Vikings, or more accurately the norse culture has been all the rage in popular culture for the past century – more so than usual. This has given us a bunch of new shows and games depicting the life in Scandinavia about a thousand years in the past, where actors try to speak Old Norse or at the very least some version of Old Icelandic. This with different levels of success. But where does Swedish come to play in all this? Why aren’t we speaking Old Swedish in popular culture, and how is modern Swedish different from Old Norse?

Let’s try and unravel what Old Norse really is. As you might know, it’s the predecessor of all the modern Scandinavian/north Germanic languages: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, the often forgotten Faroese, and the now extinct Norn that was spoken on some Scottish islands. However, when we talk about Old Norse as a learnable language, we always mean Old West Norse or Old Icelandic, due to the fact that virtually all literature from the time was penned by Icelandic authors. Texts in Old East Norse (which later became Swedish and Danish), although being the bigger Norse dialect, tend to only be short messages on rune stones. Since both dialects were so close to each other at the time, this doesn’t matter much. Because of this, Icelandic is used as the Norse framework in popular culture, sometimes even with modern pronunciation. Old Swedish or Old East Norse is therefore more or less out of the question. It just has not become the default and we don’t know as much about it.

Swedish has been highly unfluenced by low German during the middle ages, later French and during the 20-21th century, like many other languages, English. But there are still a bunch of old Swedish or old Norse left that Swedes use every day.

Vocabulary

Despite the influence of other languages, Swedish still has its basic Germanic vocabulary left of which several are exactly (or almost exactly) like their old Norse cognates. The trend has been, however, that not the basic form of the words but the accusative form has become the norm in contemporary Swedish. Here follows a small list of old Norse words and the Swedish counterparts:

armr (acc. arm) – arm – arm
eldr (acc. eld) – eld – fire
vindr (acc. vind) – vind – wind
jǫrð – jord – earth
barn – barn – child
hús – hus – house
borg – borg – stronghold (burg)
vintr – vinter – winter

Cases

Something that is usually not used in Swedish is different cases after prepositions. But there is one exception. The preposition till which means “to”. In a bunch of old set phrases, the word coming after the preposition is in the possessive case, most of which aren’t seen as particularly dated. New expressions are not created like this.

till skogs – to the forest
till sängs – to bed
till sjöss/havs – at sea
till mans – everyone in general
till fots – on foot

Similar to this, we have old expressions, now set phrases, that utilize both the accusative and dative case. These expressions are still used to this very day.

Dative:
i sinom tid – in due time
skämt åsido – jokes aside
gå man ur huse – to take to the streets (go man out of house)
vara av godo – to be good
vara av ondo – to be evil
se i syne – to have visions
på sistone – lately
If you see a word ending on -om, it is most likely an old dative form (like honom, him)

Accusative:
i rättan tid – at the right time
skrika i högan sky – to scream loudly (“into the high sky”)
våran – our (informal)

[siis-tip-box]Honom, him, is in fact the old dative form, whereas han was the accusative form. It is today both used as the nominative and the colloquial object form. Thus you will hear a lot of people using han also when meaning “him”. Some people will also use the short forms ‘an (han) and ‘na (henne, from the accusative hana).[/siis-tip-box]

Dialects

We have two types of dialects that have been more conservative than the standard language. They have a lot more left of the old gender and case system that old Norse had. The first type contains genuine dialects that can be considered having their origin in (at least) old Swedish and the second type contains dialects that originally sprung from old Norse and are really their own languages that exist beside Swedish. These languages have been getting a lot of influence from Swedish, where it’s closer to Swedish when modern topics are discussed, and further away from Swedish when traditional things are discussed. They are unfortunately slowly dying out because of their lack of importance in every day life.

This goes for the famous Elfdalian for instance, together with other similar "dialects" spoken in Dalarna. I’m also talking about jämska, spoken in Jämtland, and överkalixmål among others, spoken in northern Sweden. These languages or "dialects" (since they have no official status) are virtually incomprehensible to someone who hasn’t actively learned/grown up them, which makes Danish and Norwegian more comprehensible to someone speaking a more standardized Swedish.

The Scandinavian languages have more in common with the old Viking dialect continuum as people might think at first glance and some languages (and foremost dialects) more so than others. The line between the languages and language branches are also more of a blur. It can sometimes be hard to know if someone is speaking Swedish or Norwegian in the border region, if you don’t know in which country they live/grew up in, eventhough the languages are supposed to belong to separate branches of the family tree. In this regard, only their standard language and their vocabulary can expose them. How alike will the languages be in 1000 years and how much "viking" will be left?

Photo: Melker Dahlstrand/imagebank.sweden.se

Not all cultures are big on jokes. Others frequently joke about their neighboring countries, about themselves or in a way that is completely foreign to other countries and cultures. The Swede has several patterns of jokes that are both known globally and that are more domestic and unique to Sweden. Keep reading to learn how to crack jokes like a Swede.

Norgehistorier

Joking about Norway is a part of the Swedish soul and in return the Norwegians joke about Swedes – with the exact same jokes. Apparently this started in the 1960s but weirdly enough we don’t really joke about Danes or Finns like this. "The Norway story" is a kind of etchnic joke that highlights how stupid our western neighbor is and usually follows the pattern of a riddle, where the audience is supposed to answer why the Norwegian is doing what they’re doing.

Varför kryper norrmännen på golvet i affären? De letar efter låga priser.

Why do Norwegians crawl on the floor in the store? They’re looking for low prices.

Furthermore we have anecdotes, puns, and fake Norwegian words in our repetoire of ways to make fun of Norwegians.

Bellmanhistorier

Similar to the Norwegian anecdote, we have the Bellman stories. These usually feature two foreign nationalities (usually a Russian and a German) and the famous Swedish 18th century composer and troubadour Carl Michael Bellman, although the real Bellman has nothing whatsoever to do with the story. Usually the Russian is called a rysk instead of a ryss, probably popularized by kids to be analogous to the tysk, the German. One of the weirder things with the stories is that Bellman is usually presented as en Bellman, a Bellman, also probably due to children being oblivious about Bellman being a name of an actual person.

Det var en gång en rysk, en tysk och en Bellman som skröt om vems flaggstång som var längst.
Ryssen sa: "min flaggstång är 100 meter."
Tysken sa: "min flaggstång är 110 meter."
Då sa Bellman: "min flaggstång är så lång så den petar Gud i röven."

Once upon a time there was a Russian, a German and a Bellman, who was bragging about whose flag pole was the tallest.
The Russian said: "my flag pole is 100 meters."
The German said: "my flag pole is 110 meters."
Then Bellman said: "my flag pole is so tall that it pokes God in the ass."

Alla barnen

This type of joke is not unique to Sweden. It apparently originated in Denmark and spread across Europe during the 1990s. It revolves around “all the children” doing something except one, who does something stupid or is the object of the other children’s action or mockery. The joke needs to contain a pun on this one child’s name. The jokes often take a macabre turn, sometimes of sexual nature, and is often used as a tool for bullying. Despite this, they can also be constructed to be nice and witty. The important part is the rhyming.

