| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Off topic: Danish versus Swedish Thread poster: Robert Rietvelt
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Agneta Pallinder 
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:30
Member (2014)
Swedish to English
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| Practice makes possible | May 31, 2021 |
Speaking as a Swede I must confess that when in conversation with a Dane we have often by mutual agreement switched to English for better understanding. This has never happened to me in Swedish/Norwegian conversation though, probably because both Swedes and Norwegians "sing their language" as Thomas describes it, so the gap between the written and the spoken language is not as great as it is for Danish.
But practice makes a big difference and I imagine inhabitants of the Öresund R... See more Speaking as a Swede I must confess that when in conversation with a Dane we have often by mutual agreement switched to English for better understanding. This has never happened to me in Swedish/Norwegian conversation though, probably because both Swedes and Norwegians "sing their language" as Thomas describes it, so the gap between the written and the spoken language is not as great as it is for Danish.
But practice makes a big difference and I imagine inhabitants of the Öresund Region (a.k.a. Greater Copenhagen and including the Swedish province of Skåne) become pretty adept at hearing and understanding the words through the spoken noise. This would apply to the detectives of the Nordic Noir films operating in each other's territory - and for sure it would equally apply to the actors impersonating them.
Now, if you want a Scandinavian language that is really difficult to understand try Icelandic. The grandmother of all the Scandinavian languages - your average educated Icelander can read Old Nordic I am told - but very different from her descendants. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Michele Fauble
United States
Local time: 07:30
Member (2006)
Norwegian to English
+ ...
| My experience | May 31, 2021 |
Speaking Norwegian, I have never had any difficulty in face-to-face conversations with Danes or Swedes. I easily understand spoken Swedish in movies and tv, but Danish can be a bit challenging without the Danish subtitles.
[Edited at 2021-05-31 18:15 GMT]
| | | | | A couple of stories | May 31, 2021 |
I'm not a native speaker of any Scandinavian language, but I was involved in a couple of interesting episodes.
About 25 years ago, I worked at the European Ballroom Dance Championship as a multilingual announcer and interpreter. The workload was minimal, but I had to be available in case the participants urgently needed something, and spent most of the time backstage. I vividly remember three couples - from Denmark, Norway and Sweden - sitting around the table and understanding each... See more I'm not a native speaker of any Scandinavian language, but I was involved in a couple of interesting episodes.
About 25 years ago, I worked at the European Ballroom Dance Championship as a multilingual announcer and interpreter. The workload was minimal, but I had to be available in case the participants urgently needed something, and spent most of the time backstage. I vividly remember three couples - from Denmark, Norway and Sweden - sitting around the table and understanding each other's language sufficiently well to have a free-flowing casual chat.
A bit later, around the turn of the century, I was interpreting at an event organised in Russia by a Danish dating agency, which brought a busload of lonely Danes to St. Petersburg to get acquainted with the Russian girls. I interpreted the words of the hostess into the standard Danish I had studied, which certainly wasn't perfect, but the guys appeared to understand it. However, going in the other direction proved much more difficult: I could understand city dwellers, especially those from Funen with their highly musical dialect, but a few guys from villages somewhere in Jutland spoke a language totally incomprehensible to me. When I admitted my problems to the organiser, she told me not to worry because even Danes from the other end of the country might not understand them. Later that evening, she told me she overheard two of those guys arguing about me:
- That guy is Russian.
- No, he's a Dane - don't you hear he is speaking the Copenhagen dialect?
So, at the bottom line, mutual intelligibility between the standard Scandinavian languages must be a lot less of a problem than between local varieties. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Don't educated Swedes, Danes and Norwegians understand each other without difficulties? | Jun 2, 2021 |
I'm surprised to learn from this thread that Swedes, Danes and Norwegians CANNOT understand each other! More than a quarter century ago, I learned Swedish, Danish and Norwegian (in this order) for leisure. In the foreword section of my Danish textbook ("Teach Yourself Danish), the author clearly stated that "Educated Swedes, Danes and Norwegians can understand each other without difficulties". But postings from this thread so far proves to be wrong. I wonder whether the author was totally wrong,... See more I'm surprised to learn from this thread that Swedes, Danes and Norwegians CANNOT understand each other! More than a quarter century ago, I learned Swedish, Danish and Norwegian (in this order) for leisure. In the foreword section of my Danish textbook ("Teach Yourself Danish), the author clearly stated that "Educated Swedes, Danes and Norwegians can understand each other without difficulties". But postings from this thread so far proves to be wrong. I wonder whether the author was totally wrong, or if she (the author) was referring to cases where all the three people mentioned from three different countries spoke standard Swedish, Danish and Norwegian and not in dialects. ▲ Collapse
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Yasutomo Kanazawa wrote:
I'm surprised to learn from this thread that Swedes, Danes and Norwegians CANNOT understand each other! More than a quarter century ago, I learned Swedish, Danish and Norwegian (in this order) for leisure. In the foreword section of my Danish textbook ("Teach Yourself Danish), the author clearly stated that "Educated Swedes, Danes and Norwegians can understand each other without difficulties". But postings from this thread so far proves to be wrong. I wonder whether the author was totally wrong, or if she (the author) was referring to cases where all the three people mentioned from three different countries spoke standard Swedish, Danish and Norwegian and not in dialects.
