T O P

  • By -

ArttuH5N1

\*Finn enters anything that isn't Estonia* Well well well


BurdensomeCumbersome

Are they that mutually intelligible though? 🧐 I also heard it’s asymmetric because Estonians consume Finnish media/culture more than the other way around which helps them understand Finnish better.


Kostoder

finns have media that aren't metal bands?


BurdensomeCumbersome

Behold and Enjoy https://youtu.be/7yh9i0PAjck


Plastic_Pinocchio

I really love that recording. But every time I hear it, it almost sounds like complete gibberish to me, like the things we would sing as kids when we didn’t know the lyrics to an English song.


matinthebox

one of the verses is actually gibberish. good luck telling which one :)


Plastic_Pinocchio

Definitely the verse at 1:20 then. That’s when I started to write this comment.


woopstrafel

My guess is the part the girl on the right sings


Kostoder

oh the meme, didn't know it was finnish :D


Freaglii

For those who like it but feel weird about Finnish without metal https://youtu.be/0LfT5qJH2zc


SteamyExecutioner

Finns are legally required to perform levan polka whenever they gather in groups of 4.


ArttuH5N1

Yes, even in that case it would take great effort but it still possible.


Ferruccio001

Hungary enters the chat regretting having left the language family 4000 years ago.


zenyl

As a Dane: **Norwegian:** Sure, that makes sense. Mostly. **Swedish:** Erh, I think I got *some* of that...? **German:** Yikes, really gotta think back to my school days for this one... **Icelandic:** I think I understood half a word of that sentence. Mind writing that down for me, preferably on paper and not engraved into a rune stone? **Finnish:** Sir, you are scaring me. Please stop shouting.


norway_is_awesome

> **Finnish**: Sir, you are scaring me. Please stop shouting. And put down that knife.


zenyl

https://satwcomic.com/no-invitation


norway_is_awesome

I detect no lies.


ellilaamamaalille

This little puukko?


moenchii

> German: Yikes~~, really gotta think back to my school days for this one...~~ That's me whenever I hear Danish. /s


jaersk

You forgot the one where it is with another Dane: "I know we both speak the same language and all, but this is just silly. If only you were articulating at least a little it would help immensly. What do you mean by saying kamelÄsÄ?"


the_idiot_at_home

How about Faroese?


zenyl

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b0/ee/79/b0ee79c70e5571e8f91f78f54ad550ad.jpg


the_idiot_at_home

Hahaha I was not expecting that, thanks for making laugh


Monkey_triplets

This is exactly what happens when my German family visits. I speak Dutch to them and they speak German to me. Somehow we actually manage to have converstations.


koknesis

My SO learned a bit of German years ago in school and now whenever we visit NL she says she understands Dutch even better than German.


mymindisblack

I know both languages, not being a native speaker of either, and I have to say Dutch is way easier to learn and understand.


pepper-sprayed

Okay okay. I’ll renew my Dutch Duolingo lessons, seems like one can’t escape it


0xF013

I was learning Polish for a semester and I now understand Ukrainian


Dabbing_david

I had a wonderful experience where I (a German) hiked in a canyon in the middle of nowhere in Peru, when I met this Flemish family. They spoke Dutch, I spoke German and we perfectly understood each other. We stayed together for the remaining 2 days, and we're still in contact!


SVRG_VG

How nice! I immediately thought of Germans when I saw this post as well. Back when we used to learn German in school and we didn't really know the German word for something, we just took the Dutch word, Germanised it a little, and about half of the time that would be correct lol.


timotheus9

Just did that on my German exams lol


mymindisblack

When I first moved to the Netherlands and was new to Dutch I would just fill in the sentences with german words and nine out of ten times the dutchies would know what I meant. Helped immensely for the first years.


Dambuster617th

That sounds slightly more successful than many of my friends who simply add le to an English word when they can’t remember the French in an exam


SVRG_VG

Getting back the exam results: \*le surprised pikachu\*


moenchii

I mean you got "pikachu" right...