Alla barnen gick på gatan utom Klas. Han gick på glas.
All children were walking on the street except Klas. He was walking on glass.

Yes. I came up with this while writing this article.

Blondinskämt

Everybody knows a joke or two about blondes and how stupid they are. Due to the high concentration of blondes in Sweden, it’s a bit of a mystery to me how these jokes have even gained popularity among Swedes. Nevertheless, this is a type of, often sexist, joke that is not unfamiliar in the anglosphere.

Hur underhåller man en blondin?
Du ger henne en lapp och skriver "vänd" på båda sidorna.

How do you entertain a blonde?
You give her a note and write "turn" on both sides.

Photo: Simon Paulin/imagebank.sweden.se

A very common question that I get asked a lot, beside "Is Swedish hard to learn?", is "How long does it take to learn Swedish", "Can I become fluent in 6 months?" or "Am I able to do X when I study full time for a month?".

Fully legit questions but perhaps somewhat naive. People want to start a project and see the end of the tunnel, so that they know how much effort it takes to just be done with it. However, just like with exercising and weightloss, learning a language is not a project.

Sure, you can set a goal and be content with the level you’ve reached, but once you stop, you start to "decquire" what you’ve achieved or acquired. You start to get a bit of belly again and start getting out of shape. If you acquire a language and then stop using it, it will eventually fade away from your memory. Some things might get back to you if you’ve spent enough time with it but you’ll be rusty. You need to stay in shape.

Just tell me how long it takes to learn Swedish!

When I get these type of questions, I always wonder if people are expecting some kind of one-size-fits-all answer, because I hate to break it to them, there isn’t any. The dull answer to the question is: it depends.

There are numerous factors that come into play, that determine how quickly you acquire a language. I say acquire, because it’s not all just about cramming words and grammar. If you do this, you will of course be able to express a bunch of things.

The question is, however, if these things will make sense to a native speaker. You need to acquire the language through immersion in order to learn how people actually talk and to express yourself idiomatically. This step is basically going to be indefinite. I’ve studied German since 2003 and always stumble upon new things.

What factors come into play when learning Swedish?

Native language

First of all, not all people have learned a foreign language before. Native speakers of English can get by almost everywhere in the world without learning a single word in a foreign language. It’s great for tourism, for sure, but this can turn out to be a problem when wanting to learn a new language for the first time.

Learning English as your first foreign language is wide-spread throughout the world, giving those people the advantage of already having learned a second language. It’s on the obligatory curriculum. The point here is that these children already understand that not all languages work like their native language and will already have gained experience, grammar, and vocabulary to help them decipher yet another language. The more languages you have under your belt, the easier it will be to keep a clean mindset to the new logic of a new target language.

Furthermore, if you know German, you’ll find a lot of German loans in Swedish (especially Low German) and if you know French, you will also recognize a huge amount of French loans. These things help you gain a decent vocabulary fast.

Experience

Often people want me to give them a timeframe straight away but at that point I know nothing about them, what their native language is, what and how many languages they know, and if they have any experience in learning a language whatsoever. Still if I did, I couldn’t give them a suitable answer for them. I can only guess, but if they speak a Germanic language, at least they would have an advantage. 

Learning a language that is closely related to your native language would be much easier and quicker than learning a completely foreign one. For me, learning Danish and Norwegian is a walk in the park, since my native language is Swedish. These languages are highly mutually intelligible and reading is especially easy without any prior knowledge. Learning Dutch when you speak German or learning Spanish if you speak Italian, even learning a more distant language but within the same immediate language group will be a lot easier than picking any random language from another family. Not only will you find similar words and grammar structures but with the language also comes a world view, which you’re already living by.

I can compare this with my efforts in learning Finnish. Swedish and Finnish are not related at all as far as contemporary linguists know today. There was never even a common proto language. There are tons of loan words from Swedish though, and even some grammar structures borrowed from Swedish, since the first people documenting Finnish and adapting Finnish for a more administrative use probably had Swedish as their native tongue.

The point is, however, that these loans are hard to spot, since they were adapted to Finnish phonology. The rest of the vocabulary and grammar have nothing to do with Swedish and even the speakers way of thinking differs from one another and can be found within the language. For instance, Swedes prefer to express themselves with verbs whereas Finns rather use nouns and nounifications. Differences in world-view can be spotted in all languages or, if the language is spoken in different cultures and areas, even inside one and the same language. This is seldom talked about in a regular text book.

Motivation

Motivation is also a huge factor. Sometimes just learning to be able to speak several languages doesn’t cut it. Ask yourself what your real reasons are and set your goal. What level would you be content with? Do you want to be able to talk to your Swedish partner’s family or do you want to read an original copy of Pippi Longstocking in Swedish?

You need proper motivation for learning or else you will start to get bored and move on the another language or another project. This is a super important step, since it will also affect how much time you bring to the table. Learning a few minutes a day is enough to stay consistent but obviously spending more time will make you learn better. Maybe not always more or faster, but it will help to gain experience, thus getting knowledge to actually stick, so that you don’t need to go over the same thing over and over again.

Talent

Lastly, it depends on talent. Talent is obviously not required but comes a long way in learning languages. Even if you don’t have any native speaker to practise with, it’s possible to surround yourself with Swedish as much as possible, but without talent you need to do the work and put in the hours. What I mean by "talent" is basically "the feel for languages". Every single brain is wired differently and some people "just get it". It’s of course possible for everyone to learn a language but it just takes longer for some and requires more motivation to pull through and stay on track.

So how long does it take?

It depends! It depends on all these factors, on how much you immerse yourself and what methods you’re using. I’ve come across people, who are really good at holding a text based conversation in Swedish after only 2-3 months but most people I’ve come across started years ago and still can’t do the same thing. Here, I suspect the lack of motivation and time is the big culprit.

It essentially boils down to two things: immersion (experience, methods etc.) and time (motivation), which then result in proficiency. The more you do something, the better you’ll become and the more you study per day, the quicker you’ll become proficient. This doesn’t mean that you only need to cram vocabulary and grammar all the time. If you lack time, you can also learn passively by listening to Swedish radio and watch Swedish movies and TV. Eventually, you will start to recognize patterns or things you’ve learned, you will get used to hearing the language and you will have gained more hours “studying” the languages thus giving you more experience. This even if you initially didn’t have time to study.

The important thing is, that you shouldn’t just think about learning. Start right away. Check out my 5 tips for learning Swedish fast and listen to the first Swedish beginner lesson.

Photo: Aline Lessner/imagebank.sweden.se

Updated August 23 2024

Swedes, more often than not, seem shy or even rude to non-Swedes. This is one pretty shallow stereotype that is roaming the world today and although there is, of course, a reason for its origin, it is unknown to the majority and not taken into consideration when judging a whole people.

Some cultures are very open and chatty, looking at you America, and when Swedes aren’t responding well to behaviour, that they consider to be ‘too much’, they are instantly considered rude. Swedes are not an anti-social group of Scandinavians. The winter darkness hasn’t made them stone cold and heartless. If they were, this Swedish expression wouldn’t exist: "Finns det hjärterum så finns det stjärterum" ("if there is room in the heart, there is room for the butt"). You are thinking of Finns. Jokes aside, Swedes like to mind their own business and will most likely only interact with strangers when they have to or are politely asked to.

