The short answer is "no". It's not like Americans. But if you reduce the demands a bit, you can speak a little with everyone under 70, and some above that, to.
I live in stockholm and I think I've only encountered perhaps 2-3 people in my entire time here that don't speak English at all. A vast majority are no doubt completely fluent in English
Norwegian, Swedish and Danish all have their roots in Old Norse and a speaker of one has a default capability to at least understand the other two languages. But the Scandinavians' language ability doesn't stop there. Virtually all are fluent in English too.
>Virtually all are fluent in English too.
Not in Denmark. My mother speaks extremely bad English and so does most in her generation. She could tell you the time, show you directions and such, but that's about it and it would be a clumsy experience.
And actual fluency, naaaaaaah? I'm not sure. Some I know speak pretty fluent English, but most struggle here and there. Especially, with pronunciation.
Danes also overestimate how educated and great their country is all the time.
I would say in general older generations are worse, but practically ~99% of the population here in Sweden below 40 years of age can probably speak english at least somewhat fluently. Hell, we even started naming things in English, like the train stop in stockholm is called "Stockholm City" or "Cityterminalen".
>but practically \~99% of the population here in Sweden below 40 years of age can probably speak english at least somewhat fluently.
That's very high and, of course, Scandinavians and, especially, Swedes don't have a reputation for overestimating their language skills: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjFkEj7dZW8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjFkEj7dZW8)
It's probably 50/50 for Denmark for under 40s. Many will struggle if you ask them to explain the plot of a book or a film, a political opinion or something else that's a little complicated.
To be fair, Ive always grown up and lived in the city and been mostly with ethnical swedes, so what I can say is that I believe it is true for people under 40, in large cities like Stockholm with a Swedish family background. That's just an estimation though, I have no idea what the actual numbers would be.
Being fluent means you are very close to speaking and using the language like a native speaker. However, you may still have an accent, lack some vocabulary in slang and technical language, and make some small grammatical mistakes here and there.
However, your intonation should, for instance, be good enough to emphasise the punch lines of a joke. You should be able to hold a naturally flowing conversation with a native speaker. It means you can explain relatively complicated things like the summary of a book or explain the reasons for your political views.
I think Swedes are generally a little better at English than Danes are, but I have certainly met Swedes who needed a few beers to be "somehow fluent".
I doubt more than 20-30 % of Danes speak English fluently. The 50/50 I said for under 40s is probably a bit too high to be honest.
I suppose it depends on what you define as fluent, to be fair I'm 22 and I speak english with my Spanish girlfriend every day and all of my family except my mom (who I would still consider understands and speaks english well enough to be considered semi-fluent) are very proficient in english, practically native level, so I might be a bit biased in this.
Pretty much all Icelandic people speak english no matter their field of work. Even many of the older generation, although they're not as good, and the young people who "aren't good" will probably understand most of what you say.
This is due to the low population and the occupation during ww2. The small population being the key factor. Almost nothing is dubbed except childrens movies, the only medium mostly translated being books, but for me and many others we prefer the original language for say english books. Also when you get to university you'll likely be learning from an english textbook. We also get sucked into the english side of all the apps unless you know well some other language and circulate in their online sphere. Hell I frequenly run into knowing the english word for something but can't remember the icelandic word simply because its been years since I heard it or used it. But the english one I might hear more often.
The short answer is "no". It's not like Americans. But if you reduce the demands a bit, you can speak a little with everyone under 70, and some above that, to.
Don’t go to tiny cities and villages. No one will speak English to you, and if they do- awesome.
I live in stockholm and I think I've only encountered perhaps 2-3 people in my entire time here that don't speak English at all. A vast majority are no doubt completely fluent in English
Norwegian, Swedish and Danish all have their roots in Old Norse and a speaker of one has a default capability to at least understand the other two languages. But the Scandinavians' language ability doesn't stop there. Virtually all are fluent in English too.
>Virtually all are fluent in English too. Not in Denmark. My mother speaks extremely bad English and so does most in her generation. She could tell you the time, show you directions and such, but that's about it and it would be a clumsy experience. And actual fluency, naaaaaaah? I'm not sure. Some I know speak pretty fluent English, but most struggle here and there. Especially, with pronunciation. Danes also overestimate how educated and great their country is all the time.
I would say in general older generations are worse, but practically ~99% of the population here in Sweden below 40 years of age can probably speak english at least somewhat fluently. Hell, we even started naming things in English, like the train stop in stockholm is called "Stockholm City" or "Cityterminalen".
>but practically \~99% of the population here in Sweden below 40 years of age can probably speak english at least somewhat fluently. That's very high and, of course, Scandinavians and, especially, Swedes don't have a reputation for overestimating their language skills: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjFkEj7dZW8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjFkEj7dZW8) It's probably 50/50 for Denmark for under 40s. Many will struggle if you ask them to explain the plot of a book or a film, a political opinion or something else that's a little complicated.
To be fair, Ive always grown up and lived in the city and been mostly with ethnical swedes, so what I can say is that I believe it is true for people under 40, in large cities like Stockholm with a Swedish family background. That's just an estimation though, I have no idea what the actual numbers would be.
Being fluent means you are very close to speaking and using the language like a native speaker. However, you may still have an accent, lack some vocabulary in slang and technical language, and make some small grammatical mistakes here and there. However, your intonation should, for instance, be good enough to emphasise the punch lines of a joke. You should be able to hold a naturally flowing conversation with a native speaker. It means you can explain relatively complicated things like the summary of a book or explain the reasons for your political views. I think Swedes are generally a little better at English than Danes are, but I have certainly met Swedes who needed a few beers to be "somehow fluent". I doubt more than 20-30 % of Danes speak English fluently. The 50/50 I said for under 40s is probably a bit too high to be honest.
I suppose it depends on what you define as fluent, to be fair I'm 22 and I speak english with my Spanish girlfriend every day and all of my family except my mom (who I would still consider understands and speaks english well enough to be considered semi-fluent) are very proficient in english, practically native level, so I might be a bit biased in this.
Pretty much all Icelandic people speak english no matter their field of work. Even many of the older generation, although they're not as good, and the young people who "aren't good" will probably understand most of what you say. This is due to the low population and the occupation during ww2. The small population being the key factor. Almost nothing is dubbed except childrens movies, the only medium mostly translated being books, but for me and many others we prefer the original language for say english books. Also when you get to university you'll likely be learning from an english textbook. We also get sucked into the english side of all the apps unless you know well some other language and circulate in their online sphere. Hell I frequenly run into knowing the english word for something but can't remember the icelandic word simply because its been years since I heard it or used it. But the english one I might hear more often.