you have educated native speakers here, so... 
| | | | | Scandinavians can understand each other if they make an effort | Jun 2, 2021 |
Yasutomo Kanazawa wrote:
I'm surprised to learn from this thread that Swedes, Danes and Norwegians CANNOT understand each other! More than a quarter century ago, I learned Swedish, Danish and Norwegian (in this order) for leisure. In the foreword section of my Danish textbook ("Teach Yourself Danish), the author clearly stated that "Educated Swedes, Danes and Norwegians can understand each other without difficulties". But postings from this thread so far proves to be wrong. I wonder whether the author was totally wrong, or if she (the author) was referring to cases where all the three people mentioned from three different countries spoke standard Swedish, Danish and Norwegian and not in dialects.
When I worked in-house, the owner of the agency assumed that anyone educated in one of the three languages could work in all three, and on paper they are very similar. However, I only take on 'general' or non-specialist texts from Norwegian and Swedish to this day. There are pitfalls and false friends, and the three independent countries have different legal systems and so on.
As others have mentioned, the spoken languages sound very different. They all have a very large number of vowel sounds, and Swedish sounds very different from Danish. Norwegian is different again!
Apart from the many vowels, Danish has 'soft' consonants, usually g and d. The definite article, added as -en or -et at the end of the word, is almost swallowed too!
Words run into each other, and it takes a lot of training to catch tiny, but critical syllables.
Even after decades of training and practice - I regard Danish as a second native language for everything but professional purposes - I find Norwegians and Swedes hard to understand, and I am not alone!
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 17:30
Member
English to Turkish
| @Ice Scream or any Swedish/Danish person | Jun 13, 2021 |
I binge watched the first season of Bron/Broen this weekend with English subtitles. How reliable do you think the English subtitles for this series were (if, perchance, you've viewed it with the English subtitles on)? People seemed to be talking non-stop, saying all kinds of things, but the subtitles were conveniently concise and weren't fast moving. I mean I enjoyed it, got the story and everything, but probably didn't quite enjoy or appreciate it as much as a native or advanced Swedish speaker... See more I binge watched the first season of Bron/Broen this weekend with English subtitles. How reliable do you think the English subtitles for this series were (if, perchance, you've viewed it with the English subtitles on)? People seemed to be talking non-stop, saying all kinds of things, but the subtitles were conveniently concise and weren't fast moving. I mean I enjoyed it, got the story and everything, but probably didn't quite enjoy or appreciate it as much as a native or advanced Swedish speaker would.
Anyways it beats most of the English language crap they peddle on Netflix these days. I probably wouldn't watch the American version if my life depended on it (well, maybe not).
It took some getting used to to warm up to the lead character btw...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ4bMOU23D0 ▲ Collapse
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Baran Keki wrote: I binge watched the first season of Bron/Broen this weekend with English subtitles. How reliable do you think the English subtitles for this series were (if, perchance, you've viewed it with the English subtitles on)? People seemed to be talking non-stop, saying all kinds of things, but the subtitles were conveniently concise and weren't fast moving. I mean I enjoyed it, got the story and everything, but probably didn't quite enjoy or appreciate it as much as a native or advanced Swedish speaker would. Anyways it beats most of the English language crap they peddle on Netflix these days. I probably wouldn't watch the American version if my life depended on it (well, maybe not). It took some getting used to to warm up to the lead character btw... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ4bMOU23D0
Isn’t that the same with all subtitles? Keep it short so people have time to read it?
I would’ve had subtitles on as back-up for the Danish bits, yes, but I don’t remember whether they were good or bad. (Or even if they were English… I might have had the Danish or Swedish subtitles on…)
I thought Saga Norén was really funny, but then everyone has a different sense of humour. If only all Swedish girls were like that…
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