Some of the Swede’s introvert-like features originate from the Swedish Gustavian era at the end of the 18th century. King Gustav III had big plans for Sweden and wanted to unite the people with one unified Swedish language, founding the Swedish Academy to curate it, and by dressing up the people in different official Swedish costumes, which would make it easy to spot who belonged to which class in society. He introduced the same etiquette used at the French court to his own court, thus pushing aside the old medieval habits like eating with your hands and using the table cloth as a handkerchief. Now there were a real set of rules to follow. Like all things royal, these "rules" spread across the nation, first to the nobility, of course, and then to the common people, taming the Swedes and laying the foundation to the shy, rude, and inaccurate image that Swedes have today.

But there is more to this. The fact that Swedes rather speak English than Swedish to foreigners despite being addressed in Swedish, the Swedish mentality that we are equals and that no one is better than the other, the Swedish envy ("den svenska avundsjukan"), nurture this image. At Swedish work places everyone gets to speak their mind and have a saying in different decisions. What else are meetings for? And at the performance meetings, not even the boss is immune to critique. This kind of flat hierarchy can be very challenging to non-Swedes, especially if they are supposed to be in charge. Swedes don’t sugar coat things, which can be a huge culture shock to some. On the other hand, if Swedes thinks that what they are going to say will result in a conflict, they will probably keep it to themselves. If something bothers them they will either write a passive-aggressive note or go home to their partner and complain instead. So if a Swede seems blunt to you, it is either well-meant or at least seen as neutral and not an insult.

Every culture has its own way of dealing with others so if a Swede doesn’t react the way you are used to, keep an open mind!

Photo: Henrik Trygg/imagebank.sweden.se

Updated August 23 2024

A peculiar thing in the Swedish language is how there is a group of verbs, that don’t look like any other common verbs. This because they end on an -s making them look like a regular verb in the passive voice. Now when learning Swedish this will definitely cause a bunch of mixups. These verbs are in fact regular verbs in the active voice. These could either have a completely active function (e.g. svettas (to sweat), andas (to breathe), luras (to fool)), a reciprocal function, which means that they work as a verb between two parties (e.g. slåss (to fight), kyssas (to kiss), skiljas (to part or to get divorced)) or they can be verbs describing a certain state (e.g. brännas (to burn), kännas (to feel), dagas (to dawn)). Some of these verbs have a non-deponent sibling, which makes these verbs look even more like the passive voice and are more prone to getting mixed up. However, these verbs tend to have a completely different meaning, which makes it important not to mix them up.

Deponent verbs without a sibling

Andas (to breathe)

Jag andas in luft.
I’m breathing in air.

Patienten andas och andningen är stabil.
The patient is breathing and the breathing is stable.

Det är svårt att andas ibland.
It’s hard to breathe sometimes.

Lyckas* (to succeed/to manage)

Jag lyckades med uppgiften.
I managed to finish the assignment.

Han lyckades att bryta sig in.
He managed to break in.

Efter 4 år lyckades han vissla.
After 4 years he managed to whistle.

Åldras (to age)

Det kändes som han åldrats 10 år över helgen.
It felt like he had aged 10 years over the weekend.

Man åldras långsammare i rymden.
One age slower in space.

Gud, vad du har åldrats!
God, you have aged!

Actually there is a dated but unrelated verb which means to close. You will only ever come across it in the set phrase "bak­om lyckta dörrar" (behind closed doors). Compare Danish lukke.

Deponent verbs with a sibling

There are a bunch of verbs with an "active looking" sibling. Some have the same meaning, where the deponent verb has a somewhat “autonomous” meaning (e.g. brännas (to burn), kännas (to feel)) and the active looking verb has a more active feeling to it (e.g. bränna (to burn something), känna (to feel something)). The following verbs are examples of pairs that have totally different meanings and which are more important to not mix up.

Finnas (to exist) – Finna (to find)

Det finns mat på bordet.
There is food on the table.

Jag tänker, alltså finns jag.
I think, therefore I am.

Det finns en restaurang runt hörnet.
There is a restaurant around the corner.

Man finner alltid en väg.
One always finds a way.

Rymmas (to fit, to contain) – Rymma (to flee, to run away)

Kläderna ryms inte i väskan.
The clothes don’t fit into the bag.

Det ryms fyra älgar i affären.
Four elks fit into the store.

I skjulet på bakgården ryms Håkans kontor.
In the shack in the backyard contains Håkan’s office.

Elin och Markus rymmer hemifrån.
Elin and Markus are running away from home.

Hoppas (to hope) – Hoppa (to jump)

Jag hoppas att vi har mat hemma.
I hope that we have food at home.

Demonstranterna hoppas att de tas på allvar.
The protestors are hoping that they’re taken seriously.

Barnet hoppas att tomten kommer till staden.
The child hopes that Santa Claus is coming to town.

Jonas hoppar i sängen.
Jonas is jumping on the bed.

Photo: Cecilia Larsson Lantz/Imagebank.sweden.se

Representatives and citizens of the kingdom of Sweden have gone places. It’s true, they’ve travelled the world for a better life or just to expand Sweden’s territory. Some people have ended up in our history books and some have been forgotten but the fact still remains: they helped found towns and cities outside of modern day Sweden and you’ve probably never heard about it.

1. St. Petersburg (Russia)

It’s not hard to imagine that Sweden has had to deal a lot with Russia in the past. Since Finland has been a part of Sweden longer than it’s been its own republic, Sweden’s eastern border was the long border to Russia and way, way back where St. Petersburg proudly stands today, there stood once a fortress. The man responsible was Torgils Knutsson. At the time there were only Finnic and Livonian tribes residing in the area and during a crusade to the east, he had the fortress Landskrona built. Now, this was in 1299 and only two years later it was destroyed by the Russians, however a few hundred years later, in 1611, the Swedes started to build another fortress called Nyenskans. Around it, the town of Nyen started to form. About 100 years later, the Russians managed to take over the area and founded St. Petersburg. I know it’s a bit of a stretch to say that St. Petersburg itself was founded by Swedes, but at least it makes for a good story.

2. Vyborg (Russia)

Now, our friend Torkel or Torgils was not a lazy man, he also founded the Russian city of Vyborg (Viborg). The city started out as a castle in 1293 and, naturally, a town grew around it. The town got city rights in 1403 and was then Sweden’s strongest defense against Russia and one of the finest fortresses in the kingdom. However, the city was lost to Russia in the Great Nordic War and later incorporated in the Grand Duchy of Finland. This, a few years after Sweden had lost its eastern half to Russia in 1809. Since then, Finland has turned into its own republic and after the Winter War the city was handed over to the Soviet Union and still remains a part of Russia today.

