In Utrecht, the cafe Broodnodig serves Swedish pastries and cakes as cinnamon and cardamom buns, kladdkaka, smulpaj and Scandinavian seasonal treats as semlor and saffron buns.
in 2024, during my quest to find Lussekatter, I found the Swedish-inspired cafe in the centre of Utrecht: Broodnodig .
I have returned a few times and enjoyed Swedish seasonal treats as saffron buns and a Semla among others! Besides that, Kanelbullensdag (cinnamon bun day, 4th October) is celebrated with discounted kanelbullar. last October the deal was € 2,50 for a kaneelbol.
Broodnodig has 2 locations in Utrecht: I went to Mariaplaats, 5 minutes from Utrecht centraal station, and Paardenveld. Paardenveld is bigger, but closed on weekends! There used to be a location in Reigerstraat too, which closed in 2025.
Sweet Fika
Broodnodig serves a number of typical Swedish fika treats (I liked how typical Swedish things in the counter were marked with a little flag next to the name) including:
Buns: cinnamon buns/kaneelbollen and cardamom buns/kardemombollen, since recently crème bol is also on the menu – a cardamom bun with vanilla cream).
Chokladbollar/Chocobol
Jitterbugg (shortbread snail with meringue)
Rulltårta (roll cake)
Smulpaj (crumble cake)- apple & rhabarber / pear & blackberries
Tosca (almond cake) with rhabarber
Kladdkaka (gooey chocolate cake)
smulpaj
Broodnodig used to have Oscarstårta (lemon, merengue and almond cake) in summer, which was why I passed by last time. But they have unfortunately discontinued it. So i took a Apple & rhabarber smulpaj instead – served with vanilla sauce as the tradition commands.
Lunch options
Broodnodig makes several sandwiches with polarbread and sourdough bread. I will try them one day!
As already mentioned, at Broodnodig you can find typical Swedish treats according to the season. December for a yuletide saffron bun, and january/february around Carnival for a Semla! I love both of them, and got to taste them in their Utrecht version.. They did not disappoint!
As i cannot miss them anymore, I have tried these in several Scandinavian cafes in the Netherlands.
In Utrecht, the cafe Broodnodig serves Swedish pastries and cakes as cinnamon and cardamom buns, kladdkaka, smulpaj and Scandinavian seasonal treats as semlor and saffron buns.
Fika is a cherished Swedish tradition involving a coffee and cake break. Discover various Fika treats, from classic kanelbullar (cinnamon buns), cakes and cookies to savory options.
Discover Faroese – today spoken by about 80,000 people in the North Sea archipelago- as Icelandic still has much in common with Old Norse in grammar and vocabulary
Fika is a cherished Swedish tradition involving a coffee and cake break. Discover various Fika treats, from classic kanelbullar (cinnamon buns), cakes and cookies to savory options.
Fika is a very important Swedish tradition: a cozy coffee-and-cake break you can either take home, at the office or in cafes/bakeries perfectly equipped for it. All that matters is that you relax, drink and eat something. Fika=reversed version of ka-fi (kaffe/coffee).
There are quite a few fika treats that became classics – including buns, cakes and cookies. Common ingredients are cardamom, almond, marzipan, raspberry jam and coconut flakes. You will see kola, which has nothing to do with coca cola as I used to think – that would be something caramel flavored.
Nordfelts (Vänersborg)Mormor (Lund)
fikabröd: sweet buns
Bullar, buns are everywhere to be found in Sweden, and belong to the category of Fikabröd, fika breadstuff. The most common sweet bun is the iconic kanelbulle, – the Swedish cinnamon bun: with pearl sugar on top and no icing, less fatty than American ones. There is even a cinnamon bun day in Sweden! The second most common is the cardamom bun, kardemummabulle, which could be described as slightly ‘spicy’. Toscasnäcka is a ‘shell’ covered in almonds. Anything called Tosca in Sweden means it has almonds. Other buns are vanilj- or solbullar with vanilla custard, and sometimes chocolate-coated as well. Längd is basically a big and long bun.
