North Germanic languages

The North Germanic languages are a sub-family of the Indo-European languages and consist of Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Faroese and Norwegian. Each of these languages has special qualities which makes them interesting. If you want to learn one of these languages, you could check our language schools!

North Germanic languages

Danish

Danish is spoken by around six million people in Denmark, but also in the region of Southern Schleswig in Germany. The language has a very large vowel inventory and a prosody which is characterised by the distinctive phenomenon stød. If you want to know more aobut the Danish language, you could also read these articles: The most common verbs and useful words and sentences.

    • Welcome : velkommen
    • Hello : hej
    • How are you? : Hvordan har du det?
    • What’s your name? : Hvad hedder tu?
    • My name is … : Jeg hedder …
    • Good morning : Godmorgen
    • Good evening : Godaften
    • Good night : Godnat

Swedish

Swedish is spoken in Sweden as an official language, but you could hear it also in parts of Finland. There are about ten million people who are Swedish natives. In addition, the word order is V2 which means that the finite verbs is in the second position (as in most Germanic languages). If you want to read more about the Swedish language, you could check these articles: Common Swedish phrases and Learn Swedish.

    • Welcome : välkommen
    • Hello : hej
    • How are you? : Hur mår du?
    • What’s your name? : Vad heter du?
    • My name is … : Jag heter …
    • Good morning : God morgon
    • Good evening : God kväll
    • Good night : God natt

Icelandic

Icelandic is spoken in Iceland (majority), but also in Denmark, in the United States and in Canada. An early form of the language is called Old Norse which consists of Old West Norse and Old Icelandic. These days, in general, there are about 360.000 native speakers.

    • Welcome : velkominn
    • Hello : halló
    • How are you? : Hvað segirðu gott?
    • What’s your name? : Hvað heitirðu?
    • My name is … : Ég heiti …
    • Good morning : Góðan dag!
    • Good evening : Góða kvöldið!
    • Good night : Góða nótt!

Faroese

Faroese is spoken as a first language by about 65.000 people: The most of them live on the Faroe Islands. In addition, it is a recognised minority language in Denmark.

    • Welcome : Vælkomin
    • Hello : Hallo
    • How are you : Hvussu gongur?
    • What’s your name? : Hvussu eitur tú?
    • My name is … : Eg eiti …
    • Good morning : Góðan morgun
    • Good evening : Gott kvøld
    • Good night : Góða nátt

Norwegian

Norwegian is the official language of Norway. But there are two forms of written Norwegian which are both official: Bokmål and Nynorsk. In addition, Norwegian is one of the working languages of the Nordic Council. These days, there are about 5.5 million natives. If you want to know more about the Norwegian language, check these articles: 15 facts about the Norwegian languageuseful words and sentences and learn Norwegian.

    • Welcome : velkommen
    • Hello : hei
    • How are you? : Hvordan har du det?
    • What’s your name? : Hva heter du?
    • My name is … : Jeg heter …
    • Good morning : God morgen
    • Good evening : God aften
    • Good night : God natt

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