3. Helsinki (Finland)

Since the area that is now known as Finland was a part of Sweden for hundreds and hundres of years, it’s obvious that the majority of its cities would have been founded by Swedes, depending on what definition of “Swede” you want to use. However, although Turku (Åbo) is Finland’s oldest city, it was founded even before Swedish times. Something is however certain, and that is that the capital of Finland, Helsinki (Helsingfors), was founded during the Swedish era. King Gustav Vasa wanted to give Tallinn (named Reval at the time) some competition and in 1550 founded Helsinki. People were ordered to move to this new city but it didn’t grow as quickly as he wished for. 11 years later, Tallinn was seized by the Swedes and Helsinki fell out of importance. This old city was also abandoned, due to too shallow waters, but continued to grow elsewhere and does today include both the old area as several new ones. As a sidenote, the city looks more Russian than Swedish, which is due to the fact that most of it burned down in 1808 just before Finland turned Russian.

4. Staroshvedske (Ukraine)

Alright, to be fair, you’ve probably never heard about this village ever, but it’s a fun curiousity. In 1721 Estonian Swedes got relocated to “The New Russia”, however only around one out of ten survived the march and life in their new home. Most of them had been fishermen and were now supposed to make a living as farmers. Furthermore, upon arrival there was no sign of the houses they had been promised. Later, three German speaking villages were founded, which, together with Staroshvedske (Gammalsvenskby, “Old Swedish village”, in Swedish), are now the village of Zmiyivka. The Swedish speakers there became the minority but have despite that being able to keep some of their Swedish traditions. Sadly, only a few, if any, of them speak fluent Swedish today.

5. Bishop Hill (USA)

Maybe you haven’t heard about this one either, but it does have some importance to Chicago’s history, believe it or not. This town was founded by the pietist sect leader Erik Jansson and his followers in 1846. They named the settlement after Jansson’s birth place Biskopskulla parish, literally Bishop’s hill, a name that is still used in the Swedish version of Google Maps. Jansson was later murdered by another memeber of his community, after which the town’s religious views got toned down and its prosperity became priority. 1854 they got a railroad connection nearby, which outgrew Bishop Hill and was named Galva (after the Swedish city Gävle). To this day there are still people of Swedish descent living here.

Photo: Ola Ericson/imagebank.sweden.se

When learning a language, it is important to have the required motivation and go all in. However, people tend to go overboard with details, which discourages them in the long run. The purpose of this article is to show you how to approach language learning in a way that will prevent you from getting overwhelmed by everything. Because that would slow down your progress and make your mind explode. Well, not literally, but you would give up. Probably.

Learn the basics

"O M G!! That’s so obvious" is what you’re thinking right now now. And yes, it might seem obvious, but people tend to move on too fast, not properly grasping the basics first. I’m not saying it’s wrong to take a look at more advanced topics even in the beginning, I’m one of those types of learners myself, but mostly you need to learn about A before learning about B. Get a grasp and a feel for the language structure before proceeding but don’t move on too quickly, review first and make sure you understand the soul of the language.

Don’t learn every detail

My major philosophy when it comes to langauage learning is not to deep-dive into every detail of a language. If you want to learn Swedish, learn the basics and then let yourself develop a gut feeling for these things rather than to cram. You know all those tips and tricks on how to determine the gender of a noun or which plural ending to choose? Don’t use them. They could come in handy, sure, but start using the language immediately and learn to create a feeling for this instead. You will learn as you go, instead of sitting with your nose in a book at 3 A.M. trying to understand how to pair which suffix with what word. It will come to you, naturally.

Start using Swedish right away

Whether it’s writing your own diary in Swedish or chatting with a native friend, it’s important that you just get out there and use Swedish instead of just learning ABOUT it. Write/talk about your day, your work, school and your hobbies. Eventually you will have learned and repeated the vocabulary for these things, that you frequently do and talk about. Things that are important to you. Furthermore, you will learn crucial words for constructing sentences properly along the way. Everything without cramming. It will prevent you from being overwhelmed and you will notice progress a lot quicker.

Translate a book

Buy your favorite book in Swedish (or any other language you’re learning for that matter) and use a dictionary to try to get the gist of, let’s say, a paragraph a day. You will see how Swedish relates to the language you first read the book in, and you will use your brain to absorb the language without cramming. It’s also a lot of fun. You don’t need to set any goals, just do it as a bonus and if something makes zero sense, it is probably an idiomatic expression that you can look up. And if so, you’ve learned something very useful.

Learn only what you need

The conclusion of this article is this: learn only what you need, don’t cram and try to stuff your brain with conjugation groups and other grammar rules that you will forget in the spur of the moment. You will make mistakes anyway, even though you think you know these, so just start using the language, butcher it, get corrected, fall off your horse, get up again, and eventually you will be fluent. Adding to this doesn’t hurt but if it overwhelms you, go back to these tips and approach the language like a native child. Happy learning!

Photo: Emelie Asplund/imagebank.sweden.se

Alright, this has been addressed in a number of places on the internet, but we need to talk about these words right here and now. They are perfectly normal in Swedish but might make you burst into laughter, or at the very least dra på smilbanden. You might even have a hard time saying them, because they are just too much for you. I’m talking about words, that sound naughty to English speakers but aren’t to Swedes.

Bra

Not super naughty but one of the classic. Bra just means good in Swedish, but obviously, in English it’s a piece of underwear. To some, a taboo topic.

Fart

You’ll see this word in a number of place, especially on signs saying something like "Sänk farten" which means that you should lower your speed. Even the word farthinder is a classic among these words because it looks like it would be something getting in the way of your farts. It’s not, it means speed bump. So what does fart mean? It just means speed.

Sex

This word might be a little tiny bit taboo, but not to Swedes, and I’m not talking about the misconception (created by the 70’s Swedish movie industry) that Swedes would be particularly salacious. We just wouldn’t be able to count properly. Don’t get me wrong, the sex you’re thinking about is the same as in Sweden, but also the number six is pronounced and written the same: sex.

Slut

All aboard the train to the slutstation. Woah, wait what? Another classic funny naughty word is slut (and slutstation). The word itself means end and, well, that station is the end of the line – the terminus.

Fack

Alright, now we’re getting to the juicy parts. However, this has nothing to do with fornication or coitus. This just means compartment, subject, or workers’ union.

Kock

I guess this is the real juicy part, not because of what you’re thinking right now (sorry for the mental image), but because the Swedish kock is the one making the juice and the sauce. Yes, literally, because a kock is a chef. By the way, the Swedish word chef means boss.

Puss

You want to give it a little kiss, don’t you? Since puss means kiss in Swedish, that’s perfectly normal. You might see this at the end of messages in Swedish puss och kram meaning kiss and hug. Kiss however means pee in Swedish.

Kant

If you’re sitting on the edge of a quay in Stockholm, looking out over the Baltic sea and the old steam boats going to the archipelago. Then you’re sitting on a kant. Don’t fall off.

Prick

Now, if you get pricks all over your body, you need to seek medical attention. This is because prick means spot in Swedish.

