Differences between Norwegian Bokmål and Standard Danish
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Danish and Norwegian Bokmål (by far the most common form of standard Norwegian) are very similar languages, but differences between them do exist. The languages are mutually comprehensible, with the primary differences being in pronunciation and in the sound system as a whole.
Mutual comprehension
Generally, speakers of the three Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish) can read in the each other's languages without great difficulty. This holds especially true of Danish and Norwegian. 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. Some Norwegians also have problems understanding Danish, but according to a recent scientific investigation Norwegians are better at understanding both Danish and Swedish than the Danes and Swedes are at understanding Norwegian. (Norwegian) Nonetheless, Danish is widely reported to be the most incomprehensible language of the three.As a whole, Danes and Norwegians will fluently understand the other language with only a little training.
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 East Norwegian pronunciation and other minor local peculiarities. After the two countries separated, Dano-Norwegian remained the official language of Norway, and remained largely unchanged until grammar 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 (Norwegian).Sample
Danish text[#endnote_sample]:
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 (Bokmål)[#endnote_sample]:
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 deres 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.
English translation:
In 1877 Brandes left Copenhagen and took up residence in Berlin. However, his political views made Prussia an uncomfortable place to live in, 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].
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.
- In writing, Danish may employ either the letter e or the letter æ to signify the short vowel phoneme /ɛ/. Norwegian only uses e. Example: Danish lægge (to lay), sende (to send) vs 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 isn't etymologically justified. In Norwegian, only the etymologically justified spellings occur. Example: Danish kende (to know, Old Norse kenna), denne (this /common gender/, ON masculine accusative denna) and sende (to send, ON senda) vs Norwegian kjenne, denne (but sende); Danish ilde (bad, ON illa), ville (to want, Old Norse vilja) and holde (to hold, Old Norse halda) vs Norwegian ille, ville (but holde).
- Unlike Norwegian, Danish often uses ds instead of double s. Example: ridse (to scratch) and visse (certain [plural]) vs Norwegian risse, visse. Likewise in some other contexts, Danish bedst (best), sidst (last) vs Norwegian best, sist.
- Unlike Norwegian, Danish doesn't use double consonants word-finally. Example: Danish vis can signify both the adjective pronounced /vi:s/ (wise) and the adjective pronounced /ves/ (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 vs 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/) - altid (always, literally "all time"); Norwegian all - alt, 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 (although) vs 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]) vs 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 vs meg, deg, seg.
- In loanwords, Danish generally tends to partly preserve the spelling of the source language, whereas Norwegian usually adapts the spelling to its own rules in order to reflect the expected pronunciation. Examples: Danish bureau (bureau), chauffør (driver), information (information), garage (garage), zone (zone) vs Norwegian byrå, sjåfør, informasjon, garasje, sone.
- Traditional Danish punctuation requires that a comma be placed before and after every dependent clause, and although a recent reform has permitted 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) (Norwegian) . Example sentence:
| Danish | Jeg ved, | hvordan manden, | du snakker om, | ser ud. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norwegian | Jeg vet | hvordan mannen | (som) du snakker om, | ser ut. |
| English | I know | what the man | (that) you're talking about | looks like. |
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.
Differences in 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 d and g), as well as the realisation of r as a uvular or even pharyngeal approximant in Danish as opposed to the Norwegian alveolar trills or uvular trills/fricatives.
It is often humorously claimed that Danes have an easier time understanding drunk Norwegians than sober ones, as the former often use a more slurred manner of speech that resembles Danish.
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 is also likely to be pronounced with clearly regional features. The most obvious instances are the uvular (rather than alveolar) pronunciation of /r/, the consequential lack of retroflexes, the realisation of /ç/ in kjenne as an affricate (rather than a fricative) in much of Western and Northern Norway, and the pronunciation, in some cases, of a retroflex lap instead of /l/ in much of Eastern Norway, including the less "refined" forms of the Oslo dialect. All 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 ([a] or [æ]). In Norwegian, a is invariably an open back vowel [ɑ]. Example: Danish [b̥æ:nə] vs Norwegian [bɑ:nə] (course).
- The grapheme u corresponds to (more or less closed) back vowels in Danish, but usually to a closed central vowel (/ʉ/)in Norwegian. Example: Danish [hu:s] vs Norwegian [hʉ:s].