Kafferep cookies and small treats
chokladboll: one of the simplest and most iconic Fika treats, no-bake small chocolate balls usually covered in shredded coconut.
dammsugare hoover. green marzipan and chocolate ends. They’re also known as punschrullar (punch rolls) if they contain punsch liqueur. The name either comes from their shape or the custom of using leftover biscuit crumbs in bakeries. The Danes call their own version -white where you have green in dammsugare – is Træstamme,tree trunk. Which is a marrowbone, mergpijp, for the Dutch.
biskvi/sarah bernhardt: Biskvi are chocolate cones with an almond cookie base, filled with buttercream. The Sarah Bernhardt (named after a French actress) is basically a biskvi with a chocolate truffle filling. Sarah Bernhardt’s are apparently very popular around Christmas in Iceland!
Biskvi, chokladboll, and Dammsugare of all sizes!Traditional Swedish cookies and buns
mazarin is a small, round shortcrust pastry originated in the 17th-18th century, filled with almond paste, and distincted by white or pink icing on top.
Napoleon, very similar to Dutch iconic tompouce, except the latter is either pink or orange for special occasions, while I’ve seen Napoleons having a darker red icing
Vaniljhjärta: personal addition because I find this lovely. A tender heart-shaped shortcrust pastry filled with vanilla cream.
Jitterbug is a buttery spiral-shaped cookiewith merengue.
kafferep was a tradition which developed in the 19th century, before Fika name and concept emerged. There are IKEA cookies called Kafferep! It consisted in gatherings that included eating cookies, kakor – seven types to be precise, called sju sorters kakor. Baking seven types of cookies is actually also a Norwegian Christmas tradition. They include: Hallongrottor: vanilla cookies where the ‘cave’ in the middle is filled with raspberry jam. Chokladsnittar: rectangular ‘chocolate slices’. Brysselkakor: round vanilla ‘Brussels cookies’ circled by a pink coating. Drömmar meringue-like vanilla round cookies, melting in your mouth like ..’dreams’. Havrekakor: crunchy ‘oat biscuits’, Nötkakor: little balls with a whole hazelnut. Schackrutor chocolate-vanilla ‘chessboard’ square cookies
cakes
in Sweden you have Tårtor, kakor and paj. A tårta typically has whipped cream and looks fancier than a basic kaka, while a paj is.. a pie.
Silviakaka
Kladdkaka: iconic Swedish gooey chocolate cake, or mud cake, the name means sticky cake.
Toscakaka: moist cake with crispy caramel almonds on top.
Smulpaj: crumble cake. Typical fillings are rhabarber, apples and blueberries! Blueberry pie, blåbärspaj paired with vanilla sauce, vaniljsås!
Prinsesstårta is the princess of Swedish cakes, often served for birthdays! First featured in the early 20th century Princesses’ cookbook Prinsessornas kokbok, it is very recognizable by being a green dome with a pink rose on top. It is made of layers of sponge, whipped cream and raspberry jam, covered by green marzipan. There are variations with other colors (and meanings): yellow –prinstårta (prince cake), pink – operatårta (opera cake). Prinsesstårta can also be made as a roll and served in slices.
An iconic Swedish rollcake holds the name of Hungary’s capital: Budapest: with whipped cream in the roll and coated in an almond crumble with a chocolate swirl, it usually has mandarin inside. I tried a pear version the first time though!
Other notable cakes are Silviakaka (a sponge cake with coconut on top) andOscarstårta (almond and cream cake)
Carrot cake, morotkaka, is also very common
savory fika ‘ sandwiches
Sweet fika is great, but sometimes you cannot risk a sugar crash: there are plenty of nice options for a savory fika, with open Sandwich (macka) options! The most iconic ones are the shrimp sandwich (räkmacka, often accompanied by eggs) and meatballs on redbeet salad (kötbullemacka). It is quite easy to make these Swedish sandwiches at home too.
Discover Faroese – today spoken by about 80,000 people in the North Sea archipelago- as Icelandic still has much in common with Old Norse in grammar and vocabulary
Faroese (Føroyskt) is the language spoken in the Faroe Islands (Føroyar), located between Scotland, Norway and Iceland. Faroese people’s ancestors were Norsemen, and despite centuries of Danish rule, they managed to preserve their language through oral tradition. Faroese and Icelandic are closely related to Scandinavian languages, but still look much more like the language of their ancestors.