Spunk

This isn’t your most common Swedish word, in fact it isn’t really a word at all. It was coined by the fictional character Pippi Longstocking, whom you’ve probably heard of. Not even she knows what a spunk is. In the story it’s everything from a disease to a beetle. In English the word has several meanings, but this one is rather funny especially if you’re British. Take this quote from Pippi for instance: Utan spunk går jag inte hem (Without spunk, I’m not going home). Apparently the author Astrid Lindgren had no idea that it meant anything. A rather funny coincidence, especially since it’s from a children’s story.

Photo: Simon Paulin/imagebank.sweden.se

Updated August 23 2024

Midsommar, midsummer, is one of the biggest holidays in Sweden without being an actual holiday in our calendars at all. Swedes believe strongly in de facto traditions, even the national anthem is one, so despite this, Midsommar is treated as an important full blown holiday. It’s celebrated on a Friday, midsommarafton, midsummer’s eve, at the end of June around the 20th. Invite your friends and family, organize your own Midsommar party! Here are a few easy tips on how to do it the right, but light, way.

The food

The Swedish traditional food for feasts is smörgåsbord, which basically is a Swedish buffet. It does imply a few must-haves though, and you can offer these essentials to your guests and add whatever you like to it to create a smörgåsbord of your own taste. Meatballs are obviously a must, together with potatoes (preferably new potatoes), boiled eggs, sour cream with chives, cured salmon and herring. If you have an IKEA nearby, you will definitely be able to get your hands on some proper Swedish herring. It’s also common to offer different types of cheese and cold cuts. If you don’t like fish, or if you’re vegetarian or vegan, that’s alright. A lot of Swedes are too, so you can still compose a smörgåsbord without the traditional essentials, if you have to. The web is full of inspiration to take from real Swedes.

But what’s for dessert you may ask? Gräddtårta of course! Whip out those tart cases, spread strawberry jam on one layer and vanilla custard on the second layer, cover the cake in whipped cream and decorate with fresh strawberries. This is one of the most classic cakes we’ve got in Sweden.

The booze

You could definitely leave this one out and have a non-alcoholic Midsommar. However, worth to note is that we drink a special kind of schnaps called akvavit, which is seasoned with different herbs or types of booze but must either contain caraway or dill seeds. To this, we sing special drinking songs called snapsvisor before taking a shot. You could of course replace these shots with something else. It wouldn’t be quite the same but at least it’s something. If you want to leave the booze out, you should still consider toasting with your friends by learning and singing these songs together. It’s a lot of fun! It is even common to hand out little booklets with the lyrics. The songs are usually based on melodies everyone knows. It’s a perfect opportunity to teach your friends some Swedish or why not make your own in your language? Don’t forget to say skål, when toasting.

Check out the video on Snapsvisor here.

The music

Midsommar is surely the festival of typical Swedish music all the way from traditional Scandinavian folk and dancing music to Swedish popular summer songs to dansband, which is a certain style with influences from 60’s popular music to American country. This is the most easiest bullet point on your checklist, since you can just fire up Spotify and run any midsummer’s playlist on there to get in the mood. Here are a few suggestions:

Dansbandssommar by Spotify
Sommarklassiker by Spotify
Dans kring midsommarstången
Orsa spelmän

The flowers

Usually there is a maypole full of leaves and flowers to dance around (you’ll find the music for that in "Dans kring midsommarstången"), however if you don’t want to go all the way, at least consider making wreaths for you and your guests. Or why not make them together? It’s definitely one of those traditional things that will make your party a bit more authentic.

Here is how you can make your own.

The games

If you’ve checked all the points above you are all set, but if you’d like the party to last a little longer, why not play a few games with your guests? This is definitely not a must, and not necessarily something we do at midsummer, however it’s not uncommon to do something like this when throwing a Swedish summer party. Sometimes we bundle them into a femkamp, a pentathlon.

Stövelkastning (boot throwing) – Take a rubber boot and throw it backwards between your legs. The longest throw wins.
Dragkamp (rope pulling) – Have a rope and two contestants or teams on each side, pulling for kung och fosterland.
Säcklöpning (sack race) – Step into a potato sack (or garbage bag) and start jumping. First person to get to the finish line wins.
Äggstafett (egg relay race) – The contestants should balance an egg on a spoon in their mouth while racing around a parkour. Either the first participant crossing the finish line wins or has to transfer the spoon to the next team member.
Norsk fylla (Norwegian intoxication) – The participants needs to run to a big stick or baseball bat, place one end against their forhead and the other on the ground, then spin 10 times and try to run back.

There you go! Have a wonderful Midsommar and be sure to send me pictures. Tag them with #imsayingitinswedish or DM them to me. I’d love to see what you came up with. For that extra touch, be sure to fly the Swedish flag.

Photo: Per Bifrost/imagebank.sweden.se

Updated August 23 2024

The iron throne is in Sweden. It is known. Disregarding that Westeros isn’t a city but a continent, Sweden’s fifth largest city is Westra Aros, or Västerås in modern Swedish. It is pronounced exactly the same as Westeros, were you to say it in an English accent.

Västerås is located in the historic region of Västmanland, just like the Westerlands is located in Westeros, and has about 150,000 inhabitants. Much like Westeros, Sweden is a long "continent" with a mild European climate in the south and a harsh cold one in the north, however even during the summers, it can get quite warm up north. One thing to note though is that we do share a mountain chain with Norway, similar to that in the land beyond the wall.

With both the Westerosi and Swedish capital on the eastern coast, and being a long narrow land with mountains, wolves and royals, you can’t help but wonder if George R.R. Martin maybe took a little tiny bit of inspiration from Sweden when writing his books. We know that J.R.R. Tolkien, who fathered the universe in Lord of the Rings, got inspired by Norse culture.

Other "facts" that prove this theory is that the name Stark means strong in Swedish (let’s disregard that Iron Man is also named Stark for now), Lannisters are blonde just like many Swedes, and Harrenhal makes you think of a Swedish compound word, Herrehall, which would mean a Lord’s hall and Sweden has many ruin castles just like it. Just take a look at the ruins of Visingsborg’s castle, Mörby’s castle, Bohus’s fortress, Borgholm’s castle, and many more. Sweden also has had its own share of wars and bloodbaths. Luckily THAT is a thing of the past.

Whether or not anything from Game of Thrones has anything to do with Sweden, the few fragments of resemblence is something that amuses us Swedes and hopefully the upcoming prequel will have more of that.

It takes a lot of dedication and motivation to study a new language. Some languages seem hard in the beginning and gradually get easier along the way, whereas some actually seem super easy but get very overwhelming once you’ve gotten into it. If you feel that your motivation is decreasing and the risk of stop learning Swedish is high, then this article is for you. These tips and shortcuts might help you to see things differently and get that motivation back.

Ta det lugnt – Take it easy

A lot of people think that learning a language is a sprint and are trying to learn everything at the same time. It’s true that immersing yourself and getting a lot of practice is important to learn quickly, however people try to cram grammar and vocabulary that they might not need right away, thus exhausting their minds and getting demotivated. Start small, immerse yourself but go easy on the cramming. Try to learn small chunks methodically and a little every day, instead of a lot once a week. Understand a piece of grammar and learn how to use it before moving on to the next topic. Why is this listed as a shortcut for lazy learners? Overdoing it will in a way make you lazy and eventually you will stop because you will feel bad for not studying. In the end Swedish will give you nightmares and won’t make you happy. So take it easy!