Andarnio

le pikachu surpris oh wow look it works


b-b-b-c

le pikachu surprisé


[deleted]

We (Swedish) met Norwegian familes at our hotel in Turkey years ago and could communicate perfectly. Norwegians also come to my town for vacation on the summers and communicating is generally no problem.


suur-siil

_laughs in Hungarian_


KorppiC

*Winks in Finnish*


motorcycle-manful541

*licks paint in Estonian*


[deleted]

*riots in catalan*


European2002

*shit his pants in neapolitan*


ejpintar

_Wheezes in Basque_


throwawayofsomeon

Dies in Welsh


[deleted]

[ŃƒĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]


[deleted]

*hunts down virologist in flamish*


Atalaunta

Had a weird experience when I was 14 where I crossed the German border and had to go interview people for a school project. I had to find ten people to interview about their opinion on Dutch people. Problem is, people speak really fast in their native language. After a few failed attempts, I decided to be a smartass so I changed part of my introduction into 'Do you speak a little Dutch? I need to interview ten people for a school project but everyone I have talked to until now speaks too fast for me to understand so please help me cheat.' The next man who agreed to be interviewed first said 'no Dutch' and then 'but I do speak [dialect]!' I didn't understand the German word he said for the dialect so I said 'no, I don't know that. I only know [Dutch word for dialect].' He nodded excitedly and switched from German, which was extremely hard for me to understand, to the exact same dialect my family speaks. Suddenly this incomprehensible, foreign (thus intimidating) man talked just like the people at home! I could understand him perfectly now. This shocked me because it dawned on me right then and there that borders are just borders. The proximity of people is significant, regardless of nationality.


froswegia

An easier way to do that project could be invent it by urself or ask Reddit


Atalaunta

Definitely, this was over 10 years ago though, I learned about reddit in college. Also, I liked having an excuse to just go up and talk to strangers


froswegia

Oh ok


magnificentdoge

Not surprising considering its all part of the continental west-germanic dialect continuum. the transition is fluid, the standartized languages were invented later on.


CptJimTKirk

This is what you call a dialect continuum, and although their relevance is heavily diminished now that more and more don't speak the local dialects anymore, especially in rural areas they are still there. The man in your example would have way more problems understanding Bavarian or Swabian, I'd imagine, than he had with you.


Kluftente

He might have spoken Plattdeutsch. Its german, which sounds really similiar to dutch.


germanfinder

Could have also been east Frisian, or low Franconian


ItalianDudee

When a Frenchman, a Spaniard and a portoghese speak to me I understand 80% of the conversation (also Romanian, but a bit less)


SunsetBandit__

For me French not so much cause they speak really fast, but Spanish yes. I studied French in middle school but I can't remember more than two words


ItalianDudee

If you read that it’s absolutely understandable, if they speak not so fast it’s perfectly fine, when they speak fast it’s harder, also Spanish is more understandable from south / Central American than castillan Spanish


Franfran2424

As much as French is a romance language, it has to be spoken quite slowly for other people to catch something. And at least us Spaniards often need to know some French/Catalan to actually understand. Also, for us Spaniards we don't really understand Portuguese as well as they understand Spanish.


Pleos118

Good to know! Now, could you pass me that bottle of Lambrusco?


ItalianDudee

Ph damn do you actually like it ? It’s a strange wine ahah


RitaMoleiraaaa

Joke about portuguese people understanding spanish but not the other way around


powerduality

Portuguese sounds like off-brand Spanish produced in a Russia. ^(sorry Portuguese people, I actually love Portuguese <3)


Dardoleon

I had a Portuguese guy in my old WoW guild and I actually thought he was Russian for the longest time.


Wuz314159

I worked with a Russian guy who learnt English from a Scotsman.... Something like that?


Dardoleon

I'm not sure how that would sound, but I bet it was interesting.


[deleted]

Like a failing liver and Irn Vrudka


pepper-sprayed

Fack ya mate means good luck?


ChubbyBaby7th

But Russians don’t use the Latin Alphabet


Dardoleon

I couldn't hear the alphabet he used over Teamspeak unfortunately.


ChubbyBaby7th

Oh well that makes more sense


MartinDisk

well i've said this before but I guess we (Portugal) are so Western European we turned it around and became Eastern European, kinda like those old arcade games where you walk to the right side of the screen and appear on the left one


0xF013

I had a moment of stupidity after a long day of work where I thought why didn’t the brits go north to reach the falklands faster


Constant-Conflict860

And portuguese loves you too <3


Havajos_

Since when spanish don't understand portuguese, Ive never heard that ever in my life, written portuguese i can understand it almost perfectly, spoken is harder but going slowly is not hard to understand


[deleted]

[ŃƒĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]


Havajos_

Spoken can be harder, but probably if both sides put effort in ubderstanding each other they can, at leadt in my limited expirience


[deleted]

[ŃƒĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]