How similar is Faroese to Icelandic, and Scandinavian languages?
As follows, some basic expressions in Faroese, Icelandic, and Swedish/Danish/Norwegian. Although Faroese and Icelandic are closer, you can easily see that they belong to the same language group.
Faroese
Icelandic
Scandinavian
yes/no
ja/nei
já/nei
ja/ nej/nei
thank you
takk
takk
tak(k)
excuse me
orsaka
afsakaðu
se:ursäkta / no,dk:un(d)skyld
sorry
umskylda
fyrirgefðu
se:förlåt/ no:beklager
here you go/you’re welcome
ger so væl
gjörðu svo vel
varsågod
what’s your name
hvussu eitir tú?
hvað heitir þú?
(h)va(d) heter/hedder du?
good day
góðan dagin
góðan daginn
god dag
Faroese-Icelandic Differences in Spelling: tell them apart
Faroese has a written form based on etymology, making it look much closer to old Norse (and Icelandic), than its pronunciation.
No Þ (thorn) in Faroese:þ, pronounced as English th in mouth, is not present in the Faroese alphabet. Where Icelandic has a Þ, Faroese usually has a T: tú (you); tað (this) vs þú, það. In Scandinavian languages this is usually a D: du, det
No é in Faroese: Faroese alphabet does have just like Icelandic and unlike Scandinavian languages several accented vowels: Á Í Ó Ú Ý, It does however not have é (‘I’ in Faroese: eg, Icelandic: ég)
Faroese Ø/ Icelandic Ö
-ggj ending in Faroese: oyggjar, nýggj, kríggj (islands, new, war)
Faroese vocabulary: Language purism, Danish loanwords, and a sprinkle of Irish
A language committee has invented words to prevent more influential languages to take over Faroese, similarly to Icelandic language purism. The Faroese Jóhan Hendrik W. Poulsen (1934-2022) invented words as:
Telda (computer), Fartelda (laptop), Fartelefon (mobile phone) – In Icelandic (far)tölva and (far)sími
Talgildur (digital), fløga (CD) ‘thick slice’
tyrla (helicopter) – in Icelandic þyrla from tiril=whirl, Farstøð (terminal) ‘distance/travel place’
flogbóltur (volleyball), ‘fly ball’
Gosbað (jacuzzi) ‘air bath’
At the same time, being under the Kingdom of Denmark, Faroe islanders incorporated loanwords form Danish in their language: snakka, forstanda – speak, understand – are used colloquially instead of tosa and skilja (Icelandic tala, skilja). Bike is súkkla (cykel in Danish, reiðhjól in Icelandic), War is kríggj (krig in Danish, lögregla in IS)
Faroese vocabulary is of course North Germanic, but as Norsemen brought Celtic women from their settlements in the Irish Sea, you also find a few traces of that, mainly regarding cattle and fields apparently.
Grammar: genders, declensions, verbs
Faroese and Icelandic are Insular North Germanic languages- and thanks to their isolation they retained many aspects of Old Norse that Swedish, Danish and Norwegian dropped.
Faroese
Icelandic
Scandinavian
genders/articles
3 (m, f, n)
3 (m, f, n)
2* (m/f, n)
cases
3 (often 2 when spoken)
4
–
verb endings (present)
3/4: -i,-r,-a/u (plural=1 ending)
5/6: -,-t, -r,-um,-ið,-a/u
1: -r
Here are explanations regarding the table above:
Genders
Both Icelandic and Faroese have masculine, feminine and neuter gender.
*in Scandinavia, only Norwegian partially kept the masculine/feminine distinction, while Swedish and Danish have only general and neuter – Norwegian was actually grouped as West- North Germanic together with Faroese and Icelandic before shifting towards the languages in the continent. What is neuter in Icelandic and Faroese usually is also in Scandinavian, as feminine when used in Norwegian. There is some overlap also with German and Dutch, so speaking multiple Germanic languages helps when in doubt!