Stop obsessing over grammatical genders

Two or more grammatical genders might seem daunting at first but in the case of Swedish it’s easier than you think. To use Swedish you don’t need to get these right. Sure, there are a few words that sound the same and use different genders but the context will probably tell us Swedes what you want to say. Of course it’s important to learn these right, when learning Swedish but in the case you don’t know, we won’t skin you for it.

Did you know that most Swedish words, as many as around 70-80%, are utrum words. Utrum is also called the en gender, from the article en that it takes in its indefinite form. There are additional rules of thumb that help you determine the gender but if you’re lazy, this is an awesome tip for you, since you’ll mostly get it right.

Make up your own Swedish words

Beginners and fluent speakers alike, you will have gaps in your vocabulary and instead of switching back to English completely as a beginner, let me suggest you make your own loan words. This is particularly useful for verbs that you don’t know, since you can easily create a Swedish verb by adding an -a to it and conjugate it like one from the first conjugation group. With this you don’t need to stop what you’re doing and check a dictionary. Particularly good is this for maintaining Swedish as your current language, however, you should make sure to fill in the gap.

To conjugate an English verb like a Swedish verb, you just add an -a in the infinite form, -ar in present tense, -ade in simple past, and -at in perfect/plusquamperfect. Let’s take the English verb to sleep. In theory we would then get: sleepa, sleepar, sleepade, sleepat. Easy, right?

Find words that are the same in your native language

This one is very straightforward and if you just search the internet a little bit, you will definitely quickly find lists of words that are the same in English (or, if not English, your native language) and Swedish. Contemporary Swedish is riddled with French, German and English loans, so why not give it a shot? You’ll see how much you can already say.

There are quite the few direct loans or derivations of English words in Swedish, many making use of the way of constructing your own verbs I talked about. But there are other words that are very similar, if not the same, like: polis (police), chilla (coll.) (to chill), sport (sport), turist (tourist), starta (to start), jobb (job), film (film).

Focus on complete Swedish phrases

Learning how to use the building blocks of a language is, of course, important but when starting out, maybe try to learn complete phrases for situations that matter to you. You will learn the words along with the correct way to express yourself, which makes you sound more fluent faster.

Learn to talk about things that make you happy

To actually start to say useful stuff, you need to know words and phrases about whatever it is you want to talk about. Now, instead of cramming general vocabulary, try to learn complete phrases that you can use in situations that are useful to you or that you can use to talk about your interests. I know I just told you this but I wanted to stress how important it is to learn how to talk about things that matter to you. Why should you learn a bunch of words related to, let’s say, emergencies, when you can focus your time on learning to talk about something you love. That will increase your motivation and get those epiphanies coming. In an actual emergency, you will probably automatically revert to the language you are most comfortable speaking in.

Hopefully these points will help you look at Swedish a bit differently, making you more motivated to learn more and take away that lazyness or dullness of learning, that might come from time to time. Learning a language is a marathon, not a sprint, and to master it might take time, but a few steps every day will be enough for your brain to handle and do more for your way to fluency than you think.

Photo: Alexander Hall/imagebank.sweden.se

Updated August 22 2024

Smartphones have dominated our lives for about 10 years now, making life easier in certain every day situations. Some uses are country specific and that’s why you find a bunch of apps that would significantly help you while staying in Sweden. You could, of course, live without them but they would make life a little bit easier for you.

1. Swish

The Swedish people have more or less stopped using cash and Sweden has been an almost cash-less society for a long time now. This app is a joint venture between the major Swedish banks and helps to push this development even further. Swedes use it to send money to friends, family and others to whom they owe money in (mostly) a non-commercial setting. Are you sharing that lunch? Let one pay the bill and the others in your party pay the debt by “Swish”-ing the money. Found a nice-looking vase at that Swedish fleamarket? Just swish the money. It has also started to be a popular way to donate money and even organizations and companies can now have a Swish number. You register Swish with your Swedish bank account and connect it to your phone number, which makes it easier for people with you in their contacts to just send you money instantly, as if it were cash.

2. BankID

Everyone living in Sweden needs to have a personummer which is kind of like a social security number. We Swedes basically use it everywhere, where we would need some kind of identification. To go along with it, we nowadays use the app BankID. This app connects you with an online service of some sort enabling two factor authentification. Just type in your number in that login form and your app will magically prompt you to enter your PIN. To get a digital certificate for the app, you will have to turn to your Swedish bank. We use this for all kinds of administrative work, like login on to our bank account or signing legal documents at e.g. skatteverket which is the Swedish agency not only for keeping track of people’s taxes, as its name states, but also registering people in general.

3. Blocket

The second hand market is huge in Sweden with all its summer fleamarkets and second hand boutiques. Blocket early established itself as the go-to place online to shop for and sell used things . The homepage, until recently, still looked like it was designed in the 90’s. It has even sparked a tradition of quirky and funny ads. If you’re new in Sweden and/or are just starting studying, you might need to find some cheap furniture fast. Go to blocket, select your area and search for what you need. If you’re new in Sweden, it’s great for getting dead cheap IKEA furniture.

4. Tradera

The Swedish eBay, Tradera, has also been around for a long time, being the reason that there is no actual eBay in Sweden – they bought the already established brand instead. You might have guessed it already, but in contrast to Blocket, Tradera is auction based. This means that you don’t send a message or call the seller, but you bid on the things you would like to buy. This platform has been used by charities several times to raise money, auctioning out a dinner with a celebrity or memoriabilia.

5. SVT Play

The streaming market is huge in Sweden with several apps for watching movies legally. An early adopter of this, and free, is the Swedish national broadcaster. They were basically the first to do streaming in Sweden and they do it very well. If you’re new in Sweden or even if you are abroad but want to watch Swedish TV, download this app. Not everything is available outside Sweden, but SVT is also very good at accessibility, which means that you will find Swedish subtitles for everything and if you are indeed living in Sweden now, the news coverage is a good think to follow daily. Pretty good for practicing, right? If you’re fine with no subtitles, the other Swedish TV networks also have a bunch of free content for you, like TV3, TV4 and Kanal 5.

6. Spotify

Not only streaming movies and shows is a huge deal in Sweden, where the watch time of linear TV is decreasing by the second. Ever since Spotify revolutionized the music industry, basically every Swede has got the app and it is pretty much assumed that, when sharing music, you would be able to handle a link to the service. Did you know that Spotify actually is a Swedish company?

7. SL

This only applies to you living in the Stockholm area, however, other companies will have apps as well. SL, Storstockholms lokaltrafik, is the company providing public transportation in Stockholm. If you want to plan your trips and buy tickets for the bus, subway, commuter trains, trams, and even boat then you will need this app. For at least 10 years, it has not been possible to get tickets on the bus directly. Like I said, Sweden is almost cash-less!

