E.g: a Swede in Norway, would you speak in Swedish or English?
Where I’m from we have a similar thing with Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei. And when I as a Malaysian visit one of those other countries I would speak in my language, but somewhat in an imitation of the local language, so it’s quite funny lol, and I’m wondering if the same thing happens in Scandinavia.
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They speak different languages, why would they speak their own when they go to another country
Usually I try Danish and they try Swedish/Norwegian until we cave and switch to English. Sad maybe but it’s what it’s.
I always speak Norwegian with Swedes. Although I sometimes change a few unique Norwegian words with synonyms that Swedes would understand, or use the Swedish word, for communication to be more effective, and that always goes very well.
I try to speak Norwegian with Danes, and it works around 50% of the time (usually works better with those who are older). Some will have no trouble understanding me (while I’m speaking clearly with bokmål vocabulary) and others immediately switch to English (which honestly makes me judge them a little bit). I remember one time I shared a hostel room with a couple of Danish people and asked them “skal vi åpne vinduet?” (“should we open the window?”) and they just looked at me stupidly and went “what did you say?” in English (not even bothering to reply in Danish when they already knew I was Norwegian). I just said “never mind”, and literally a minute later I heard one of them say to the other like “skal vi åbne vinduet?” (literally the same sentence, which is also pronounced very similarly). Some Danes apparently don’t bother to make any effort to understand something when it’s not completely identical to what they’re used to.
Swedish with Norwegians. With Danes, it depends on their dialect and whether or not they help me out a bit.
Yes, I often start off with Swedish, but may have to switch to English depending on the situation. Also, the ability to understand other nordic languages vary a lot, depending on where in Sweden you live and how much contact you have with neighbouring countries. Swedes living and working in the Öresund Region will likely understand the danish language better compared to someone living in say Lappland.
Norway – Swedish fine 90% of the time, not much issue.
Denmark – Feel like the danes can understand me better than I understand them. Swedish is usually fine for ordering food and similiar simple conversation, but if it becomes more detailed (for example involving numbers or prolonged conversation), I have to switch to English. Sometimes people are able to do a sort of “mix” of Scandinavian languages to meet halfway, but that really takes effort from both sides. Again, this is based off my own experiences, and you may find others who don’t have the same difficulties as I have.
Finland – When I visit Finland I usually go to the parts where the Swedish-speaking minority is concentrated. I usually ask if they speak Swedish, and if they don’t, English it is.
Danish in Sjælland & Fyn, Jysk in Jylland and Blandinavian in Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
English in Finland
Edit: you can get away with Blandinavian in some parts of Finland
Sorry, a bit off-topic but this thread is very encouraging for me. I am a pretty old guy who learn Swedish to be able to read (books and audiobooks) Nordic noir books (and also watch TV shows and movies) and I planned to learn Danish and Norwegian later (I would love Icelandic too but it seems to be a lot harder) and apparently the task after reaching an understanding level in Swedish will be a lot easier for the other languages (I had a taste of Danish at the university a very long time ago but with the years it has faded away).
I always speak Swedish as much as possible in both Denmark and Norway. For me it’s just a bit of a principle that I think we as Scandinavians should be able to speak to each other using our own languages and not having to resort to using English. I feel it is important for the sense of Scandinavian unity and togetherness, and that it would be really sad if we couldn’t.
I generally understand Danish quite well. I live in Scania next to the border with Denmark, so I have been to Denmark countless times and there are many Danes living, working and studying here, so I am quite used to hearing Danish. I also grew up with watching Danish television and still have television at home. And in addition, my grandparents spoke quite a bit of old Scanian dialect which shares a lot of vocabulary with Danish.
The part of Danish that I do still struggle a bit with is the numbers. I do know them of course, but it can still be difficult to remember them on the spot. But it’s seldom a real problem.
For Norwegian, the standard east Norwegian dialect – which is the most common in media – is extremely similar to Swedish, and especially to western Swedish dialects. The only real differences are some words here and there. However, the major difficulty with Norwegian is that it was so many different dialects – some of which are way more different from Swedish than what Danish is. Especially some dialects towards western and northern Norway can be very difficult – but luckily most people there are also familiar with the standard eastern Norwegian dialect so they will be able to understand anyway and adapt when they know you are Swedish.
One thing to keep in mind as well are the “false friends” words between the three languages which can lead to some misunderstandings. Some of them can be quite bad if you get them wrong, but it’s mostly just funny and usually not much of a real problem.
I speak Swedish in Sweden. I tried Norwegian for a long time but a lot of swedes in my area don’t understand it.
In Denmark I try Norwegian, but will have to swap to English if it gets complex.
