Script guide › Latin
Danish vs Icelandic
Danish and Icelandic sit in the same corner of the writing-system map — Grafle's Latin group — and players mix them up constantly. Here's the fastest way to tell them apart.
The tell
Icelandic has þ and ð; Danish doesn't. Both share æ and ø, so hunt for the thorn.
Side by side
Danish
Rødgrød med fløde er en klassisk dansk dessert.
Hyggeligt at møde dig! Kom og få en kop kaffe.
Mange bække små gør en stor å.
Danish's own tells
- Uses æ, ø, å — like Norwegian, unlike Swedish's ä/ö.
- Near-identical to Norwegian: Danish writes 'af' where Norwegian writes 'av', so lean on context.
On signs in:
- Denmark
- Greenland
Icelandic
Allir menn eru bornir frjálsir og jafnir að virðingu.
Halló, hvernig hefur þú það?
Þetta reddast alltaf einhvern veginn.
Icelandic's own tells
- Þ (thorn) and ð (eth) — only Icelandic still uses both (Faroese kept just the ð). Either one is an instant giveaway.
On signs in:
- Iceland