Terminology

[harry]

What do you call the first room or place in an flat/apartment where you take off your shoes and so on?
I don't really know what I would call it in English.

I have heard that you don't actually take off your shoes when entering an apartment or another non-public house in English speaking coutries.
Is this really true? I've never really seen of people do take off their shoes or not in movies or tv series other than in an episode of Family Guy un which it was mentioned that taking off the shoes was weird.

 

[Jeff T]

Here in California, I just call it the Entryway, there's usually a coat closet with a door.
Some people take off shoes when coming in from outside. Sometimes in farm/ranch areas where
there is a 'mud room / laundry' instead of an entryway.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Here we call it a porch, I'm from Dutch culture we always take off our shoes.

 

[harry]

That's a good question, I have one of those rooms and it's called a "vindfang" here. That means "wind catcher". It's called that because there is usually a door separating the "wind catcher" room from the rest of the house so if you open the front door, that little room stops the wind from blowing into the house. Not sure what it's called in English.
No shoes indoors is what you would call koseligt.

That's the room where people remove their shoes before entering the house, pretty much all homes have that here. I have shelves for shoes there and one of those heated shelves you use to dry wet shoes. Walking in with shoes is weird, I know people do it in other countries but it is weird.

Electric shoe dryer shelf, very convenient. And warm shoes are so nice during winter.
View attachment 79878

So your Norwegian.
Is that the same as the Swedish word hall? Does it really mean the first room or place you enter?
Wiki says vindfang is svale in Swedish. Svale is a word that I am not very familiar with. It doesn't seem to refer to the first room or place you enter. Neither the Swedish or Norwegian seem to agree with you but Wiki can miss meanigs of words.
I hate wearing shoes indoors even if it is a public place like work. Shoes are for outside. Birkenstocks or something similar are nice to wear indoors.

Btw, is Bokmål easier than Nynorsk? I speak standard Swedish so Bokmål seems easier.

Please listen to the guy at 2:14 in this video

What kind of Norwegian accent is this. It is such a lovely accent. He doesn't even sound like a stereotypical Norwegian.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Michigan, US: Entryway (front) of the home. Mudroom (rear or side) of the home,...often near a laundry/utility area or garage. Shoes are generally not worn in the home.

 

[Bolletje]

Dutch here: “hal” or “entree”. Taking your shoes off when entering a house is not common here. If I visited someone and they would ask me to take off my shoes, I would be taken aback for a bit. I wouldn’t mind, I would just be surprised. I sometimes take my shoes off when I enter my own house, but that’s only when my feet hurt, or when I want to lie down on the couch. Otherwise the shoes stay on until I prepare for bed.

As a kid I had one friend whose parents insisted guests take their shoes off. They had slippers for guests, but I didn’t like wearing slippers other people had worn too, so I just stopped going there.

 

[Forest Cat]

So your Norwegian.
Is that the same as the Swedish word hall? Does it really mean the first room or place you enter?
Wiki says vindfang is svale in Swedish. Svale is a word that I am not very familiar with. It doesn't seem to refer to the first room or place you enter. Neither the Swedish or Norwegian seem to agree with you but Wiki can miss meanigs of words.
I hate wearing shoes indoors even if it is a public place like work. Shoes are for outside. Birkenstocks or something similar are nice to wear indoors.

Btw, is Bokmål easier than Nynorsk? I speak standard Swedish so Bokmål seems easier.

Please listen to the guy at 2:14 in this video

What kind of Norwegian accent is this. It is such a lovely accent. He doesn't even sound like a stereotypical Norwegian.

It's the first room you enter. When I come home, I open the front door, walk into the "vindfang"/wind catcher and remove my shoes. The Swedes call it "vindfång". They also sometimes call it "hallen". That means hallway. But "svale" kan also be right, a svale is like a small room on the outside of the rest of the house.

If you look at the pic you see a box with a door on the outside of the house, The Swedes call that a 'svale'. It's also a vindfang, the difference between that and my vindfang is that mine is not on the outside of the building. "Svale" is also the Norwegian word for the bird called swallow. This is getting confusing now.