8. Svea Taxi Allians

Taking the cab might not be for every one, especially since it’s kind of pricey, but sometimes it can be a lifesaver when you’ve missed the last bus and can’t be bothered taking a crowded night bus full of noisy drunk people. Get the app of a taxi company you trust to be able to quickly get a ride home or download the one from Svea Taxi Allians which is an organization having a bunch of taxi companies attached to it. They ensure that you get a safe ride and fair prices because jumping into the wrong cab might get you scammed.

9. OnlinePizza

If you’ve been partying with Swedes all night and want a nice greasy “bakispizza” (hangover pizza) or if you’re just craving some food without getting dressed and leaving your house, this app would be a lifesaver. Despite its name, you can order a bunch of different kinds of foods. Of course there are alternatives to look into like Foodora and Volt. Just check for availability in your city.

10. Bank

This is not a particular app, since it depends on which bank you are using, but downloading the bank’s app is very convenient to be able to make payments, check your balance, and all that on the go or when you don’t have a computer. Actually, some people don’t even have computers nowadays because the phone or a tablet can do, what they need. Sweden is pretty digitalized, so you could count on finding a very well designed app from your Swedish bank.

Photo: Simon Paulin/imagebank.sweden.se

A common question that I get is how fast can you learn Swedish or if you can learn Swedish in X amount of months. What people don’t seem to know is that this is highly individual and depends on a few things: motivation, time, and experience. However, there are things you can do that will definitely speed up your process if you are patient. So here are 5 tips for learning Swedish fast that will definitely help you to actually learn Swedish faster.

1. Watch Swedish TV and movies

Immersion is important when learning a language since something so basic like tuning your ears to a foreign language will do wonders for you if you want to learn it fast. In this modern era local TV is no longer limited to its target audience. Even if you aren’t living in Sweden there are several ways to watch Swedish TV for free. Streaming has made it possible and Swedish TV channels provide us with lots of free content that is not geoblocked, meaning it’s not restricted to those living in Sweden. Try these Swedish TV shows to stream for free and start your immersion right now.

You could also browse yourself among the vast catalog of these Swedish TV channels:

SVT
TV3, TV6, TV8, TV10, and MTV
Kanal 5, Kanal 9, Kanal 11

2. Listen to Swedish radio

Speaking of tuning your ears to a language, why not just turn on a radio station and let it play. You don’t need to understand the language to benefit from immersion. Radio stations are usually not geoblocked which means you can choose whatever station you want. For it to have any effect, try to find a channel that has a decent amount of talking but which also plays music so that you don’t get bored.

There are a number of apps to choose from when you want to listen to radio stations from abroad, but you can also tune into the actual radio stations online and see if they have a stream (which they most likely have).

SR – Sveriges Radio
RixFM
Bandit Rock
NRJ
Mix Megapol

3. Listen (and sing along) to Swedish music

The immersion continues and this time we want to tickle our ears with music in Swedish. There are some awesome artists from Sweden that you have never heard of because their main language of choice is Swedish.

Fire up our official Swedish Spotify playlists, find your favorites and sing your heart out because this step will not only tune your ears to Swedish but also tune your vocal chords. Everyone gets happy from singing their favorite songs, why not try to find one that is written in Swedish? Listen to the song, study the lyrics and try to sing along. This is how I got fluent in German. I basically learned Blümchen’s whole back catalog by heart and did not only learn words but even grammar. It also made me get used to speaking German.

4. Read children’s books

Children don’t magically just speak their native tongue, they aquire this skill over time, just like you, by immersing themselves. Now, you do have the advantage of already speaking a language and the skill of speaking, reading and writing which means that you will be able to learn faster than a child. So why not starting reading a children’s book? Start where children start and then work your way to the top. This will help you getting used to reading the language in reasonable chunks which won’t overwhelm you. The texts will be enough for you to translate and actually learn something without making you frustrated because you don’t know any of the words and translating takes too long.

5. Get some Swedish friends

I know how it sounds. It’s not easy to befriend Swedes and even harder if you don’t actually live in Sweden but hear me out: join a community of some sort online and try your wings with some actual Swedes.

The easiest thing you could do is to join the Say it in Swedish Discord community. You can chat with me and other Swedes over there and start improving your Swedish immediately.

Photo: Simon Paulin/imagebank.sweden.se

Updated August 22 2024

Some people might find it a little bit surprising that Swedish wasn’t actually the official language by law in Sweden until 2009. In addition, if you’re not from a Nordic country, you might not know that Swedish actually has a sister, that has been an official language for far longer, in the neighboring republic of Finland.

Finland Swedish or Fenno-Swedish (Finlandssvenska) is a collection of East Swedish dialects, spoken on the Åland islands and the Finnish west coast, in cities like Vaasa (Vasa), Turku (Åbo), and Helsinki (Helsingfors). However, the bilinguality becomes more apparent in smaller rural areas. It’s still officially Swedish, but has a somewhat different vocabulary and a set of commonly used Finnish loan words, that you won’t find in Swedish that’s spoken in Sweden. Some words are country specific (e.g. fisw: A-rättigheter, sw: utskänkningstillstånd, en: liquor license), some words are dated in Sweden (e.g. fisw: aderton, sw: arton, en: eighteen), some words were put together in Finland and never spread to Sweden (e.g. fisw: barnträdgård, sw: förskola, en: kindergarden), and some words are just plain loans from Finnish (e.g. fisw: kiva, sw: trevlig, en: nice).

The Finnish territory was Swedish for about 600 years before being given up to the Russians in 1809 after the fiasco at Suomenlinna’s (Sveaborg’s) fortress just outside Helsinki. Thus, it’s not particularly odd that there is a Swedish heritage in Finland. The status as an official language is protected still to this day and some municipalities are still 100% Swedish speaking.

If listening more closely, you will notice a major difference between these dialects, where some might not be quite as intelligible for a Swede (for instance the Närpes dialect in Ostrobothnia), some sound more like a Finnish accent to Swedes (spoken in the extended area around Helsinki) and some actually sound more like a dialect from modern eastern Sweden. This is the case for the Åland islands, where the dialect almost sounds like something from the Stockholm area.

A problem that these Swedish speaking Finns face, when talking to Swedes, is that they are taken for learners of Swedish. Their dialect is so connected to Finland, that some of the more ignorant Swedes think, that they speak Swedish with a Finnish accent. This is not the case. This is most likely due to the fact, that Finnish speaking Finns learn Fenno-Swedish in school (called "forced Swedish", pakkoruotsi, by some). This is a Swedish with its own defined standard and distinct pronunciation, so that, when Finns speak it, it makes the Swede come to believe, that this is a Finnish accent and not a Swedish dialect.

If you visit Finland, it is likely that you, in some areas, will come across signs in both Swedish and Finnish and you might hear some Swedish here and there, although the majority of the Finns speak Finnish. So if you want to move or work in a Swedish speaking part of Finland, feel free to learn some. A bit of Swedish comes a long way, even in Finland.

Photo: Henrik Trygg/imagebank.sweden.se

Most people know that Sweden uses CET, Central European Time, like most of continental Europe, being one hour behind its closest neighbour, Finland. There was a time, however, where people relied on local time giving, Sweden multiple time zones! The solution? Trains!