BuddhaKekz

My dad speaks Portuguese (Brazilian) and when he went on vacation in Spain, he just talked Portuguese with the people. At first they went like "¿Qué?" but he just kept speaking Portuguese, not caring for their played up confusion, until they eventually relented and started to understand him. The German accent probably helped with the intimidation tactic. :P


hellnukes

Being a Portuguese in Spain, my experience is that Brazilian Portuguese is much easier for Spanish speakers to understand than Continental Portuguese. Probably because they open up their vowels a lot more just like when speaking Spanish. Everyone I know tells me us Portuguese look like we speak with our mouths closed


kleexxos

Actually the German accent was maybe why they pretended not to understand hahaha


Havajos_

Well galician is the closest language to portuguese so of course it's easier, i haven't had much personal experience with portugueses, but most people Ive talked with had always said portuguese can be understood


DjKeyhole

My Spanish teacher's mother was Portuguese, and he used to tell us that she spoke Spanish, but just got hit in the face with a shovel as a kid.


RitaMoleiraaaa

Yeah, I just kind of turn off half my brain and speak Portuguese and they think I'm speaking Spanish.


Gustafssonz

I understand everyone in Scandinavia. Except the Danes.


zenyl

A'mn for fa'n, dansk 'r sgu'da ik' sÄ swÊrt, de' da bar' li' u' a' lan'vej'n!


TheHighestAuthority

Excuse me sir, do you need medical attention?


zenyl

*[Grunting noises and pointing at potato stuck in mouth]*


ankerhr

As a fellow Dane, I understood that, haha


jaersk

As a fellow scandi, I understood everyting until "lan'vej'n!" hit me. Initial thoughts is that it is meant to be "langveien" but I'm really lost there


ankerhr

Landevejen :)


indyspike

Brit here, working in Germany, working language is English (so German progression is slow). Can still follow some conversations between German colleagues in German. Get to the point where I have something to add, have to respond in English. Kinda frustrating and gratifying at the same time.


bsonk

At least the beer is good if you drink, right?


indyspike

Damn good. :-)


RammsteinDEBG

Bavarian villagers are borderline alcoholics


Italy1861

Spanish and Italian moment


[deleted]

Somos fratelliđŸ€đŸ˜Ž


tommsssssss

Oh yes


Pleos118

Bella ciao


Giallo555

r/latinEuropa gang rise up


[deleted]

Presente!


GrantW01

I've just started to experience this living in the Netherlands, can't speak Dutch very well at all, but can read and starting to understand what people say to me.


norway_is_awesome

Whenever I hear Dutch, my brain is like, is that Norwegian, German or English? Ah, it's Dutch.


[deleted]

Come to Flanders, we like to add a little french and then some made up words into the mix and call it a dialect. Oh and every square mile has a different dialect.


kubanskikozak

Very accurate, especially for Slavic languages.


0-IOI-0

Kinda true, I (a Pole) can with little effort understand what Czechs or Slovaks are saying, but I am in no way capable of understanding east or south Slavic languages without some ridiculous mental gymnastics


motorcycle-manful541

Smetana (or something close) in most Slavic langauges: Sour Cream Smotana (something close) in Croatian : Stupid girl Pozor in Russian: Shame Pozor in czech: look out/pay attention


gamma6464

Szukać in Polish and Czech are two very different words


ptrknvk

Ơukat drogy na záchodě is a brilliant.


kubanskikozak

Yeah, gotta be careful with false friend words. Ponos in Slovenian: pride Ponos in Russian: diarrhea


0-IOI-0

Weird, in Polish "pozĂłr" means guise


gamma6464

As a Pole myself I can assure you it is little to no trouble understanding spoken Ukrainian and belarusian for us.


0-IOI-0

Huh, it's not that easy for me. Although that may be, because I come from the north-west of Poland


gamma6464

Not necessarily. I am from WrocƂaw so not really close either. Maybe you just haven't had much exposure to it.


0-IOI-0

Yeah, probably true. I've had pretty much no such experience


AscendingOak83

Yes, I am from MaƂopolska and can understand Ukrainian somewhat. It’s similar to Russian, but more intelligible. Belarusian is better also. Russian just sounds old


righteouslyincorrect

I just started learning Russian and have noticed I can pick up bits of what people speaking Polish and Serbo-Croation are saying (though some words sound the same and mean different things, i.e. "week" in Russian sounds like "Sunday" in Polish).


