (neuter ''andet'', plural ''andre'') in Danish and ''annen'' (neuter ''annet'', plural ''andre'') in Norwegian. However, Danish does not have a definite form but says ''den anden'', whereas Norwegian uses ''den andre''.

Swedish numerals are similar to Norwegian ones: ''sju'' (7), ''tjugo'' (20), ''tretio'' (30), ''fyrtio'' (40), ''femtio'' (50), ''sextio'' (60), ''sjutio'' (70), ''åttio'' (80), ''nittio'' (90), ''tjugoen'' (21), ''andra'' (the second).

Verbal morphology

*Danish regular verbs can be divided in those that form their past tense and past participle with the suffixes ''-ede'' and ''-et'' , respectively, (e.g. "to throw", ''kaste – kastede – kastet'') and those that form them with the suffixes ''-te'' and ''-t'' (e.g. "to read", ''læse – læste – læst''). Although the group in ''-ede'', ''-et'' is the largest one, the choice between these two conjugation patterns is mostly unpredictable. The corresponding Norwegian groups use ''-et'', ''-et'' (''kaste – kastet – kastet''), and ''-te'', ''-t'' (''lese – leste – lest''). However, unlike Danish, the choice of conjugation has come to be governed by a rule (with a few exceptions): verb stems containing a short vowel, followed by a long consonant or a consonant cluster (as in ''ramme''), use ''-et'', and verb stems containing a long vowel, followed by a short consonant (as in ''male''), use ''-te'' (Danish ''ramme – ramte – ramt'' versus Norwegian ''ramme – rammet – rammet'' "to hit"; Danish ''male – malede – malet'' versus Norwegian ''male – malte – malt'' "to paint"). In addition, verb stems ending in a stressed vowel form a third group with no parallel in Danish, using the endings ''-dde'', ''-dd'' ("to live omewhere – ''bo – bodde – bodd''). The corresponding Danish verbs nearly always use ''-ede'', ''-et'' (''bo – boede – boet''). Swedish uses the endings ''-ade, -ad'', ''-de, -d'' and ''-dde, -dd'', where ''d'' or ''dd'' is replaced by ''t'' or ''tt'' in the neuter.

: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. Nynorsk also allows infinitive ending in ''-a'': ''kaste/kasta – kasta – kasta''. Swedish also ends infinitives in ''-a''.

*Some Danish irregular verbs have longer forms, ending in unstressed ''-de'', ''-ge'' and ''-ve'', which have been dropped in Norwegian. In many cases, the Danish verbs may also be pronounced in the contracted way. Examples: Danish ''lade – lod – ladet'', ''sige – sagde – sagt'', ''blive – blev – blevet'' versus Norwegian ''la – lot – latt'', ''si – sa – sagt'', ''bli – ble(i) – blitt'' ("let", "say", "become"). Other examples are ''tage – tog – taget'' versus ''ta – tok – tatt'' ("to take"), ''have – havde – haft'' versus ''ha – hadde – hatt'' ("to have"), etc.. The same reduction exists in some verbs in Swedish (e. g. ''bli – blev – bliven'' esides the formal infinitive ''bliva''.
*The perfect forms in Danish may be formed either with the auxiliary verb ''have'' "to have" (as in English) or with ''være'' "to be". Some verbs always use ''være'' (''ske'' "happen", ''holde op'' "stop"), while others can use both auxiliaries, but with slightly different meanings: ''han har rejst'' "he has travelled (spent some time travelling)" emphasizes the action itself, while ''han er rejst'' "he has left (so he isn't here now)" emphasizes the result of the action. In Norwegian and Swedish, ''ha'' "to have" may be – and increasingly is – used in all cases, and no specific verbs require ''være/vära'': ''han er død'' (Danish) - ''han har dødd'' (Bokmål) - ''han har døydd / døytt'' (Nynorsk) - ''han har dött'' (Swedish) = he has died.
*Danish and Norwegian use the past participle in perfect tenses, but Swedish uses a different form, the supine. For weak verbs, it is identical to the neuter gender of the participle, but for strong verbs, the neuter of the participle ends in ''-et'' but the supine ends in ''-it''.
*The past participle in Swedish is consistently inflected as an adjective. The participle of most verbs has three clearly distinguished forms (two in the singular for the common and neuter gender; one for both genders in the plural, which is also a definite form). The participle must agree with the noun in the gender and the number, whether placed before the noun or after another verb:

''Biljetterna blev köpta och betalade''. = Tickets have been bought and paid for.

