# All Scandinavian Languages: False friends



## Andreas_Jensen

Hey! 

A funny thing about the scandinavian languages is that there are several words that are essentially the same but mean completely different things in the respective countries. Personally I don't know so many, but here it goes:

  Rolig;   Danish: Easy, quiet  ,  Swedish: Funny  ,  Norwegian: ???

  Rar;     Danish: Nice (person)  ,  Swedish: ???  ,  Norwegian: Strange

  Tøs;    Danish: Girl (slang)  ,  Swedish: ???  ,  Norwegian: Whore 

Please, correct if I'm wrong. These are the only ones I can think of now. Please contribute with more  

Andreas


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## jonquiliser

Andreas_Jensen said:


> Hey!
> 
> A funny thing about the scandinavian languages is that there are several words that are essentially the same but mean completely different things in the respective countries. Personally I don't know so many, but here it goes:
> 
> Rolig; Danish: Easy, quiet , Swedish: Funny , Norwegian: ???
> 
> Rar; Danish: Nice (person) , Swedish: cute (usually gender stereotyped, as in "en rar tjej") and (in some contexts) rare (en rar växt)=sällsynt. Can also mean strange sometimes, Norwegian: Strange
> 
> Tøs; Danish: Girl (slang) , Swedish: tös=flicka=girl (old-fashioned word) , Norwegian: Whore
> 
> Please, correct if I'm wrong. These are the only ones I can think of now. Please contribute with more
> 
> Andreas


 
I'll write again as soon as I can think of some - there are plenty of pearls out there


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## kirsitn

Andreas_Jensen said:


> Rolig;   Danish: Easy, quiet  ,  Swedish: Funny  ,  Norwegian: Calm/quiet/slow


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## jonquiliser

Här är dansk-svenska falska motsvarigheter - men jag vet inte om de danska orden är rätt, har bara sett i en ordbok och då hittat det här! Kanske någon kan bekräfta!

blommer (plums) - blommor (flowers)
forlade (leave?) - förlåta (forgive)
dreng  (boy) - dräng ("farmhand"; boy= pojke)
kvarter (a quarter [time]?) - kvarter (block [of houses])
erhverv (occupation?) - ärevarv ("turn of honour" - what a runner does in a sports competition after winning - I think!)
genert  (shy?) - generad (embarrassed)
høst (harvest) - höst (autumn)
mås (arse?) - mås (seagull)
nøjagtig (exact?) - nöjaktig ("acceptable")


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## Andreas_Jensen

jonquiliser said:


> blommer (plums) - blommor (flowers)
> forlade (leave?) - förlåta (forgive)
> dreng (boy) - dräng ("farmhand"; boy= pojke)
> kvarter (a quarter [time]?) - kvarter (block [of houses])
> erhverv (occupation?) - ärevarv ("turn of honour" - what a runner does in a sports competition after winning - I think!)
> genert (shy?) - generad (embarrassed)
> høst (harvest) - höst (autumn)
> mås (arse?) - mås (seagull)
> nøjagtig (exact?) - nöjaktig ("acceptable")


 
De danske ord er alle rigtige. Et kvarter er 15 minutter, som du har skrevet, men bruges også om et mindre område af en by, som på svensk. Mås en sød måde at sige røv (ass) på, og det bruges kun hvis der er tale om en lille og appetitlig en af slagsen ... Det er supersjovt (superroligt) at det betyder måge på svensk!  ("Måge" is seagull in Danish, pronounced "måwe").

Keep 'em coming! 

Andreas


By the way, sällsynt, does it mean seldom?


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## Andreas_Jensen

By the way. In the post on "mao" jonquiliser wrote "knepiga" and María Madrid wrote "knäppigt". Are those words the same and what does it mean? 'Cause in Danish "at kneppe" means "to fuck" 

Andreas


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## jonquiliser

Hehe, man behöver bara kasta en snabb blick på en lista danska ord för att hitta många roliga olikheter i betydelser  

Sällsynt=ovanlig= eng. _rare, not common (as in "a rare species of plant")_

"Knepig" är ungefär _tricky _på engelska. "Knäpp" betyder "crazy", "someone who's lost it". Knäppiga är adjektivet (som i mina öron låter _väldigt_ rikssvenskt) och används för _strange, crazy_ (själv skulle jag använda "knasigt" på svenska). (But in the context of that message, I read "knäppig" as a mixture between difficult and crazy, so quite close in meaning to knepig).

