Gammeldags/old fashioned/square

From Kunnskapsforlaget's Norsk-Engelsk Stor Ordbok:

gammeldags old-fashioned, out of date, outdated, dated, antiquated, square (colloquial)

My beef with this definition is the inclusion of the word "square." This sense of "square" as meaning dated is itself quite dated. This use probably peaked around 1960 and certainly fell out of fashion by the 1980s. Which means that it has not been used this way for 30 years! And if you were a native speaker of Norwegian, relying on this dictionary to help you use decent-sounding English. The use of this word in this sense would make you sound silly. And quite out of date...

Methinks the dictionary could use a little updating.

Vicka på foten/wag one's foot/swing one's foot

This one is from Norstedt's Big Swedish-English Dictionary.

vicka vicka på foten wag one's foot

This is being used of someone who is nervous. She is sitting in a chair, fidgeting and doing this with her foot. And I say, huh? As a native speaker of English, I would never say she was "wagging" her foot. But the English speaking world is vast, so I turn to Google. Perhaps other people do, just not in any of the areas I've ever lived.

Google hits:
wag one's foot - 0
wags her foot - 2
wags his foot - 5
wagging her foot - 10
wagging his foot - 10

I hardly think this is a good translation if it gets so few hits on the Internet. And honestly, a couple of those hits seem to come from foot fetish web sites and another is quoting a badly translated Chinese proverb. When I get in the middle of one of these muddles it's always hard to stop and think of what I would actually say. So, I'll try a few options that come to mind:

Google hits:
shakes her foot - 1280
shaking her foot - 3150
tap her foot - 773
+"tapping her foot" +nervous - 980
+"swinging her foot" +nervous - 626

I'm going to go with "swinging her foot" because "vicka" means "wobble, rock or sway." But, yet again, I would like to complain that I don't think "wag one's foot" is a viable translation option.

sockerdricka/lemonade/7 Up/Sprite

This one is from Norstedt's Big Swedish-English Dictionary.

sockerdricka noun lemonade

So, when millions of English speakers hear the word "lemonade" they picture a drink made out of lemon juice, sugar and water. Is that what Swedes are picturing when they hear "sockerdricka"? No. First of all, "sockerdricka," which literally means "sugar drink," is carbonated! They used to make it bubbly with yeast, but now it's just done with carbonated water. Second of all it traditionally contained ginger.

I just don't think lemonade is a viable translation. 7 Up or Sprite are much closer. Or maybe citrous soda or lemon soda. Possibly even ginger ale. Honestly, I think Norstedt's was negligent on this one...

umgås med en plan/revolving a plan/hatching a plan

This one is from Norstedt's Big Swedish-English Dictionary.

umgås: "umgås med en plan" be nursing a scheme, be revolving a plan

I categorically reject "revolving a plan." And it's easy to see that the rest of the world does, too. Here's a quick tally of the Google searches for a number of the possible translations that come to mind:
working on a plan - 2,260,000 Google hits
hatching a plan - 144,000 Google hits
mulling over a plan - 4,510 Google hits
hatching a scheme - 799 Google hits
nursing a scheme - 124 Google hits
revolving a plan - 36 Google hits

Once again, I'm ready to scream at my dictionary. It's like Norstedt's has gone out of its way to try to find the least common possible translations and then decided to put their money on those. It's like they have no working knowledge of English. Who's coming up with this stuff?

Although it gets the most hits, I'm not sure "working on a plan" is really the best translation. There's something very matter of fact about "working on a plan" and there are much more matter of fact ways to say this in Swedish. I'm probably going to go with "hatching a plan" because it feels a little more, I don't know, conspiratorial. Like the Swedish.

Møddingplads/dung yard/manure storage area

The large Vinterberg & Bodelsen Danish to English dictionary provides the following translation:

møddingplads, noun dung yard

First of all, let me say that it's funny what all comes up in the course of normal translation work. This one struck me because "dung yard" sounds quite old fashioned to me. So I did a little search on Google, one of my standard procedures in hunting for the right word.

Google hits for +"cattle" +(the following term)
dung yard = 490
manure store = 657
manure storage facility = 637
manure storage area = 2510

I guess I'm going to go with "manure storage area." While I usually complain about the dictionary, in this instance, I would like to praise it for including the term. It's a lot easier for a native speaker of English (raised in cities) to figure out a more modern sounding way to say "dung yard" than it is to just pull a great translation for "møddingplads" out of thin air.

Venskabsby/sister city/twin town

From Gyldendal's big Danish-English dictionary:

venskabsby sb adopted town, twin town
-er (også)paired towns, twinned towns, twin towns; være ~ med be twinned with.

Once again, this should be marked as UK English. Twin town just sounds plain silly in American English. There are twin cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul for example), but twin towns? The entry should have included the North American term: sister city.

Google hits:
twin town - 254,000
sister city - 835,000

It drives me crazy that they don't include the term that is actually way more common! I'm not saying "take the UK" terms out. I'm saying, mark them as being what they are: unintelligible to the majority of US English speakers. And include the US term. Please!

følgebrev/cover letter/covering letter

From Gyldendal's big Dansk-Engelsk dictionary:

følgebrev covering letter; (advisseddel) letter of advise, delivery letter.

I've never heard it called a "covering letter." I've only ever heard it called a "cover letter."
And, indeed, if we take a look at the number of Google hits each version receives:
covering letter = 1,120,000
cover letter = 7,190,000
You will see that the form I'm familiar with is about seven times as common. Why does Gyldendal not include it?

As it happens I don't really accept "letter of advise" or "delivery letter" as proper English either. "Letter of advise" should be spelled "advice" (as it is under the Gyldendal's entry for "advisbrev." I'm not sure how either of these should be translated into English. Honestly, I bought the dictionary so I wouldn't have to figure things like this out...