The gender can be often assumed from the endings:
Masculine: -UR, -I: dagur, matur (day, food)- Scandinavian languages lost the ending: dag, mat; tími
Feminine: -, -A: bók, nátt/nótt; kirkja, gøta/gata (book, night, church, street). A often stays in Swedish, but is an E in Danish: kyrka/kirke, gata/gade
In addition, Faroese and Icelandic have declesions for numbers until 3 (Faroese) and 4 (Icelandic). The number changes depending on the gender: ein maður/kona, eitt barn; tveir menn, tvær konur, tvey børn and so on. This does happen in Scandinavian languages only for one/a: en bok, ett barn.
Faroese
Icelandic
1/a man, woman, child
ein maður/kona, eitt barn
einn maður, ein kona, eitt barn
2 men, women, children
tveir menn, tvær konur, tvey børn
tveir menn, tvær konur, tvö börn
3
tríggir, tríggjar, tryy
þrir, þrjar, þrjú
4
–
fjórir, fjær, fjogur
What about articles?: there is no undetermined article. ‘a man’ is simply maður. As in all North Germanic languages, the determined form is made by adding a suffix to the substantive, which varies by gender: -in, -n, -ið: Masculine maðurin(n) (the man), feminine-n konan (the woman),neuter-ið: husið (the house).
in Scandinavian you do have en/ett as undetermined article, becoming -en, -et for the determined form: ett hus, huset. Norwegian might also have feminine ei as ei bok (a book), becoming boka, the book. Another interesting common trait with some varieties of Norwegian is that the possessive adjective can be put after the noun: boka mi – bókin min vs min bok/bog in Swedish and Danish.
Cases
In Faroese and Icelandic, a noun changes depending on the grammatical case according to its gender/number, and the prepositions it follows.
Faroese: Bátur(in): (the) boat – eg síggi bátin: i see a boat
Icelandic: bátur(inn) – ég sé bát
Icelandic retained 4 cases: Nominative (subject), accusative (object), dative, genitive, as for example German does – while Faroese 3, dropping the genitive, considered obsolete, very formal, or only in fixed expressions- or even 2, as in spoken Faroese the accusative is often used instead of dative!
So the name of the Faroe Islands is Føroyar, but: í Føroyum (in the Faroes), and you have the Føroya Banki (Bank of the Faroes); the Faroese language is called Føroyskt, but in Faroese is á føroyskum.
How to Learn Faroese?
You find resource to learn Faroese, Icelandic and all Scandinavian languages in my free language resources list – many of these are free!
Faroese is now available on google translator, though the Faroe Islands started their own translation service Faroe Islands Translate in 2017, with sentences human-translated.
Norwegian Seamen Churches all over the world host 17th May celebrations. I attended the festivities in Rotterdam, joining the parade and eating a pølse i lompe!
On a trip to Amsterdam, I decided to test Scandinavian Embassy and both of its two locations, starting with the bakery in europaplein. The two locations are in Amsterdam zuid: Saphatipark and Europaplein: in the former, a more central location, you can sit but it has fewer items than the bakery in Europaplein. The bakery,…
Estonian is a Finnic language, sharing many similarities with its ‘bigger’ sister Finnish, while being unrelated to all their bigger language neighbours
Norwegian Seamen Churches all over the world host 17th May celebrations. I attended the festivities in Rotterdam, joining the parade and eating a pølse i lompe!
Last year I found out that the Norwegian seamen churches in Holland- which as the other Nordic seamen churches organise Christmas markets around November – also hosts national day – 17th May – celebrations, and that is according to the Norwegian tradition: hotdogs, a parade, and games for children!
The Norwegian seamen church of the Netherlands is located in Rotterdam, with a nice park where the parade takes place. So I had a trip there to check it out, equipped with my Norwegian flag!
I arrived there slightly after the start of the program (thanks train), so I missed seeing the flag being raised.
People, a lot dressed in their beautiful bunads, were entering the building, where you could get cakes, stuff as flags and løyse (brooches/ribbons), and waffles or hotdogs outside. I got my vaffel and as I could I just went a bit mad with jam and brunost toppings..