I always start in Norwegian, then adapt based on the individual I’m talking to and how they understand me. That could include simply replacing certain Norwegian words with Swedish ones to make it easier for them to understand. I’ve noticed younger people generally being worse at understanding me than elders. Like if I’m talking to a Swedish person below the age of 25, or maybe 30 they often struggle more than you’d expect. I don’t really get why because I have zero issues in understanding Swedish. And my dialect is supposed to be one of the easiest ones for Swedes to understand, as I come from near the border.
I’m Norwegian and work in a Nordic organisation, and without fail, Norwegians and Swedes speaking together will use their own languages, but with Danes it’s English.
We usually say that Norwegians understand both Swedish and Danish just fine, but it’s the Swedes and Danes that struggle to understand each other. We’re the baby brother, we just had to learn. 😉
In Norway I would speak Swedish. In Finland I would at least ask if the person I’m speaking to speaks Swedish before switching to English. In Denmark I wouldn’t even bother, I would just go straight to English, because even if they understand my Swedish, there is no way I’m gonna understand their response
Not a scandinavian but i speak Swedish.
I talk Swedish to Norwegians, and it goes pretty well often. I can read Danish but i generally don’t understand it when spoken. I do understand spoken Norwegian tho 🙂
Dane. I speak Swedish as good as I can and use danish words when I can’t think of the Swedish one. It is very easy to learn to understand each other and used to be the norm. I can’t stand the laziness of my generation defaulting to English.
I usually start off with Norwegian in both countries. And if we’re having some trouble – switch to English.
Sometimes I understand a Swede better than the Swede understand me, and a Dane understand my Norwegian dialect much better than I understand theirs 🤷🏼♂️
First Swedish if we struggle i try to use the local language and if that don’t work English.
As a swede, When I visit Helsingor I speak Swedish, their danish is easy to understand and they usually understand my Swedish. In Copenhagen it’s a bit different, some prefer to speak English, and so I do too.
I’ve only been to Norway a couple of times, but they usually understand my Swedish and I understand their Norwegian.
I speak a distinct southern (Scanian) Swedish dialect. I’m not sure if that makes it easier or harder for my Scandinavian neighbors.
Perspective of non-Dane who speaks Danish.
Other people have noted here that aside from Sønderjylland and Bornholm, there isn’t much dialectical variety in Danish, meaning most Danes are used to one way of speaking Danish.
In Skåne I stick to Danish. The Swedish dialect there is easy to understand, and they understand me because it’s quite a diverse area so they are used to “immigrant Danish”….or at least that is my impression. Oslo Norwegian is also quite okay.
Everywhere else I will usually flip to English if communication becomes more complex than single sentences. This is on account of me needing to mentally connect pronounciation to written language, as both Swedes and Norwegians speak prounounce letters differently, and “sing” a bit when they speak. I enjoy figuring it out, but I don’t want to make the situation awkward.
I will say that somewhat ironically my Danish is more accepted in Norway and Sweden than in Denmark itself. In Denmark it’s viewed very strongly as “immigrant Danish” and I sometimes get quite strange reactions. I do want to visit Sønderjylland and see what it’s like there though…maybe it’s different.
There was a rather entertaining episode of the real-estate series Hammerslag where a team of Danish and Norwegian real estate agents went to Gothenburg to guess property prices, but they switched presenters, and were only allowed to communicate in their respective languages. I got the distinct impression that the Norwegians understood more than the other way around.
I think it depends on the dialect. Especially in Norway we have some reslly difficult dialects that not even other Norwegians understand. So we have to switch to the «standard Norwegian» dialect
With swedes speaking our own language goes pretty smoothly but i have to speak a bit more clearly than usual.
I have a danish boyfriend and with him we usually use our own language when speaking, though i have to speak very clear and slow and even then we often have to repeat stuff and maybe say a word in english sometime. When writing id say its more english than norwegian/danish, Cause its just easier. But i also think i can understand other danish dialects better than his
Standard Norwegian has more similar vocabulary to danish and more similar pronounciation to swedish. Danish pronounciation is just confusing
Swedes don’t understand norwegian 100%. One of swedens most famous talk show host is norwegian by birth and hence speaks norwegian. But when working for swedish tv and speaking with swedish guest he has to turn to a mix of both swedish and norwegian which goes under the term “Svorsk”. Never quite understand why/howcome. There are other languages i know partly, but don’t necesarily know all the words, but can give meaning of the context.. While in the skavlan show, the norwegian host, has to translate individual words for the swedish guests.
As a norwegian hearing some one speak svorsk can easily be interpretated as someone trying to be funny. Former norwegian prince, Ari Behn, had his moment with svorsk with former swedish prime minister. It was one of those moments..
Certainly Swedish. Standard Swedish with Danes and dialect with Norwegian (since it’s technically a Norwegian dialoct, or rather a regiolect with Norwegian roots).