Norwegian vs Danish: Which Is Easier, and How Similar Are They?

Key takeaways

Norwegian and Danish are in the same Foreign Service Institute difficulty group (Category I).
Their everyday vocabulary is close: roughly 8 in 10 everyday words look alike, so learning one gives you a real head start on the other.
Study time will not decide it, so start with the one you will actually use.

How hard is each one?

For an English speaker the two sit in the same difficulty group, so neither is officially easier: the Foreign Service Institute puts both at 552–690 class hours. These are the figures behind the how long does it take to learn a language calculator, from the US Foreign Service Institute's published language training times.

	Norwegian	Danish
FSI difficulty group	Category I	Category I
Class hours to working proficiency	552–690	552–690
Full-time weeks	24–30	24–30

The hours are for a native English speaker in full-time classes aiming at professional working proficiency. Useful everyday conversation comes sooner, and the calculator breaks the time down by level.

How much do the words overlap?

Their everyday vocabulary is close: roughly 8 in 10 everyday words look alike, so learning one gives you a real head start on the other.

A few everyday words that look alike in Norwegian and Danish:

English	Norwegian	Danish
afternoon	ettermiddag	eftermiddag
cleaning	rengjøring	rengøring
earthquake	jordskjelv	jordskælv
excited	begeistret	begejstret
grandfather	bestefar	bedstefar
grandmother	bestemor	bedstemor
guidebook	reiseguide	rejseguide
labor	arbeidskraft	arbejdskraft

And a few everyday words that look completely different:

English	Norwegian	Danish
airport	flyplass	lufthavn
bowl	bolle	skål
delicious	deilig	lækker
evening	kveld	aften
happy	lykkelig	glad
pink	rosa	lyserød
rope	tau	reb
soda	brus	sodavand

Writing system and grammar

Both use the Latin alphabet, so neither asks you to learn a new script, though each has its own spelling rules and special letters.

	Norwegian	Danish
Writing system	Latin alphabet	Latin alphabet
Grammatical genders	Masculine, feminine and neuter, though many speakers use only two	2 (en and et words)
Noun cases	None	None
Tones	No	No

Which should you learn first?

Study time will not decide this one, because the two ask for about the same. If you want to reach a particular place, a person or a job, start with the one you will actually use: steady motivation counts for more than the difference in hours. Because they share so much, you do not need to pick one forever. Learning one first makes the other noticeably quicker, and the main risk is mixing the two up, so give the first a solid base before starting the second.

Frequently asked questions

Is Norwegian easier than Danish?

For an English speaker the two sit in the same difficulty group, so neither is officially easier: the Foreign Service Institute puts both at 552–690 class hours. Hours are for a native English speaker reaching professional working proficiency in full-time classes; casual learning gets you to useful conversation well before that.

How similar are Norwegian and Danish?

Their everyday vocabulary is close: roughly 8 in 10 everyday words look alike, so learning one gives you a real head start on the other. They are both Germanic languages, like English.

Should I learn Norwegian or Danish first?

Can speakers of Norwegian and Danish understand each other?

Some can, to a degree, but it varies a lot from person to person and with practice. Written text is usually easier to follow than fast speech.

Keep going

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