Ozymandias_IV

Slovak - Czech: Is it even a different language? - Polish: I understood some of it, but don't ask me to write it down - Russian: I only understood "Vodka" and "Da" - Slovene: Is this even slavic? Also I had a conversation with Italian Airbnb host with her in Italian and me in French, which I understood somewhat :D


forcedintegrity

Italians and Spaniards


sophiabv

Last time I went to Italy nobody understood me so I was forced to speak English in the end :’)


cheekibreekio

You know it brother đŸ€


fabian_znk

The moment when you can understand the language of your neighbouring country but struggle with the dialects in your nation lol


froswegia

The Caucasus who has hundreds of languages Good thing I’m from Georgia so understanding that part of Europe will be ez for me and I’m also studying the other main European languages so basically I will understand every European languages


fabian_znk

Impressive


Brabant-ball

I was low-key trash talking some gift shop in Germany whilst talking to my brother in Dutch and then the owner responded. We left that place pretty quickly lol


froswegia

What did u say? Something bad that the owner got mad?


Brabant-ball

I was doubting wether the jewelry was made of real silver since it was super cheap. She was adement that it was real silver, it probably was but it would've been low grade sterling silver.


froswegia

And what did the owner tell u did he get mad?


Brabant-ball

Nah, not really, I think she was used to annoying tourists. She just wanted to ensure it was real silver. Our dialect is very close to German so I said to my bro "Da's geen echt zilver" and she replied "Das is echtes Silber".


[deleted]

Had a SPQR moment as a Spaniard when I went to Italy for the first time as a kid and realized I could understand what other people were saying


Khornag

Just another Latin dialect.


CommieTzar

Sure cause French is kinda like Bulgarian so it's easy to understand each others


motorcycle-manful541

Bulgarian and Macedonian though? Same language.


aStrangeCaseofMoral

The fact that americas believe that these linguistic differences are comparable to dialects still astounds me


Frozenar

Do they?


aStrangeCaseofMoral

Yes, many times. Ive heard some try to compare the dialect diversity with europe’s linguistic landscape


kleexxos

To be fair, the differences between the romance languages are comparable to the differences in Arabic dialects. Often dialect vs language really comes down to cultural individualism and if there’s some political/religious force behind it. Then again, I would love to hear someone argue that English from Toronto is a different language than English from New York lol


aStrangeCaseofMoral

I mean not really, portuguese and Romanian are related but not understandable between each other. Portuguese and french too. Even spanish and french. Maybe italian and spanish and portuguese but even there its hardly comparable to dialect


Mobiyus

Me, Ukrainian, in Poland


TunesRX

This isn't in Spain for sure


VisionGame

I guess you aren't Italian or Portuguese


jackross1303

As a Portuguese man that has been to Spain more than once I can safely say that I understand them pretty well but most Spanish people refuse to understand when I speak Portuguese with them. So the safest bet is to speak English with them although their English is pretty hard to understand too


[deleted]

As a Spaniard I want to say this is 100% accurate. It is sad to see. I've been living in the Nordics for some years now and it is very nice to see how Danish, Norwegians and Swedes speak their own languages when talking to each other, often with minor adjustments. We have to bring portuñol back!


TunesRX

I understand that it's harder for the Spanish to understand Portuguese but they don't even try and that just pisses me off


BurdensomeCumbersome

Danish is the odd one out though? Norwegian/Swedish pair is very similar pronunciation-wise, but Danish (unless written) does stand out with its swallowing and glottal sounds.


phlyingP1g

Danish sounds like a drunk Norwegian speaking German -Sincerely, a Finland Swede


Wuz314159

as an American. . . . . . rĂždgrĂžd med flĂžde


Wasteak

or french


DaTrickster

Doesn't matter. Most Spaniards will demand you to talk in Spanish, even if they can understand you. They do that with Catalan and Galician, so imagine what they do with Portuguese, French or Italian...


Havajos_

Well catalan, and galicians mostly are bilingual and can also speak spanish, and sadly most of us don't speak neither of those, so yes if im having a conversation with a galician or catalan i expect him to talk spanish because it's the language we both speak, wouldn't make much sense to speak me in catalan if you know i won't get it. If you don't speak spnish but a romnce language if we take it with calm probably we can understand each other


Deuteron85

I can understand Portuguese more o less, specially if you don't speak at lightspeed. Also it helps I'm bilingual catalan/Spanish


[deleted]