As follows 2025 17 mai Program:
11:00 Flaggheising – flag raising
12:00 Gudstjeneste – church service
13:00 Taler for dagen – speeches of the day, among others the ambassador
Folketog – parade,
grilling, leker, pølse i lompe – parades, bbq, games
celebrations closing at 16:30
Just as the parade in the park with the marching band was starting, i got my pølse i lompe, hotdog in a wrap!
Who knows, maybe I’ll be back for 2026! Stay tuned to find out about more Nordic events!
Cream buns are enjoyed in Nordic and Baltic countries during shrovetide, between January and February. Sweden’s classic semla has almond paste, while other countries variations include jam, vanilla cream, and chocolate icing top.
Sámi people, indigenous people of North Scandinavia, have a distinct culture, symbolised by its unique flag and traditional clothing, and part of it are Duodji handicrafts and unique musical expression through yoik.
On a trip to Amsterdam, I decided to test Scandinavian Embassy and both of its two locations, starting with the bakery in europaplein.
The two locations are in Amsterdam zuid: Saphatipark and Europaplein: in the former, a more central location, you can sit but it has fewer items than the bakery in Europaplein. The bakery, on the contrary, barely has any places to sit.
First we got an almond bun, that was delicious!then, for the savory part, we got a mushroom & cheese danish, and apricot drinks!
Afterwards we decided to check out the cafe too, where I got a biskvi, served in a paper cup to-go 🙂
i had wanted to try their biskvi for a while, and I did at the cafe, slightly closer to the centre! so here it is
The classic cinnamon and cardamom bun were on the sweets menu as well, as the chocolate balls and an almond cake (toscakaka?)
We happened to pass by Arket later, which had special buns and tebirkes
Scandinavian Embassy also serves typical seasonal Swedish treats as semlor and lussekatter! Subscribe to see more
Discover Greenland, home to the Inuit Kalaallit, and its most iconic aspects as its flag, language and folk costumes. The biggest island of the world has a rich history of indigenous culture intertwined with Norse colonization and later Danish rule.
Lucia brings light in the darkest night of the year and is a mix of pagan and christian traditions. It is celebrated in Scandinavia with processions, saffron buns and church concerts.
Estonian is a Finnic language, sharing many similarities with its ‘bigger’ sister Finnish, while being unrelated to all their bigger language neighbours
24th February is Estonian Independence Day! To celebrate, here is some info on one of the closest relatives of Finnish and insight on Uralic languages.
Finnish and Estonian are both Uralic languages, belonging to a different family than most languages spoken in Europe, from Icelandic to Italian, which are all Indo-European languages. Find out more about Finnish compared to other Nordic languages. I already wrote in Estonian culture in general compared to Finland after my trip to the Baltics last summer.
Finnish and Estonian: Finnic sister languages
Estonian is the second biggest Finnic language after Finnish , spoken by around 1 million people, (Finnish has 5 millions). Other related languages exist in the Baltics, although most have very few speakers left: võro, Livonian (in Latvia).
There are many similarities exist betwenn Finnish and Estonian. Although they are not always mututally intelligible, Finns and Estonians can often understand each other, particularly in written form. Estonians in particular used to be able to understand Finnish very well thanks to access to Finnish media they had access to during the Soviet occupation.
Unique Finnic language features
Gender-neutral pronoun: The English third person pronoun has a gender distinction – he/she. Finnish and Estonian have only one, neutral version: “hän” in Finnish and “ta” in Estonian.
Vowel Length (2 in Finnish, 3 in Estonian): Both Finnish and Estonian have short and long vowels: you often see double ones when bumping into these languages – aa, ää , ee, oo, ii etc. For example: mutta ‘but’ vs muuttaa ‘to change’ in Finnish. Estonian, has however not two, but three vowel lengths: kala (fish) Long: kaala (weigh), kaalla (with a neck).
14-15 inflections of grammatical cases (simplified in Estonian): Both languages often convey meaning through inflection: I go to Estonia – Tulen estii Finnish stayed more conservative, while Estonian started using more prepositions instead and dropped the accusative case.