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, esceptions 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 | Danish | Norwegian |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | long | 1) | |
| short | 2), [ɑ] | ||
| e | long | 3) | |
| short | 4) | 5) | |
| unstressed | 6) | ||
| i | long | ||
| short | 7), [i] | ||
| o | long | 8) | |
| short | 9), [ɔ] | 10) | |
| u | long | ||
| short | 11), [u] | ||
| y | long | ||
| short | 12), [y] | ||
| æ | long | 13) | 14) |
| short | 15) | ||
| ø | long | 16) | |
| short | 17) | ||
| å | long | 18) | |
| short | |||
| 1) But [ɑ:] before and after /r/ 2) before alveolars 3) But [æ:(ɪ)] before and after /r/ 4) almost universally before /m,n,ŋ/; more or less [a] before and after /r/ 5) But [æ] before /r/ 6) tends to become assimilated to ("melt into") the preceding consonant; [ɐ] before and after /r/ 7) But [æ] before and after /r/ 8) But [o:] before /g,v/ 9) before /g/, sometimes before /ʋ/, /s/, /n/, /m/ 10) but, in some cases, [u] (notably before rt, nd, and sometimes st) 11) almost universally before /m,n,ŋ/ 12) almost universally before /m,n,ŋ/ 13) But [ɛ: > æ:(ɪ̯)] before and after /r/ 14) But [ɛ:], when, by exception, not followed by /r/ 15) But [æ] before /r/ and [ɑ] after /r/ 16) But [œ] after and, sometimes, before /r/ 17) But [œ] before and after /r/ and before /n/ 18) But [ɒ] before /r/ | |||
Interestingly, while the more open realisations of /ɛ/ and /ɛ:/ before /r/ are allophonic in Danish, they have acquired phonemic status as /æ/ and /æ:/ 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 /ɛ:/ vs e /e:/ and sj /sj/ vs rs /ɐ̯s/ have come to be pronounced in the same way in Norwegian (respectively /e:/ and /ʂ/), thus rendering the occurrences of /æ/ impredictible.
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 is pronounced [d̥æ(ɪ̯)'] in Danish, but [dɑ:g] in Norwegian lov (law) is pronounced [lʌʊ̯] in Danish, but [lo:v] in Norwegian. Similarly, [aɪ̯] and [ʌɪ̯] are often spelled as eg and øg in Danish (eg may be pronounced as [æɪ̯] in Norwegian, too, e.g. in regne, "to rain").
- A significant sound correspondence (rather than simply a difference in pronunciation) is the fact that Danish has long monophthongs (e /e:/, ø /ø:/) in some words, where Norwegian has restored the reflexes of old Norse diphthongs (ei [æɪ̯], øy [œɥ̯] and au [æʉ̯]) as alternatives or, sometimes, replacement of the Danish ones. Examples: Danish ben (leg, bone) - Norwegian ben or bein; Danish hø (hay) - Norwegian høy; Danish høg (hill) - Norwegian haug.
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 [sg̊ʁii] vs skrike [skri:kə]). Furthermore, Danish has replaced the voiced/voiceless oposition in /p, t, k/) vs /b, d, g/) with an aspirated/nonaspirated one ([pʰ, tˢ, kʰ] vs [b̥, d̥, g̊]), and the contrast between the two is preserved only in the onset of a stressed syllable. Thus, begge (both) and bække (brooks) are pronounced alike as [b̥ɛg̊ə]. 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 | ||||||
| d | ||||||
| g | ||||||
| k | ||||||
| p | ||||||
| r | ||||||
| t | ||||||
| v | ||||||
The Danish /r/ is either vocalized or dropped altogether, after having influenced the adjacent vowels, in all positions but word-initially and pre-stress.
Some letter combinations that are pronounced quite differently are:
- rd, rl, rn, rs, rt are pronounced as spelled in Danish (with the /r/ dropped), but in the part of Norway using trilled r, they are always or almost always merged into retroflex consonants ([ɖ], [ɭ], [ɳ], [ʂ], [ʈ]).
- sj is pronounced as [ɕ] in Danish, but as [ʂ] in most of Norway.
- Danish has /b/ (spelled b), /ð/ (spelled d), and [ɪ̯, ʊ̯] (spelled g) after long stressed vowels, where Norwegian has restored/preserved the /p/, /t/ and /k/ from Old Norse. Examples: Danish fod (foot), reb (rope), syg (sick) - Norwegian fot, rep, syk - Old Norse fótr, reip, sjúkr. In a handfull of cases, however, Norwegian has kept the Danish form (lege, doctor - Old Norse læknari).