I'm sure there are many more falsies out there, just waiting to be heard


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## sdr083

I'm complicating it a bit more and putting in Norwegian as well  (Nynorsk/Bokmål in the cases where there are two...)



jonquiliser said:


> blommer (plums) - blommor (flowers) blomar/blomster (flowers) - plommer (plums)
> forlade (leave?) - förlåta (forgive) forlata/forlate (leave/forgive)
> dreng (boy) - dräng ("farmhand"; boy= pojke) dreng (farmhand)
> kvarter (a quarter [time]?) - kvarter (block [of houses]) kvarter (15min./part of city/"headquarters")
> erhverv (occupation?) - ärevarv ("turn of honour" - what a runner does in a sports competition after winning - I think!) erverv (occupation)
> genert (shy?) - generad (embarrassed) sjenert (shy)
> høst (harvest) - höst (autumn) haust/høst (harvest/autumn)
> mås (arse?) - mås (seagull) måse/måke (seagull)
> nøjagtig (exact?) - nöjaktig ("acceptable") nøyaktig (exact)


 
From this list it seems to me that when there are differences in meaning, the Norwegian one is usually (though not always) the same as the Danish one.  Does anyone have an opinion/exapmles?

-S-


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## María Madrid

Andreas_Jensen said:


> By the way. In the post on "mao" jonquiliser wrote "knepiga" and María Madrid wrote "knäppigt". Are those words the same and what does it mean? 'Cause in Danish "at kneppe" means "to fuck"
> 
> Andreas


Yes, I wrote ä, but I meant e (and just one p), probably I was just too tired! Unfortunately when I noticed it was wrong it was too late to edit the message. And no, I didn't mean anything related to the f word.


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## Sepia

Danish: Tjur = (a bird species) (In Swedish: Tjäder)

Swedish: Tjur = a bull, male moose etc.


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## Lingvisten

danish: grine (to laugh) norwegian: grine (to cry)
swedish: bolla (to play ball) danish: bolle (to have sex)
danish: glas (a glass) swedish: glass (an icecream)


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## María Madrid

Lingvisten said:


> danish: glas (a glass) swedish: glass (an icecream)


Not quite, actually.
Swedish glas (ett) = Danish glas
Swedish glass (en - ice cream) - Danish = ???

Grina: I've only used it meaning whine (Gud, vad han är grinig!!), as in Norway, but in southern Sweden they go for the Danish meaning.
MVH,


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## Pteppic

Norwegian: le (laugh) / Swedish: le (smile)

Svensk wikipedia har for øvrig en ganske omfattende liste.

http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_över_falska_vänner/Nordiska_språk


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## Andreas_Jensen

Lingvisten said:


> danish: grine (to laugh) norwegian: grine (to cry)
> swedish: bolla (to play ball) danish: bolle (to have sex)
> danish: glas (a glass) swedish: glass (an icecream)


 
Lingvist, du tager livet af mig!!!  Jeg anede ikke at "bolla" på svensk betyder "at spille bold". 

"Glass" (svensk) er "is" på dansk... For nylig har jeg hørt folk sige "is-creme". Det finder jeg moderat forstyrrende!


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## Wilma_Sweden

Some notes on a few of the above examples (Swedish):

Tös for girl is still in frequent use in Skåne, although hardly north of the Hallandsås. Påg for boy likewise. 

Rar for unusual is a word I've mainly seen in the context of rare plants ("en rar orkidé"), but I find it quite old-fashioned and wouldn't use it normally.

Plural inflection of the adjective knäpp (=crazy, mad) is knäppa, but knepig (=tricky) is knepiga, just to make things perfectly clear.

I'd love to know the etymology of the Danish verb kneppe, (=fornicate)since the Swedish verb knäppa, as far as I'm aware, has never had any such connotations.

/Wilma


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## Lingvisten

Gylendals etymologi:
Kneppe: v. (dial., vulg.) ´brække, knække, fremkalde el. give en knækkende lyd; knipse; have samleje med´; ænyda., no. d.s., sv. _knäppa;_ i aflydsforhold. til holl. _knappen_ ´knække´, da. _knap_ (s.d.).

I think it has something to do with the sound that might be heard at such an action. 
if it has any relations with knap, as sugested last in the quote, it might mean "pushing something together"


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## Wilma_Sweden

Lingvisten said:


> I think it has something to do with the sound that might be heard at such an action.
> if it has any relations with knap, as sugested last in the quote, it might mean "pushing something together"



Thank you. I'm in favour of the last interpretation, although I've seen suggestions that is has to do with the action of hitting something/someone.


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