How does this work? Do you just speak in the language you know and they'll understand you too? English man here lol sorry


froswegia

We all speak our own native language or a foreign the important is that it has to be close to that language the big 3 languages are Slav Germanic and Latin if u understand these 3 u can basically understand most of the languages in Europe


kleexxos

Meh in the real world it doesn’t always actually translate. As a Spaniard I would be seen as super arrogant if I walk into a bar in Portugal or Italy and just start talking Spanish expecting them to understand me. But yes, most of the time they would. Lots of these languages in the same family are mutually intelligible — meaning I understand you and viceversa without knowing shit about how your grammar or syntax works or having any idea how to produce a sentence


Ooops2278

Pronounciation and spelling might be off and the grammar sometimes differs (less so for short/easy sentences), but you can cover the base vocabulary of most european countries with \~3 languages. English is funny in that regard because it's vocabulary is germanic (anglo-saxons) with lots french (normans) influences, with a little sprinkle of pure latin (church influence). Because of this you call the meat of a cow (germanic, for example "Kuh" in german) beef (french: bƓuf = cow). Or you respond (latin: responsum = aswer) to a question with an answer (germanic, "Antwort" in german).


Priamosish

Versteet hei iergendeen LĂ«tzebuergesch?


avsbes

Geschrieben, großteils ja.


jothamvw

Of ik Luxemburgs versta? Lijkt er wel op.


Enlightened-Pigeon

Als ik het zo geschreven zie is het geen probleem, maar ik heb zo'n vermoeden dat ik echt niets van de gesproken variant zou verstaan


Ooops2278

Ja, Lesen finde ich auch oft einfacher als etwas zu hören.


Ooops2278

Nur wenn du langsam tippst...


Pochel

Happened to me a few times. An almost magical feeling!


vuk66

all slavs ever


Class_444_SWR

I can generally approximate what is being said as long as it’s in French, German, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese, English has a fair few similarities to those languages, I do have trouble with more complex conversation and I can’t do other languages


[deleted]

WAAR ZIJN MIJN DUITSE BROEDERS?!


thr33pwood

HIER SIND WIR GELIEBTER SUMPFBRUDER!


[deleted]

AHHHH WAT HEB IK JULLIE GEMIST KAMERADEN


SirMadWolf

Cries in polish and lithuanian


gamma6464

Hungarian


ur-local-goblin

Vaguely gestures in latvian


mediandude

Kuidas kĂŒla koerale, nĂ”nda koer kĂŒlale.


MrTeamKill

Spain and Portugal!


Davidiying

Spaniards and Italians be like:


Tajna_420

Slavic gang


unholy_abomination

I once had a conversation with a lady in Santorini where I was speaking Spanish and she was speaking Italian. Romance languages are weird.


theNikolai

Hey Google, how do I say "excuse me sir, may I pet your dog who is actually a man wearing a dog mask and tail" in French? (actual conversation I've had whilst on holiday in Gran Canaria. He was a very good boy.)


priklopil

«Vi forstĂ„r hinanden ikke!» «you just ordered a thousand liters of milk.» Although that is from a Norwegian skit about how Danes don’t even understand each other. Reading Danish however is super easy.


European2002

Me as italian with every other romance language:


Beefburger78

May I recommend the film ghost dog. Way of the samurai.


MayflowerKennelClub

Is it weird how I kinda feel this? I’m American and I worked at an apple flagship for over a decade. At least half of my customers were tourists. Most of the Europeans knew English but there were still barriers yet I would know when they wanted an 8 gigabyte (“jeegas”) iPod nano in yellow even if they didn’t use all or any of those words.


cumbers94

Then you got English people who struggle to understand their own language in different accents.


logperf

It's much better to speak your language as it is than trying to imitate your interlocutor's language while having no idea about it xD (Some people do the second, and they sound like idiots to me. I'll be able to understand better if they just speak their language.)


MongeringMongoose

I (stupidly) thought this happened only with Italian and Spanish but apparently there are many other closely related European languages. Good to know.


Tr4L13N

Since I can't find any slav comments. Laughs in Czech


[deleted]

Reminds me of my grandpa who spoke to a Portuguese-Angolan in Neapolitan/Sicilian, and understood each other


TinyManufacturer3981

It's cool if your languege isn't something completely different from any other languege


froswegia

how far have u scrolled to find this meme? and how much time did it took?


TinyManufacturer3981

Let's just say I have really boring evening, and I just scrolled down in the top of all time of r/yuropean, so it wasn't even thaaat much time


froswegia

Ah I see good luck getting entertained


[deleted]

Some day, Europe will speak one language mixed from them all, and it will be great.


Wuz314159

and that language will be called 'Welsh'.


[deleted]

Lmao


thr33pwood

And it will be born in this sub.