What is the difference between danish and Swedish

Timothy Learning Danish over 1 year ago

Hej

2 Replies

Shobi about 1 year ago

Hi Timothy! They're pretty similar, in general i think Danish have adopted more words from Germanic languages, while Swedish kept more of the old Norse. Vocabulary is very similar though, so you can read texts written in either language after some time of studying

Shobi 2 days ago

Adding a few concrete examples, since the written languages are close but the details are fun:

I: jag (Swedish) / jeg (Danish) and: och / og thanks: tack / tak seventy: sjuttio / halvfjerds (Danish numbers are famously tricky) Watch out for false friends: rolig means "funny" in Swedish but "calm" in Danish. The biggest difference is pronunciation, so many Swedes read Danish more easily than they understand it spoken. Want to try a sentence in Swedish? For example: Jag heter Timothy och jag lär mig svenska.