Norwegians say takk to thank you, Swedes say tack and Danes say tak, a word that means roof in Norway and Sweden.
Norwegian is the only one of the three with two official ways to write it, Bokmål and Nynorsk.
| Norwegian | Swedish | Danish | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extra letters | æ, ø, å | å, ä, ö | æ, ø, å |
| Sound | A pitch accent that gives it a singing sound | A pitch accent too, in most dialects | A catch in the voice, the stød, and 27 vowel sounds |
| Official in | Norway | Sweden, and Finland together with Finnish | Denmark |
Mostly, yes, but not equally. Studies find that Norwegians understand Danish and Swedish far better than Swedes and Danes understand each other. Some words change meaning, too: rolig is calm in Norwegian and Danish, and funny in Swedish.
Each of the three takes 24 weeks at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute (FSI). With 23 hours of class a week, that adds up to 552 hours.
| Study per week | FSI course for Norwegian, Swedish or Danish (552 hours) |
|---|---|
| 3½ hours | About 3 years |
| 7 hours | About 1 year 6 months |
| 14 hours | About 9 months |
| 28 hours | About 5 months |
| If you want to… | Start with |
|---|---|
| Move to Oslo or Bergen | Norwegian |
| Pass Norskprøven | Norwegian |
| Move to Stockholm or Gothenburg | Swedish |
| Take Tisus or Swedex | Swedish |
| Move to Copenhagen or Aarhus | Danish |
| Take Prøve i Dansk | Danish |
Norwegian: Buying Coffee at the Bakery
Kjøpe kaffe på bakeriet
Hi! Good morning.
Good morning! Would you like some coffee?
Yes, please! I like coffee.
Here you go! Have a good day!
Thank you so much! Bye!
Swedish: Simple Greetings
Enkla hälsningar
Hi!
Good morning! How are things?
Good, thanks.
Thank you very much. Bye!
Bye!
Danish: Good Morning
Godmorgen
Good morning, Peter.
Good morning! How are you doing?
I'm doing well, thank you.
Goodbye, Sofie!
Bye-bye!
In the Swedish lesson, hej is a hello, and in the Danish one, hej hej is a goodbye. Poppy, your AI tutor, writes the lessons for Bubblegum, a language app.
Bubblegum
Bubblegum is the best app for serious learners. You learn from text and audio you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
- Norwegian lessons are written in Bokmål.
- In all three, a noun's word card shows the form with "the" joined to the end, such as huset, "the house."
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- No Bubblegum lesson starts from a crime novel you bought in Oslo. Poppy will read a page of it with you after you send her a photo.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
Mobile
Which Is the Hardest to Understand When Spoken?
Spoken Danish. It's written much like Norwegian, yet its stød and 27 vowel sounds make it sound distinctly different.
Which App Should a Beginner Choose?
Is Bubblegum Free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Danish language (spoken by about 5.5 million people; largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Swedish; the understanding is asymmetric, with Norwegians understanding Danish and Swedish far better than Swedes and Danes understand each other; 27 vowels and the stød; spoken Danish is distinctly different from Norwegian and Swedish; some Danish dialects use a pitch accent like Norwegian and Swedish)
- Wikipedia, Norwegian language (official in Norway; two written forms, Bokmål and Nynorsk; pitch accents give Norwegian a singing quality)
- Wikipedia, Swedish language (at least 10 million first-language speakers; the sole official national language of Sweden and one of two in Finland; tonal qualities in most dialects)
- Wikipedia, Danish and Norwegian alphabet (Swedish uses ä and ö where Danish and Norwegian use æ and ø)
- Wikipedia, Swedish alphabet (the 26 Latin letters plus å, ä and ö)
- Wiktionary, rolig (Swedish: funny, fun; Danish and Norwegian: calm, quiet)
- Wiktionary, tak (Danish: thanks; Norwegian and Swedish: roof)
- Wiktionary, takk (Norwegian: thank you)
- Wiktionary, tack (Swedish: thanks)
- Wiktionary, huset (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish: the definite singular of hus, house)
- U.S. Department of State, Foreign Language Training (Category I: Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, 24 weeks each; a typical week has 23 hours of class, so 24 weeks is 552 class hours; for an ILR 3 in speaking and listening)
- Bubblegum
Checked on October 5, 2026 against each app's own pages.
