Finnish vs Norwegian: 300 Words That Are Nearly Identical

Finnish vs Norwegian: 300 Words That Are Nearly Identical: the list

Tips

• Watch for Finnish adding a final -i where Norwegian ends in a consonant: dollari/dollar, testi/test, filmi/film, and kontakti/kontakt. If you know the Norwegian form, adding -i is often a good first guess at the Finnish one.
• Finnish sometimes doubles a consonant that Norwegian keeps single, as in presidentti/president and prosentti/prosent. Going from Norwegian to Finnish, expect the doubling; going the other way, expect it to simplify.
• Finnish -a endings often correspond to Norwegian -e or to no ending at all: compare historia/historie, teoria/teori, energia/energi, and linja/linje. Learning this correspondence lets you predict a whole family of words instead of memorizing each one separately.
• Some forms are shared outright, such as auto (car), kilo, tv, and show, so don't overthink them; they are close to free vocabulary in both directions.
• A near-identical spelling is a strong hint, not a guarantee. Two look-alike words rarely cover exactly the same range of meanings in both languages, so check how each one is actually used in context.
• If you speak Norwegian and are starting Finnish, train yourself to ask which vowel Finnish adds at the end of a loanword; if you speak Finnish and are starting Norwegian, ask which final vowel or doubled consonant to drop.

Frequently asked questions

Are Finnish and Norwegian related languages?

No. Finnish is a Uralic language and Norwegian is a Germanic language, so their grammar and core vocabulary are unrelated. The overlap you see here comes from shared loanwords, not from a common ancestor.

Why do so many Finnish and Norwegian words look almost the same?

Both languages took in a great deal of the same international and administrative vocabulary, which is why pairs like presidentti/president, teoria/teori, and prosentti/prosent line up so closely even though the languages themselves are unrelated.

How do I practice these words in Vocab Voyage?

You see an English prompt and type the Finnish word from memory, with spaced repetition bringing each word back around before you are likely to forget it. Accents and other diacritical marks are forgiven, so a missing mark will not cost you the answer. Sign-up is free and needs only an email, with no card and no password.

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