In Danish and Bokmål, declension of participles is simplified. From most verbs, only a definite and indefinite form is formed, without distinction of gender. For strong verbs, some Danish verbs have preserved a form in a common gender with the ending ''-en'' (as in Swedish). If the participle comes after a verb, grammatical agreement does not apply in both languages:

''Billeterne blev købt og betalt''. (Danish) - ''Billettene ble kjøpt og betalt''. (Bokmål) = Tickets have been bought and paid for.

In Nynorsk, as in Swedish, most participles are inflected, but some are indeclined (for example, the forms na -a: ''elska'' - see the table below). Grammatical agreement in the sentence is mandatory only for strong verbs, for weak verbs it is applied optionally and for some verbs it is not applied at all.

The present participles in all Scandinavian languages ​​are indeclinable.

*S-forms of verbs, i. e. forms ending in -s (in Nynorsk -st), have three uses in all Scandinavian languages:

**deponent verbs - verbs in passive form with active meaning;
**reciprocal verbs - verbs expressing reciprocity;
**passive voice, the so-called s-passive.
Deponent and reciprocal verbs are common to all languages. However, the use of s-forms is different. In Swedish, the passive voice is commonly expressed in this way (although the s-passive is more formal than the analytical passive). The suffix ''-s'' can be appended to any verb form (including supine) except for participles. In Danish and Norwegian, the s-passive is of limited use. In Danish and Bokmål, only the passive forms of the infinitive and the present tense are more commonly formed in this way. In Nynorsk, the ending ''-st'' can only be added to the infinitive that follows the modal verb, eg: ''Ingenting kunne gjørast''. = There was nothing that could be done. Otherwise, the passive must be expressed analytically, or avoided altogether.

*Some examples of verbs in the three languages:

Miscellaneous

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

Examples include:
*''må/kan'' – The word "må" usually means "must" in Norwegian, but can mean "may", "can", or "must" in Danish. Swedish uses ''kan'' for "can", ''måste'' for "must", and ''får'' or ''må'' for "may".
*''der/som'' – Danish has both words for "which", although ''der'' is only used as the grammatical subject. In Norwegian, ''der'' is only used archaically or poetically. Swedish uses ''som'', and ''vilken, vilket, vilka''.
*''nogle/nogen'' – in written Danish the counterparts of the English words "some" (in a plural sense) and "any" are spelled ''nogle'' and ''nogen'', respectively – although in speech, ''nogle'' is pronounced just like ''nogen''. In contrast, in Norwegian both are spelled identically, as ''noen'' (from Danish ''nogen''). Swedish uses ''någon, några, en del'', or ''somliga''.
*''kun/bare'' – in Danish, ''kun'' means roughly "only, solely" (referring to quantity or number) and ''bare'' "just, merely". ''Kun'' is used more often in Denmark, whereas ''bare'' is used more often in Norway. While there are rules in Danish that govern when to choose which word, in Norwegian ''bare'' may be – and usually is – used with both meanings. Swedish uses ''bara'', ''endast'' or ''enkom''.
*''meget/mye'' – in Norwegian, the adverb ''meget'' (alternatively ''veldig'' etc.) modifies adjectives just like English "very", while ''mye'' is used like English "much, a lot". In Danish, ''meget'' is used in both cases. Swedish typically uses ''mycket'' or ''väldigt'' for "very", ''mycket'' for "much", and ''många'' for "many" or "a lot".
*''enda/ennå (ennu)'' – in Norwegian, ''ennå'' means "still, yet" in a temporal sense, but ''enda'', which normally means "yet, nevertheless" among other things, is used in conjunction with comparative forms in expressions such as ''enda bedre'', "better still". In Danish, ''endnu'' (the equivalent of ''ennå'') is used in both cases. Swedish uses ''än'', ''ännu'' for "yet", "still" while ''ände'' or ''ända'' means "the end" (much like ''slut'' does).
*The primary difference in preposition usage in the Danish and Norwegian languages is the use of ''i ''/ ''på'', (in English in / on). Although the two are generally used similarly in both languages, in certain cases the two languages choose a different preposition for the same construction. For example, "a quarter to five" would be ''kvart i fem'' in Danish, but ''kvart på fem'' in Norwegian. To express a period of time during which something has happened, Danish always uses ''i'', but Norwegian uses ''i'' in affirmative and ''på'' in negative sentences: Danish ''jeg har (ikke) set ham i to år'' versus Norwegian ''jeg har sett ham i to år'', ''jeg har ikke sett ham på to år'' ("I have otseen him for two years"). Swedish uses forms like ''kvart'' ''i'' ''fem'', and ''... sett honom'' ''i'' ''två års tid'', but ... ''inte'' ''sett honom'' ''på'' ''två år''.
*''genitive constructions'' – unlike Danish, Norwegian very often uses the preposition ''til'' ("to") as a more informal alternative of genitive constructions: ''boka til Peter'', or ''Peters bok'' versus Danish ''Peters bog''. Norwegian also uses a construction with the reflexive pronoun, ''Peter sin bok'', (Lit. ''Peter his book''). This is in Norwegian bokmål called "garpegenitiv" and is (in bokmål) still considered substandard by some. Swedish is like Danish is this regard, except in some rural dialects.