Finnish and Estonian vocabulary
There is a large Finnic common vocabulary: the following words are the same in Finnish and Estonian, unrelated to indoeuropean languages:
water: vesi
moon: kuu
money: raha
tree: puu
snow: lumi
hand: käsi
expensive: kallis
sea: meri
Countries around Finnic people got similar, distinct names in their languages, notice the following: Finland, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Denmark:
Finnish: Suomi, Ruotsi, Saksa, Venäjä, Tanska
Estonian: Soome, Rootsi, Saksamaa, Venemaa, Taani. Maa means ‘Land’ also in Finnish
Finnish got many loanwords from Sweden, being its neighbor and ruling power. Similarly, Estonian has borrowed as much from German. As a common Finnic feature, many words which originally had S with another consonant after it, dropped the S.
Finnish
Estonian
Swedish
German
school
koulu
kool
skola
Schule
chair
tuoli
tool
stol
Stuhl
to paint
maalata
maalima
måla
malen
ham
kinkku
sink
skinka
Schinken
cake
kakku
kook
kaka
Kuchen
kitchen
keittiö
köök
köket
Küche
mirror
peili
pegeli
spegel
Spiegel
Tell Finnish and Estonian apart
Estonian and Finnish look similar, so if you’re not familar with any you can tell if it is Estonian instead for these features:
Estonian has the unique letter Õ, and – unlike Finnish – uses Ü, B and G in native Finnic words (Finnish only in foreign words). Š and Ž can also be rarely seen in words of foreign origin in Estonian, although not officially part of the alphabet
diphthongs not present in Finnish: if you see two different vowels next to each other, that cannot be Finnish – but if it looks like it, it might be Estonian: päev.
No vowel harmony in Estonian: In Finnish, words contain vowels from only front or back vowels – so ä, y, ö cannot be together in the same word with a, u, o. In Estonian, mixing them is possible.
Spoken Estonian tends to sound softer and more fluid, while Finnish pronunciation is more rythmic. This might be due to dipthongs and consonant length distinction in pronunciation, stricter in Finnish, where the difference between short and long consonants is stronger.
Finnish and Estonian language days
Both countries have a day dedicated to their respective languages.
Estonian language day, also Mother Tongue day, Emakeelepäev, is celebrated on 14th March since 1999, birthday of the poet Kristjan Jaak Peterson. Poetry readings including a 12-hours reading marathon mark the day.
Finnish language day is on 9th April in honour of Michael Agricola, a 1500s clergyman considered the father of written Finnish for having published the first book in this language.
Cream buns are enjoyed in Nordic and Baltic countries during shrovetide, between January and February. Sweden’s classic semla has almond paste, while other countries variations include jam, vanilla cream, and chocolate icing top.
Whipped cream-filled buns are eaten and baked in Nordic countries during shrovetide (carnival for catholics), Fastelavn in Danish/Norwegian, Laskiainen in Finnish. This period would anticipate the lent before Easter, and culminates on Fat Tuesday – Fettisdagen in Sweden, or Shrove Sunday.
Lent was abolished with the reformation, but the buns stayed! To the point that Icelanders call the day when you eat bollur, shrove Monday, bolludagur, ‘bun day’.
National Variations of Shrovetide buns
In Sweden the semla is filled with almond paste and whipped cream. It is traditional to eat it soaked in hot milk, known as hetvägg. Swedish King Adolf Frederick died from digestion problems after eating 14 hetvägg!
Mormors bageri Semla in LundAlmond paste inside Broodnodig’s Semla in Utrecht
in Finland, Laskiaispulla – or fastlagsbulle in Swedish-speaking Finland – instead of almond paste you find jam. Estonian Vastlakukkel is more simple, genereally only with whipped cream, but sometimes also contain jam, and Norwegian fastelavnsboller can be filled with vanilla cream, jam, chocolate and almond paste.
Danish fastelavnsboller, similar to bollur in Iceland and Føstulávintsbolli in the Faroe, are made from puff and choux pastry, often with chocolate icing on top and besides whipped cream filled with vanilla cream, whipped cream and jam.
Besides the traditional version named above, there are more and more variations including liquorice, pistache and so on, with curious semlor made up each year.
Mentioning Dutch culture, a Danish/Icelandic fastelavnsbolle reminds me of a Bossche Bol, although the latter are completely coated in chocolate. I believe Italian Maritozzo is very similar to a plain semla, without almond paste.