- Sometimes Danish has /v/ ([ʊ̯], spelled v) after originally long stressed vowels, where Norwegian has restored/preserved /g/ from Old Norse. Example: Danish skov (forest), mave (belly) - Norwegian skog, mage - Old Norse skógr, magi. However, in many cases Norwegian has kept the Danish form (lyve - Old Norse ljúga), and variation is permitted (mave, lyge, and even ljuge).
- Danish has /g/, /k/, and /sk/ (spelled g, k and sk) in stressed syllable onsets, where Norwegian usually has /j/, /ç/ and /ʂ/ (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) vs Norwegian gjemme, kjær, skjønt, gyse, kilde.
Prosody
In Norwegian, each stressed syllable must contain, phonetically, either a long vowel or a long consonant (e.g. male [mɑ:lə], "to paint" vs malle [mɑl:ə], "catfish") . In Danish, there are no long consonants, so the opposition is between long and short vowels ([mæ:lə] 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 laryngealization), which characterises a syllable (though usually a syllable that bears at least secondary stress). Example: Danish løber "runner" [ˈlø:b̥ɐ] vs løber "runs" [ˈlø:ˀb̥ɐ], Norwegian løper [2lø:pər] vs løper [1lø:pər]. Note Danish landsmand [ˈlanˀsmanˀ] "compatriot" (one word, two støds) as opposed to Norwegian landsmann [1lɑn:smɑn:] (one word, one accent).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, pronounced /əð/). In Norwegian, the system is generally the same, but some "common" words optionally use special feminine gender conjugation 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 system is rather regularized, as the -e ending has all but disappeared, and -er is dominant in common gender monosyllables, 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 words, and has introduced an alternative ending -a for a few monosyllable neuter words. 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
- To denote second person plural ("you people, y'all"), Danish uses I (oblique form jer, possessive pronoun jeres]], while Norwegian uses dere (oblique dere, possessive deres'').
- The 1st person plural possessive pronoun ("our") is vores (uninflected) in modern Danish, but vår (inflected: neuter vårt, plural våre) in Norwegian. Example: Danish vores ven/hus/venner vs Norwegian vår venn/vårt hus/våre venner ("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; in Norwegian, they may also be placed after a noun or a noun phrase, which then has a definite form. The choice of construction in Norwegian depends on the particular word and on style (the Danish-like construction is more formal, the other one is more colloquial). Example: Danish min ven, min nye ven vs Norwegian min venn or vennen min, min nye venn or den nye vennen min ("my friend", "my new friend").
- The reflexive pronouns sig/seg ("himself/herself/itself") and sin ("his/her/its own") can't refer to a plural subject in Danish, but they can do so in Norwegian. Example: Danish Han vasker sig/sine klæder like Norwegian Han vasker seg/sine klær ("He is washing himself/his clothes"); but Danish De vasker dem/deres klæder vs Norwegian De vasker seg/sine klær ("They are washing themselves/their clothes").
- 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, en can also be used as a main form. Example: Danish man kan ikke gøre det vs Norwegian man/en kan ikke gjøre det ("one/people can't do that").
- In Danish, the pronouns "such" and "so (=in this way)" are usually translated with sådan (slig is obsolete and solemn). In Norwegian, the most usual form is slik (sånn can be somewhat colloquial).
Numerals
There are significant differences between the numeral systems of the two languages.- In Danish, the number 7 is called syv. In Norwegian, it is more often called sju (although the 2005 language reform has permitted syv again).
- In Danish, 20 and 30 are called tyve and tredive. Although these forms do occur in Norwegian (with tredive shortened to tredve), the only officially permitted forms are tjue /çʉ:ə/ and tretti.
- In Danish, the number 40 is called fyrre. In Norwegian, it is førti.
- In Danish, the tens between 50 and 90 have different roots from the ones in most Germanic languages. Etymologically, 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 exactly "one-half-remaining-to-three 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 = sexti, 70 = sytti /søt:i/ , 80 = åtti, 90 = nitti.
- In Danish, tens are placed before units (as in German); in Norwegian, it's the other way round (as in English), although the Danish order is also used by some speakers. Example: Danish enogtyve ("one-and-twenty") vs Norwegian tjueen ("twenty-one") or enogtyve.