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''.

As a result, ''Australien'', ''Italien'' and ''Spanien'' are used in Danish and Swedish, 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 and Swedish.

In Danish, Latvia is referred to as ''Letland'', similar to German ''Lettland'' (which is used in Swedish), whereas in Norwegian, it is referred to as ''Latvia'' (although ''Letland'' and ''Lettland'' were previously used), but Estonia and Lithuania are referred to in the three 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'' and in Swedish as ''Grekland'', 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. Similarly, the name for Cyprus in Norwegian is the Greek-derived ''Kypros'', rather than the ''Cypern'' (influenced by the German ''Zypern'') used in Danish and Swedish.

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. In Swedish, the form ''Nederländerna'' is used. Similarly the Dutch language is known as ''nederlandsk'' in Norway and ''nederländska'' in Sweden, but is most often called ''hollandsk'' in Denmark (the Norwegian dictionary ''Bokmålsordboka'' identify both ''Holland'' and ''hollandsk'' as previously commonly used in Norwegian).

By contrast, both Norwegian and Danish speakers refer to New Zealand by its English name (but ''Ny-Zealand'' is also used in Norwegian), whereas Swedish speakers call the country ''Nya Zeeland''. However, "New Zealand" as an adjective is ''newzealandsk'' or ''nyzealandsk'' in Norwegian, whereas ''newzealandsk'' is encountered in Danish, In Danish, "New Zealander" is ''newzealænder'' while in Norwegian it can be translated as either ''newzealender'' or ''nyzealender''.

Names of cities

There are also differences in the names of cities; each language choosing to use the more native name, or one borrowed from another language. For example:

* Helsinki in Norwegian, is referred to as ''Helsingfors'', as in Swedish, whereas in Danish it is usually called ''Helsinki'', as in Finnish.
* Brussels in Danish, 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).
* Lisbon in Norwegian, however, is known as ''Lisboa'', as in Portuguese, whereas in Danish and Swedish it is known as ''Lissabon'', as in German. (However, ''Lissabon'' was previously used in Norwegian).
* Prague is known in Danish and Swedish as ''Prag'', as in German, unlike Norwegian, in which the Czech name ''Praha'' is used.
* Bucharest likewise, is known in Danish and Swedish as ''Bukarest'', but in Norwegian the Romanian name ''București'' is used.
* Belgrade is known in Danish and Norwegian under the Serbian name ''Beograd'', but in Swedish the form ''Belgrad'' is used.
* Beijing likewise, is known in Danish and Norwegian in the pinyin spelling, but Swedish usually uses the form ''Peking''.
* Moscow and Warsaw however, are known in all the three languages by their respective Russian and Polish names, ''Moskva'' and ''Warszawa''.Danmarks Ambassade i Warszawa
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Different words

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

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. (Norwegian)

See also

*Norwegian language conflict
*Dano-Norwegian
* Icelandic

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Comparison of Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish
Danish language
Norwegian language
Swedish language
Comparison of Germanic languages and dialects
Language comparison

da:Bokmål#Bokmål og dansk
fr:Norvégien#Le norvégien et les autres langues scandinaves
no:Dansk#Dansk og norsk