7 Useful Frisian sentences to learn

OBE Lân fan taal, visitor centrum

People love to be approached in their own language by tourists. Since the Frisian language is a common language in Friesland, we wrote down some useful sentences for you we translated to Frisian. If you learn these simple Frisian sentences, you can easily have a fun conversation with Frisian people when you are in Friesland this year.

By: Federico Patelli & Welmoed van der Weerd

1. Greeting someone
This first one is probably the most important one. How do you start the conversation?

English: Hello, how are you?
Frisian: Hoi, hoe giet it?

In the morning you can say ‘goemoarn’ (goodmorning), in the afternoon you can say ‘goemiddei’ (good afternoon) and in the evening you can say ‘goejûn’ (good evening).

2. Introducing yourself
If you would like to introduce yourself to someone, you can use the following Frisian sentence:

English: My name is (your name) and I am from Spain.
Frisian: Myn namme is (your name) en ik kom út Spanje.

You can replace ‘Spanje’ with Frankryk (France), België (Belgium), Dútslân (Germany), Itaalje (Italië) or Denemarken (Denmark).

3. Asking for directions
You can use this sentence to ask where to find a specific location.

English: Could you tell me where the toilet is?
Frisian: Kinne jo my fertellen wêr’t it húske is?

Replace the word ‘toilet’ for ‘gemeentehûs’ (city hall), ‘stedssintrum’ (citycentre), or ‘supermerk’ (supermarket) for example. 

4. Asking for someone’s recommendation
If you want to ask somebody’s recommendation, you can use the following sentence:

English: Which restaurant do you recommend me to go to?
Frisian: Hokker restaurant rie jo my oan nei ta te gean?

Replace ‘restaurant’ for the word ‘museum’, ‘park’ or ‘monumint’ (monument) for example.

5. Looking for good orangecake
There are a lot of good bakeries and confectioneries in Friesland and most of ‘em sell orangecake. If you would like to have some good orangecake, this Frisian sentence is going to save you:

English: Which bakery sells the best/tastiest orangecake?
Frisian: Yn hokker bakkerij kin ik de lekkerste oranjekoeke keapje?

6. Favourite Frisian local product
When you want to know what someone’s favourite Frisian local product is, you can ask this:

English: May I ask what your favourite Frisian local product is?
Frisian: Mei ik witten wat dyn favorite Fryske streek produkt is?

7. How to finish a conversation
If you want to end the conversation politely, you can use this sentence:

English: It was nice to meet you, good bye!
Frisian: It wie aardich om jo te treffe, oant sjen!

We hope you enjoyed this article and that these Frisian sentences were useful for you. Do not be scared to start a conversation with Frisian people. We really appreciate your interest in our culture and we welcome everybody in our beautiful province!