Where to try them in the Netherlands
In Amsterdam, Selma’s Nordic bakery and Scandinavian Embassy make Semlor. Selma was also serving Finnish-style laskiaispulla in 2025, with a fruit compote, and a Danish fastelavnsbolle in 2026!
I also tried Broodnodig’s classic almond paste semla in 2026, a very big one!
In Den Haag semlor are also available Norvolk (in Scheveningen)
Arket made an interesting Danish-Swedish twist, with the classic wienerbrød Tebirkes cut and filled with whipped cream and almond paste like a semla!
Sámi people, indigenous people of North Scandinavia, have a distinct culture, symbolised by its unique flag and traditional clothing, and part of it are Duodji handicrafts and unique musical expression through yoik.
The Sámi are an indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, Northern Scandinavia. The Sámi have historically been known as Lapps or Laplanders, offensive terms. There are about 100,000 Sámi people, who share a common history, culture and languages across borders.
Sami flag
The colors found in Sami clothing inspired the Sámi flag – designed by Astrid Båhl, from Skibotn, Norway, and approved by the Nordic Sámi Council in1986. The circle is a symbol for the sun (red) and the moon (blue), emphasizing Sami people’s connection to nature.
The colors found in Sami clothing inspired the Sámi flag –
Reindeers
One of the most typical traits of Sami culture is the central role of reindeers: around 10% of Sámi practice reindeer herding nowadays, which in some parts of the Nordic countries can be practiced only by Sámis.
Sami languages
There is no single Sámi language, but a group of around 10 distinct Sámi languages which belong to the Ugro-Finnic language family (as Finnish and Estonian). Sami languages are relatively closely related, but not mutually intelligible to each other. North Sámi is the most widely used language and is spoken in all the four countries.
traditional clothing
The Sami traditional clothing, gákti/gapta/gábdde in Sami languages, kofte/kolt in Norwegian and Swedish, is well dinstinguished from Norwegian bunads and Swedish national dresses. It is worn at important occasions and varies depending on the gender, family, area one is from and status.
handicrafts: duodji•
Important parts of Sami culture are Sami handicrafts, known as duodji, which include accessories, clothing, various objects – from drums to infant beds and knives. There is a Duodji certificate to prove that what you are buying is made by a Sami.
Yoik
Another unique cultural element is the Yoik (or jojk), a traditional song-chant, with different functions, and can be about each other, places and animals. it is however inappropriate to sing a yoik about oneself, as this would be a form of self-flattery. Sami national jojk is Sámi eatnan duoddariid by Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, who modernised the yoik tradition. A famous example of yoik is Daniels jojk by Jon Henrik, a yoik tied to his late friend, which was sung at tv-show Sweden’s got talent.
The ‘anchor’ language concept allowed me to learn Swedish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian easily starting from studying properly only one language. This approach helps prevent confusion and builds a solid foundational understanding of language structures.
How to choose the language to study among Swedish, Danish and Norwegian
Many people interested in learning languages of North Europe probably start with this question, Which, among Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, is the best language to study?
Surprise surprise, there is of course no answer, but you can pick one or the other depending on some factors which make one more “suitable” to your interests and goals.
You can first of all learn about general features and learn how totell Scandinavian languages apart. Do not start all or two of them at the same time if you do not have solid knowledge of one, you can read how I managed to study all Germanic languages.
Some factors you might take into account
The next points can be considered for any language you want to study, with some specific information regarding the three Scandinavian languages:
#1 – Your personal interest
The first factor to consider is personal: is there a reason that makes a country/language more special than the other to you – A travel destination? Friends from there? Some book you would like to be able to read in the original language? Regardless what the reason is, it is good to have something motivating you, whether it is needing it to live somewhere or because you like how ø looks.
#2 – the language that opens the most doors
It is generally handy to speak a language that will give you “access” to the most other languages. The three Scandinavian languages are quite similar to each other, so it won’t make a huge difference. The one having a bit more than the others in common with the other two could be Norwegian: Danish and Norwegian have a more similar spelling due to historical reasons, but Norwegian sounds similar to Swedish, while Danish is….Danish.
