Have you ever wondered if the people of the Nordic countries swear? Finland and Denmark take turns being the happiest country in the world, and Iceland, Norway and Sweden are not far behind on the same metric.

So, do Nordic people even have reason to curse? If you ask them, the answer would probably be: of course! Across the Nordic countries, swearing is a widespread practice, from teenagers to jaunty grandmothers. Even younger children are known to throw in a swearword once in a while (sometimes under their breath, depending on the proximity of their parents).

If you鈥檙e curious about this perhaps controversial language practice as performed in the Nordic countries, then this article is for you. Read on to get an idea of the nature of profanity in this part of the world, as well as specific examples of swearwords from each country.

So, hva faen are you waiting for? Have fun learning a bit about Nordic foul language!

The nature of Nordic swearing

As in other parts of the world, swearing in the Nordic countries is often done to let off steam. For instance, when you鈥檙e angry with someone, you want to express annoyance at something, or you seek to (mentally) relieve the pain of stubbing your toe (we鈥檝e all been there!).

Just like swearing in other languages, swearwords in the Nordic languages reference things that are taboo in the local culture. However, swearing in the Nordic countries does seem to differ from swearing in the UK or the US, for example, in two particular areas: the perceived offensiveness of swearing and the themes of the swearwords.

Perceived offensiveness of swearing in the Nordic countries

Studies on the perceived offensiveness of swearing in English-speaking countries as well as the Nordic countries have been conducted and compared. The results suggest that Nordic people swear more freely than their English-speaking counterparts.

In general, Nordic people have a laissez-faire attitude towards swearing, and to many, swearing is an integral part of their everyday language. Whilst many in the UK share the same attitude, Nordic people often go further, swearing in contexts even Brits would find unacceptable.

To many Nordic people, swearing is an integral part of everyday language.

This laid-back relationship with bad words is evident when watching TV for instance. Even when guests on Nordic TV shows are instructed not to swear while on air, some just can鈥檛 help doing so 鈥� and the swearwords themselves aren鈥檛 censored or bleeped out.

Although Nordic people tend to swear more freely, swearing is not considered good form. Given that swearing is a rather informal use of language, there are of course certain situations in which it would be inappropriate to do so.

At a job interview, for example, you鈥檇 probably be better off keeping the swearing to a minimum 鈥� or just refrain from doing it at all. That way you don鈥檛 risk coming across as unprofessional.

However, if your potential employer is blown away by your wit, skills and vision, you might just get the job anyway.

Themes of Nordic swearwords

Some of the themes present in English-language swearing also exist in the Nordic languages.

Religion as a theme, or the incorporation of God, the devil or hell when swearing, is a prime example of this. In Sweden, for instance, many people use the swear word fan, which literally means 鈥榯he devil鈥�, as an exclamation for when something goes wrong.

You can also swear by 鈥榟ell鈥� in all five Nordic languages. In Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish, you would exclaim Helvetti!, 贬别濒惫铆迟颈!, Helvete! and Helvete!, respectively, whilst you would say For helvede! in Danish.

One theme that is not present in English-language swearing today is that of diseases. In Danish, this theme contains swearwords with reference to serious illnesses such as cancer.

Kraftedeme is an example of this as it is a contraction of Kr忙ften 忙de mig, which translates into 鈥榤ay cancer eat me鈥�. This swearword acts as an oath: a curse that is used to strengthen a statement and underline the seriousness of the speaker. For example, Det er kraftedeme ikke i orden!, means 鈥楾his is not okay 鈥� may cancer eat me if it is okay!鈥�.

Another theme that is exclusive to the Nordic languages as compared to English is numbers. In Sweden, you can exclaim Sjutton! or Attans! when something doesn鈥檛 go according to plan. Meaning 鈥榮eventeen鈥� and 鈥榚ighteen鈥� respectively, these words are technically classified as euphemisms in Swedish, which makes them very unloaded and safe to use in any situation.

Danish has a similar euphemism 鈥� For syv sytten!, literally meaning 鈥楩or seven seventeen!鈥� 鈥� which is used in a similar way to its Swedish counterparts.

The influence of English on Nordic swearing

Like other societies, the Nordic countries are heavily influenced by American culture in the form of TV, films, music and, as a consequence of this, language use.

In Denmark, code-switching (the act of alternating between languages in the same conversation) is not unheard of, especially within the younger generations. The occasional 鈥榣iterally鈥�, 鈥榟onestly鈥�, 鈥榮orry鈥� or even typical English syntax often enter the conversation.

This English-inspired language use has also found its way into swearing across the Nordic languages.

The Nordic countries and their swearing are heavily influenced by American culture and English-language use.

Apart from swearwords originating from Nordic languages, the use of 鈥榝uck鈥� and 鈥榝ucking鈥� can be heard and seen in each of the Nordic countries 鈥� 鈥榮hit鈥� has also been adopted by many Nordic people. Both four-letter words are used in much the same way as they are in the English-speaking countries, i.e. when something goes wrong.

