We love fish - and we have a lot of fish-sayings
If a Dane thinks you are stupid, he might call you ‘stupid like a cod fish’ (Dum som en torsk).
In Sweden if you put ‘onion on the salmon’, you make things worse “[att] lägga lök på laxen”
If a Dane is ‘pulling cod fish to the shore’ (at trække torsk I land) it means he is snoring VERY loudly.
People who are always happy-go-lucky in Norway are known as “happy salmons” (glad laks)
If a Dane is ‘standing like herring in a barrel’, it means he’s feeling a bit squashed (Stå som sild i en tønde)
If a Swede calls you “a damn eel’s head”, he is insulting you (Ditt jävla ålahuvud)
In Danish, if someone calls you a Clap Codfish (Klaptorsk), he thinks you’re an idiot.
The Finns don’t have fairytales about “dragons”… instead, they tell stories about “salmon snakes” (Lohikäärme).
If you are “Fresh as a Fish” in Danish (Frisk som en fisk) it simply means you have energy and you’re ready to go.
If something goes wrong, it ‘goes to fish’ (gå i fisk)
Tanketorsk. From Danish, meaning: “thought cod”, a term to describe an inadvertent mistake or thoughtless action. As in: ‘Sorry I mentioned to your girlfriend that you were out with Shirley, that was a total tanketorsk’.
In Sweden, if someone is a old perv, they will be known as a “snuskhummer”, literally translated: ‘dirty lobster’.
If a Dane describes someone as ‘dead as a herring’ he simply means ‘really dead’ (similar to the English Dead as a doornail).
If someone calls a girl in Denmark a ‘delicious herring’ it means she is super hot (en lækker sild).
Herring fish communicate with each other by farting.
If something in Danish goes completely wrong, Danes will say ‘it has gone completely to fish” (gå helt i fisk)
If someone ‘slides in on a prawn sandwich’ in Sweden (“Glida in på en räkmacka”) it means someone who didn’t have to work to get where they are in life.