Norwegian is theorically a West-North Germanic language as Icelandic, as opposed to Swedish and Danish which are grouped as East-North Germanic. There are traces of that in some Norwegian dialects, but for geographical and historical reasons Norwegian got a lot closer to Swedish and Danish. Icelandic (unfortunately?) retained its heavy grammar. More about the Icelandic grammar
#3 – the language which allows you to reach most people
Another factor people often take into consideration when starting a new language is how many people you will be able to communicate with. All Scandinavian languages are pretty small (all three make in total around 20 million speakers) but Swedish is significantly more spoken than all other languages of Nordic countries (as big as Danish and Norwegian together), and is present in Finland as well.
Some more or less tricky features
Grammar
Their grammar is very similar and essentially equally hard, with maybe the exception that Norwegian has the feminine gender too, although not used everywhere.
Pronunciation
Danes speak as if they have potatoes in their mouth. (While it is said Norwegian and Swedish sound like singing…) Some sounds like stød can be hard for foreigners to reproduce, saying rødgrød med fløde is a classic. Swedish Pronounciation has a sound similar to German ch in Bach, try this tongue twister: Sju Sjuka sjömän med sju sjuka sköterskor. People from Skåne, Sweden’s southernmost region, might sound to you like Danes speaking Swedish…Centuries ago, Skåne was actually a part of Denmark!
Language variation
Norwegian is famous for its dialects, “I” can be written/pronounced in a number of ways: jeg, Æ, eg.. Being already used to jump from a Scandinavian language to the other, hearing a new Norwegian dialect is not too scary I guess.. And it has two written standards, bokmål and nynorsk. Bokmål is far more popular than Nynorsk though.
This would mean Norwegian is probably the most convenient to learn: vocabulary/spelling lean towards Danish and Pronounciation to Swedish, while you will spare yourself the (for most people) struggle of learning how to pronounce Danish.
My journey
I personally started with Swedish and still keeping it as my “main”, although i learned the others on the way, I look at Swedish as my Scandinavian mother tongue or something, haha. There was no particular reason for this, Sweden and Swedish culture were just somehow more present in my mind and knowledge than the other two, and I just felt like learning Swedish without thinking much.
Truth to be told, many people are not particularly found of the sound of Danish. Not me though, pronouncing Danish is a guilty pleasure of mine.
If you find all of them interesting, just be patient and once you got to a decent level with one you can start picking up the others just by immersion!
my 2026 language plans with books: continue reading Swedish novels and Norwegian non-fiction, and studying Finnish.
As I did for my Nordic books 2025, here is an updated list of books I will be reading and textbooks I want to use in 2026
Below my trackers for 2025 and 2026: in 2025 I mostly studied Japanese and read Swedish novels
Book I am reading in Swedish and Norwegian
Novels to finish
Straff, Ann-Helen Laestadius – Sami kids taken away from their families to a Sami-hostile environment, who meet again 30 years later.
Allting växer, Lyra Koli – dystopic novel about a Scandinavian girl set in a post- world war and climate catastrophe world.
Norwegian books got from the thrift book shelf at the Norwegian Seamen Church
Europeere, Simen Ekern – an essay on the European Union, written around 10 years ago. This was how I opened my 2026 readings!
Norges Historie – encyclopedia-ish book on Norwegian History, from Vikings to the 70s, when it was published
Books to study Finnish
Later this year, I want to try focusing on Finnish for a while. I still have my coursebook I purchased a couple years ago, and can work on vocabulary thanks to the Ultimate Finnish Notebook (get a discount on such books for a lot of languages! – code ChiaraBeretta)
Due to my limited time, i had no time for Finnish last year, also because I tried to fully focus on studying Japanese (as for Japanese – I will use Irodori/いろどりfree online textbooks/resources). I recently purchased an Assimil book for Finnish, which should make learning Finnish while commuting easier thanks to it’s compact format and bite-size lessons
Icelandic and Danish for fun
As I wrote last year, I might try to improve my Danish with the German Assimil edition. Other books, as Swedish assimil and Short Stories in Icelandic, were started in the past and I might continue (for Icelandic) or review (for Swedish) them later.
a Polyglot illustrating Scandinavia 