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40 Brilliantly Literal Norwegian Words That Say Exactly What They Mean Illustrated By Me
40Kviews
I love languages and I really love funny words and phrases.
But as a Norwegian, I sometimes catch myself saying these weird things when I speak English because my brain directly translates the words. This causes some English-speaking people to scratch their heads—“What on earth is an Ice Bear? Or an Ink Squirt? And why would I eat a Lard Ring?”
So I made this Instagram account where I translate words from Norwegian to English in a bad way. I also add a drawing so people can understand what it is.
I hope people will like it, and maybe have a little laugh, also I hope that you guys can come up with words from your own language that would seem weird to non-speakers.
Hope you will enjoy these silly word translations!
More info: Instagram
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Note: this post originally had 57 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
It is fun to read how much our languages are alike (Dutch), many words translate the same. Small world. Thank you for sharing
Just what I thought about German :-)
Same with Hungarian. Fun to read article!
I'm all the way down in South Africa and it's fun to see the similarities between Afrikaans and many European languages (Afrikaans being heavily influenced by Dutch and English, obviously). Also I'm just a massive language geek so I love articles like this ❤
Yes, it's seems that a lot of northern countries describe, just describe. shornsteinfeger? the one who cleans chimney. In france it seems like we are between latin, greek and WTF we decribe just like you northern countries. lol
Woets lol
jms2780 +
You're putting the horse behind the cart: Most of these here come from German (e.g. most of the non-European-animal ones) which was a dominant language, so Danish & hence Swedish and Norwegian, as well as Dutch (which is Low-German anyhows) got it from there; and probably the same for Czech and Polish though they may be more Russian-influenced.
I know one in German! 'Glove' in German is 'Handschuhe', like 'Hand shoe'. A glove is a shoe for the hand. Sorry if the spellings wrong lol.
this post is really interresting to show how we name things, in Nordic countries it's really practicall, like schornsteinfeger in german 'the one who cleans chimney" from "to sweep+chimney". In France we are more artistic like "barbe à papa", "daddys beard" for "candy floss".
The translation of the toaster isnt right. If it was bread shaker it would be breadryster not bread rister. I know that google translate says it is the same. But it is not. Riste trandlates into toast og roast. Im not from norway. Im from Denmark but our language is very similar.
Actually, to "riste" means to shake :) Most norwegians don't use the word "ryste". But in the brødristers case, I suppose "riste" points to the toasting and not the shaking :)
In Dutch it is 'broodroosters' which would translate as 'bread roaster', might it be similar?
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legendfirespark follower
kniessner easy
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We do say riste for shaking and toasting. "ryste" is not a word we use for that. Maybe in some dialects, idk, but I have never heard or read it in Norwegian. Anyway, I think the point here is to make fun translations by translating directly. I mean, they are all bannered with "badnorwegiantranslations" after all :p and bread toaster is not a funny translation. Bread shaker sounds like something I would say as a kid, trying to learn english, which is fun xD (a person can be "rystet" , btw, like "shocked", but I don't think anyone makes shocked toast, lol)
Norwegian here. You're wrong. We use "riste" as a word for "shake".
Elisabet Larsen like
jordos_boog lol
jillbsowers good
It is fun to read how much our languages are alike (Dutch), many words translate the same. Small world. Thank you for sharing
Just what I thought about German :-)
Same with Hungarian. Fun to read article!
I'm all the way down in South Africa and it's fun to see the similarities between Afrikaans and many European languages (Afrikaans being heavily influenced by Dutch and English, obviously). Also I'm just a massive language geek so I love articles like this ❤
Yes, it's seems that a lot of northern countries describe, just describe. shornsteinfeger? the one who cleans chimney. In france it seems like we are between latin, greek and WTF we decribe just like you northern countries. lol
Woets lol
jms2780 +
You're putting the horse behind the cart: Most of these here come from German (e.g. most of the non-European-animal ones) which was a dominant language, so Danish & hence Swedish and Norwegian, as well as Dutch (which is Low-German anyhows) got it from there; and probably the same for Czech and Polish though they may be more Russian-influenced.
I know one in German! 'Glove' in German is 'Handschuhe', like 'Hand shoe'. A glove is a shoe for the hand. Sorry if the spellings wrong lol.
this post is really interresting to show how we name things, in Nordic countries it's really practicall, like schornsteinfeger in german 'the one who cleans chimney" from "to sweep+chimney". In France we are more artistic like "barbe à papa", "daddys beard" for "candy floss".
The translation of the toaster isnt right. If it was bread shaker it would be breadryster not bread rister. I know that google translate says it is the same. But it is not. Riste trandlates into toast og roast. Im not from norway. Im from Denmark but our language is very similar.
Actually, to "riste" means to shake :) Most norwegians don't use the word "ryste". But in the brødristers case, I suppose "riste" points to the toasting and not the shaking :)
In Dutch it is 'broodroosters' which would translate as 'bread roaster', might it be similar?
Gijs van Gaans good
Gijs van Gaans what
Gijs van Gaans lol
Gijs van Gaans lol
Gijs van Gaans haha
Gijs van Gaans like
Gijs van Gaans like
Gijs van Gaans follower
Gijs van Gaans haha
Gijs van Gaans lol
legendfirespark follower
kniessner easy
Jonette H love
Jonette H follower
Jonette H easy
Jonette H +
Jonette H what
Jonette H what
Jonette H haha
Jonette H no
Jonette H what
Jonette H what
We do say riste for shaking and toasting. "ryste" is not a word we use for that. Maybe in some dialects, idk, but I have never heard or read it in Norwegian. Anyway, I think the point here is to make fun translations by translating directly. I mean, they are all bannered with "badnorwegiantranslations" after all :p and bread toaster is not a funny translation. Bread shaker sounds like something I would say as a kid, trying to learn english, which is fun xD (a person can be "rystet" , btw, like "shocked", but I don't think anyone makes shocked toast, lol)
Norwegian here. You're wrong. We use "riste" as a word for "shake".
Elisabet Larsen like
jordos_boog lol
jillbsowers good