 

[Mary Terry]

Where I live in the lower south USA, that area is usually called the foyer. Most Americans don't remove their shoes when they enter someone else's home but we are raised with the idea of scraping off our shoes on the welcome mat outside the front door so we don't track something like mud or worse into the house. If one's shoes were really dirty, then most Americans would decline entering the home or would remove their shoes to enter.

 

[Knower of nothing]

Dutch here: “hal” or “entree”. Taking your shoes off when entering a house is not common here.

Interesting, here in Vlaanderen we all take shoes off except for like professional visits. No slippers though, just go with socks. I always found it nice, taking your shoes off in someone else's home feels like being welcomed in as the shoes are kinda associated with being an outsider.

 

[Thinx]

Many people in the UK would take off outdoor shoes on entry to the home, and put on slippers. But I wouldn't expect visitors to remove their shoes normally, nor would I offer slippers. Don't have many visitors anyway because I prefer to meet others elsewhere than my home.

I would call the small room on the exterior, a porch. Some would have an internal porch, so within the front door. It may have glass and another door to the actual home.

 

[Forest Cat]

Dutch here: “hal” or “entree”. Taking your shoes off when entering a house is not common here. If I visited someone and they would ask me to take off my shoes, I would be taken aback for a bit. I wouldn’t mind, I would just be surprised.

That's surprising, I thought you guys over there in the Netherlands did the same as us, shoes off.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

A common, saying "born in a BARN".

 

[VictorR]

No comment on terminology, but I'm in the Pacific Northwest / Western Canada and when visiting someone's home one would always take their shoes off. Usually best to wear socks to avoid walking around barefeet.

 

[Fino]

The living room?

 

[Bolletje]

Interesting, here in Vlaanderen we all take shoes off except for like professional visits. No slippers though, just go with socks. I always found it nice, taking your shoes off in someone else's home feels like being welcomed in as the shoes are kinda associated with being an outsider.

I’m a barbaric Northerner

 

[Bolletje]

That's surprising, I thought you guys over there in the Netherlands did the same as us, shoes off.

Some households do, some don’t. In my area it doesn’t happen, but I gather from this topic it does happen in other areas. Possibly a regional thing?

 

[RotanotNino]

As a kid I had one friend whose parents insisted guests take their shoes off. They had slippers for guests, but I didn’t like wearing slippers other people had worn too, so I just stopped going there.

Yuck! I wouldn't do that either.

 

[harry]

It's the first room you enter. When I come home, I open the front door, walk into the "vindfang"/wind catcher and remove my shoes. The Swedes call it "vindfång". They also sometimes call it "hallen". That means hallway. But "svale" kan also be right, a svale is like a small room on the outside of the rest of the house.

If you look at the pic you see a box with a door on the outside of the house, The Swedes call that a 'svale'. It's also a vindfang, the difference between that and my vindfang is that mine is not on the outside of the building. "Svale" is also the Norwegian word for the bird called swallow. This is getting confusing now.

View attachment 79882

I would say bokmål is easier than nynorsk. Nynorsk is a little more complicated, we had to learn that in school, it was hell and I have had use for it maybe 5 times in my life. Bokmål is what most people call normal Norwegian.

Ransäter 1976 That's just lovely, I have been there several times. The guy in the video, he sounds like he comes from Oslo, so he doesn't really have a dialect. Every place has a dialect except Oslo. But I suspect he is a Swede that learned Norwegian. There is something slightly off with the way he speaks, I hear a hint of Swede in him. Not much, he speaks normal Norwegian but I hear a Swede in him now and then. Swedish sounds softer than Norwegian and he has that soft sound on a few words.

I did some research and found this:

She speaks with a similar accent.
She sounded Swedish hen she said "miljö". But on the other hand I once listened to an interview with a person from Värmland. At first I thought he was Norwegian.

 

[Forest Cat]

I did some research and found this:

She speaks with a similar accent.
She sounded Swedish hen she said "miljö". But on the other hand I once listened to an interview with a person from Värmland. At first I thought he was Norwegian.

She does have a dialect but it's a weak one, not difficult to understand. Some of the dialects here are very strong, hard to understand.

 

[Judge]

I've heard (and seen) only one term used to describe that. Though I've heard it pronounced two different ways. English and presumably French.

"Foyer".