Learning similar languages can be quizzical for a number of reasons. Here’s a quick glimpse into some incredibly common words in English, Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch. Notice how the Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch ones are pronounced:
English |
Norwegian |
Swedish |
Dutch |
yes | ja (“ya”) | ja (“ya”) | ja (“ya”) |
no | nei (“nye”) | nej (“nay”) | nee (“nay”) |
I | jeg (“yiy”) | jag (“ya”) | ik |
me | meg (“my”) | mig (“may”) | me (“muh”) |
me (stressed) | meg (“my”) | mig (“may”) | mij (“may”, “my”) |
you (nominative) | du | du | je (“yuh”) |
you (nominative, stressed) | du | du | jij (“yay”, “yiy”) |
you (objective) | deg (“dye”) | dig (“day”) | je (“yuh”) |
you (objective, stressed) | deg (“dye”) | dig (“day”) | jou (“yow”) |
it | den, det (“deh”) | den, det (“deh”) | het |
Continue reading Common foreign words and their pronunciations