- Concerning ordinal numbers, "second" is always anden in Danish, but andre (a definite form) in Norwegian.
Verbal morphology
- Danish regular verbs can be divided in those that form their past tense and past participle with the suffixes -ede and -et /əð/, 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 conjugataion patterns is mostly impredictible. 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 vs Norwegian ramme - rammet - rammet "to hit"; Danish male - malede - malet vs 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 [somewhere]" - bo - bodde - bodd). The corresponding Danish verbs nearly always use -ede, -et (bo - boede - boet).
- 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 vs Norwegian la - lot - latt, si - sa - sagt, bli - ble - blitt ("let", "say", "become"). Other examples are tage - tog - taget vs ta - tok - tatt ("to take"), have - havde - haft vs ha - hadde - hatt ("to have"), etc..
- The perfect tenses 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, ha "to have" may be - and increasingly is - used in all cases (han har reist), and no specific verbs require it (det har skjedd).
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:- må/kan - The word "må" usually means "must" in Norwegian, but can mean "may", "can", or "must" in Danish.
- der/som - Danish has both words for "which", although der is only used as the grammatical subject. Norwegian has only som
- kun/bare - in Danish, both words are used, the one meaning roughly "just, merely" and the other "only, solely". In Norwegian, bare is used in both cases.
- lave/gjøre - in Danish both lave or gøre (roughly, "make" or "do") occur, in Norwegian only gjøre is used in equivalent expressions.
- nogle/nogen - in Danish the English words "some" (in a plural sense) and "any" can be translated with "nogle" and "nogen", respectively, while in Norwegian both are rendered as "noen" (from Danish "nogen").
- The primary difference in preposition use 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 vs Norwegian jeg har sett ham i to år, jeg har ikke sett ham på to år ("I have [not] seen him in two years"). Another difference is that Norwegian very often uses the preposition til ("to") as a more informal alternative of genitive constructions: boka til Peter or Peters bok vs Danish Peters bog.
Vocabulary
Danish has adopted many German (particularly from Low German variants spoken by the Hanseatic League) words and grammatical structures, while Bokmål today uses fewer 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, while Norwegian uses 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). Thus, Spain is known as Spanien in Danish, but as Spania in Bokmål. An even more drastic difference is Danish Grækenland ("Greece", a more or less German form of the name) as opposed to Norwegian Hellas (the Greek form of the name). 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 | redd |
| afterwards | bagefter | etterpå |
| and yet | alligevel | likevel |
| angry | vred | sint |
| autumn | efterår | høst |
| away | væk | bort |
| be true | stemme | passe |
| boy | dreng | gutt |
| breathe | ånde | puste |
| cinema | biograf | kino |
| to comb (verb) | kæmme sig | gre seg |
| decade | årti | tiår |
| easy | nem, let | lett |
| evening | aften | kveld |
| everywhere | alle steder | overalt |
| difficult | svær | vanskelig |
| fact | kendsgerning, faktum | faktum |
| fast | hurtig | fort |
| floor (storey) | sal | etasje |
| frog | frø | frosk |
| hesitate | tøve, (nøle) | nøle |
| girl | pige | jente, pike |
| good | god(t) | bra |
| healthy | rask | frisk |
| hydrogen | brint | hydrogen |
| ..., isn't that right? | ..., ikke/vel? | ..., ikke sant? |
| jealous | skinsyg, (jealoux) | sjalu |
| last year | sidste år | i fjor |
| like | kunne lide | like |
| moustache | overskæg | bart |
| oxygen | ilt | oxygen, surstoff |
| potato | kartoffel | potet |
| rubbish (nonsense) | sludder, vrøvl | tull, tøys |
| satisified/pleased | tilfreds (fornøjet) | fornøyd (tilfreds) |
| sheep | får | sau |
| short (person) | lille | kort |
| sometimes | somme tider | iblant |
| spring | forår | vår |
| still | stædigvæk | fremdeles |
| team | hold | lag |
| there (about direction) | derhen | dit |
| tv | fjernsyn | tv, fjernsyn |
| toad | tudse | padde |
| ugly | grim | stygg |
| usual | sædvanlig | vanlig |
| worm | orm | makk, mark |
| wrong | forkert, (galt) | galt |
Notes
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