language family-tree, North Germanic

http://www.ielanguages.com/eurolang.html

Norwegian, Swedish and Danish are also very easy for English speakers to learn. Like Dutch, Swedish and Danish use two genders ( Norwegian, except for the Bergen dialect, uses three), but verbs only change for tense (and not person) and word order is much like English. Definite articles attach to the end of the noun (as in Romanian). Swedish and Norwegian are tonal lanugages, meaning the accent on a syllable can distinguish meaning between words, though tones in Norwegian are easier to master. These differing accents give the languages a "singing" quality, but also make it harder for English speakers to learn pronunciation correctly. These three languages are said to be mutually intelligible, meaning they can be considered dialects of one language. However, it is often hard for Swedes and Danes to communicate with each other, but not so hard for either to communicate with Norwegians. You should learn Norwegian first if you plan to learn all three; however, Swedish is spoken by more people.

Vocabulary sets showing side by side comparison: Dutch, German, Swedish