In Danish, for instance, you could say Fuck, jeg har glemt mine n酶gler!, meaning 鈥楩uck, I forgot my keys!鈥�. You could easily use 鈥榮hit鈥� instead of 鈥榝uck鈥� in this example 鈥� the swearwords are interchangeable in most situations.

Just like in English, the swearword 鈥榝ucking鈥� is used descriptively to emphasise a negative attitude the speaker has towards someone or something. In Danish, Han er en fucking idiot! means 鈥楬e is a fucking idiot!鈥�.

The perceived offensiveness of English swearwords amongst Nordic people compared to Americans or Brits has been debated, as it seems that the aforementioned four-letter specimens don鈥檛 have the same impact when used in the Nordic countries.

It could be that the theme of sex is just not as taboo as in the English-speaking countries鈥� or maybe swearing in a foreign language doesn鈥檛 feel as bad as in your mother tongue.

In any case, 鈥榝uck鈥� and 鈥榮hit鈥� have become an integral part of the Nordic vocabulary of swearwords. So much so that certain countries have developed their own spellings of 鈥榝uck鈥� and 鈥榝ucking鈥�. Icelanders, for instance, spell the words fokk and fokking, respectively, whilst the Norwegians often spell 鈥榝uck鈥� either fakk or 蹿酶办办.

Swearwords from each Nordic country

Are you curious to learn some bad language from each of the Nordic countries? Below is a list of the most common or remarkable swearwords from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Denmark

Finland

Iceland

Norway

Sweden

Now that you know more about the controversial linguistic practice of swearing in the Nordic languages, you鈥檒l be able to show off what you鈥檝e learnt. Nordic people tend to have a great sense of humour and they鈥檒l probably enjoy hearing a foreigner swear like a native!

Just remember to keep the swearing to informal situations 鈥� Sandberg takes no responsibility for any lost job opportunities due to foul language!

Christina Bjerggaard is a Danish translator at Sandberg. She wrote her master鈥檚 thesis on the translation of swearwords from English to Danish and, with her additional research for this article, is now our in-house profanity expert!

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The adaptation spectrum

Approach 1: Reproofing

As mentioned at the start of this post, adaptation means different things to different people. For many clients, it can be as simple as changing a few zeds (or zees) to esses and jettisoning the odd , along with changing date formats, . We can call this type of adaptation reproofing, as it normally just involves skim-reading the source text.

Approach 2: Traditional adaptation

Sometimes this is enough: for example in business reports or technical manuals. Often though, clients want us to go further, changing terminology where relevant and possibly even phrasing. This is what clients normally mean by adaptation.

Approach 3: Full localisation

At the furthest end of the spectrum, clients want us to consider all of the above, plus the connotations of particular turns of phrase that might offend in the target market, as well as cultural references that could be lost on the target audience. In this way, the job becomes much more like a transcreation or localisation project, and requires considerable time, research and effort, rather than a simple spell check.听Let鈥檚 call this type full localisation. This type of project doesn鈥檛 come along every day, but when it does it can be the most impactful on the client鈥檚 target audience, as well as the most fun for linguists to work on.

We can visualise these types of adaptation on a spectrum:

As you can see, each requires a different approach and level of commitment. The tools used for each type of work also vary.

What鈥檚 the actual difference between US and UK English?听

Sometimes the line between US and UK English is not as clear-cut as it may seem. Spelling differences are easy to identify, as is the American propensity to capitalise the first letter of every word in headings. Then there are the famous terms all native English speakers know:听truck听vs听lorry,听candy听vs听sweets,听autumn听vs听fall. Depending on the domain and text type, the density of such terms can vary greatly.

What鈥檚 harder to pin down is the feeling that many British English speakers have that something just 鈥渟ounds American鈥�. This gut reaction is not always rooted in solid linguistics: many terms have crossed the Atlantic in both directions, and American English preserves many archaic terms that had their origins in the British Isles.

The sum of these hundreds of tiny stylistic choices can be much greater than its parts.

There are certain tendencies that crop up again and again. Brits are quite fond of the perfect tense 鈥� most preferring听I鈥檝e already eaten听to the American听I already ate. This extends to the common phrase听Forgot password?, which is rendered as听Forgotten password?听in UK localisations of many web services. The way both nations use modal verbs varies quite substantially too:听must听is more common in US English than UK English, whereas听shall听is barely used west of the Atlantic despite still being in daily use in the UK.

The minute differences are too numerous to list here, and many resources exist that map out the differences in spelling, vocabulary and syntax. However, the sum of these hundreds of tiny stylistic choices can be much greater than its parts. They all combine to create a general sound, a feel, that many native English speakers can detect even if they can鈥檛 point out exactly what sounds odd about a particular construction.

Identifying all the possible changes that can be made is a complex task and requires an intimate knowledge of linguistic norms on either side of the Atlantic, as well as a keen eye. Often in cases of uncertainty, linguists must rely on gut instinct or straw polls of colleagues to check the validity of the changes they wish to make.

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