There were no phones and you travelled the country by carriage. Thus, no need to be anywhere exactly on time. The clock was set after how high the sun was in the sky, causing a natural time difference between towns with some distance between them. When the sun reached its highest peak, it was noon. This means that Stockholm and Gothenburg enjoyed a whooping 24 minutes difference. Pretty mind-blowing, isn’t it?

As trains became the common means of transportation, this time difference became kind of a struggle for the passengers. This especially became apparent, when the line between Stockholm and Gothenburg opened in 1862, causing the railroad companies to introduce railroad time. A special timezone that would be exactly the same in all cities. This however made it even more difficult, since this was not official. The clocks in the train stations had to display two different times at the same time!

This eventually got out of hand, causing the Swedish parliament to decide on a national timezone and Swedish standard time, but, which one to choose? Sweden had several timezones and picking one involved a lot of politics. The people in Gothenburg wanted their time and the people in the capital, Stockholm, wanted their time to be the national standard. The Gothenburgers advocated for their timezone with the reasoning that the time would be the same as in Norway, to which the Stockholmers replied: here is where the government and king are.

After a heated debate, spanning over 15 years, it was finally settled: the national timezone would be based on the time somewhere in the middle of the two major cities. Sweden was the first country in the world to prescribe the national time by law

Today the standard time is based on UTC+1 and there is no confusion when reading a Swedish time table. And yes, this article uses the word time 30 times.

Photo: Melker Dahlstrand/imagebnk.sweden.se

English has become the number one lingua franca of the western world and it’s safe to say that the language is influencing other languages to a huge extent. It is used as the corporate language for a numerous enterprises, which causes a lot of corporate jargon along with words found in games, on the internet, in movies and other instances pop culture to slip into the Swedish language.

These so-called anglicisms can definitely come in handy. Using the same word locally, as well as internationally for certain things, can make it easier to talk to people within the same field of interest. In Swedish, coming up with your own words is easy, thus adapting foreign words is a walk in the park, thanks to the uncomplicated way the Swedish vocabulary system works: adding endings.

If there is a verb that we would like to use in Swedish, we just add an -a to the end of that word making it a so-called first group verb in its infinitive form. Traditionally, we talk about 4 groups and the first group is the one containing all newly made-up verbs along with a bunch of native ones. An example of an anglicism is jobba, which is taken from the English verb to job. The extra B is there to make the O short. More modern loans are from the internet era, e.g. banna (to ban), chatta (to chat), surfa (to surf). This word also works for surfing on real waves.

Creating your own home-made noun is even more straightforward. This because there is no set rule as to which grammatical gender to use. Either it’s an en word or an ett-word. The Swedes use what feels right and what is mostly adopted by the public. This means that the widespread word keyboard, when talking about the musical instrument, can be keyboardet or keyboarden in the definite form, but a word like latte, is always going to be an en word. There are several reasons for why a word has a more determined gender. Either it is introduced by a company or some other widely known instance that has the ability to push a word to public in its full glory with all the declinations or it has gotten spread in news outlets, social media or within more niched communities.

As for adjectives, also here they just get a special ending. For instance, the English word cool has somewhat phased out the Swedish word ball when describing something as slightly edgy and interesting. In front of ett-words, we just add a -t to it and in front of a word in plural, we just add an -a. Coolt and coola.

So there you have it. A language is an organic and evolving being that is not always easily explained or controlled. What we can get out of this, though, is that is very easy to come up with your own words, when you lack a big Swedish vocabulary. This will help you to move the conversation forward instead of having to either look up words or stop to think. In addition, Swedifying words will take your conversational skills to the next level and make you sound more literate, than if you’re just using the word in its English form.

Photo: Simon Paulin/imagebank.sweden.se

Updated August 22 2024

If you want to compliment someone you would most probably use the word good in some way. Did you know, however, that there are two different words for that in Swedish? Bra and god – not what you thought they meant, right?

Bra

This word obviously isn’t a woman’s under garment in Swedish. It’s an irregular adjective and adverb used when something is successful or someone skillful. It’s basically the opposite of bad (dålig). For instance, "Sweden is a good country" (Sverige är ett bra land) and "You’re a good dancer" (Du är en bra dansare). Furthermore we have "The food was well-turned out" (Maten blev bra), "You look good" (Du ser bra ut), and "I feel good" (Jag mår bra).

Do you get it? Successful and skillful.

God

This word is older and is the ancestor that is shared between several Germanic languages (English good, German gut, Dutch goed). This still has the same meaning as described above, which however is a bit dated on its own and mostly used in set phrases. For instance, we have en god vän (a good friend) and en god bok (a good book). This one is very dated, however, and when discussing a book with your friends, you would say en bra bok. It is more used to describe an action, like sitting down with a cup of tea and a good (god) book. We also have gott uppförande (good behavior), god stämning (good atmosphere/spirits), gott samvete (good conscience), ett gott råd (a good advice), i god tid (in time (with a margin)), på gott avstånd (at a significant distance), and many more. Also it is the direct opposite of ond (bad/evil), hence the expression på gott och ont (for good and for bad).

A more recent meaning of god, and the common use besides being the opposite of evil, is something more along the lines of tasty. Something tastes or smells good. This is the meaning used day to day – Det var "en god hamburgare" (It was a good/tasty burger), "Du luktar gott" (You smell good).

The more you think about it, the more the lines become blurred for some meanings, so to use these two words properly, when in doubt, use bra, when something is done well or when someone is skillful. Use god or gott, which is the neuter declination that bra lacks, however, when complimenting someone on the food. "Det här var jättegott" (This was really good/delicious). If you aren’t using a set phrase that is.

Photo: Tina Stafrén/imagebank.sweden.se

Updated August 14 2024

Listening to a Swede talk makes a great source for a never-ending stream of question marks. Mostly words are pronounced just like they are written, except for the times they aren’t. In addition once you’ve learned a word, suddenly you hear it again but now it sounds completely different. Någonting and någon are those kind of words.

If you are unfamiliar with the word någonting it means ‘something’ in Swedish. Någon on its own means ‘someone’ (or ‘something’ in the utrum gender) and ting is an older word for ‘thing’. Learning this word is pretty straight forward but then you notice that, when reading Swedish, you are more likely to come across the shorter version något. This variant of the word looks a lot more like någon, so at first you are relieved and all good spirits when noticing this. You only have to change one letter! But suddenly a dark and unsettling haze looms around you. What are those Swedes saying?

A bunch of times you will rather hear something like nått and nån when listening to Swedish. These are even shorter version of någonting and någon and are ONLY used in spoken Swedish at the moment. Något is as accepted in writing as någonting. Another word, which you also only come across in spoken Swedish, is nånting. Here only the first part of the word is shortened, and that in the same manner as någon is.

So remember this: någonting, något, and någon are accepted words in written Swedish. However nått, nånting, and nån are only accepted in spoken Swedish, although very, very common. Feel free to use them. They don’t have a colloquial feel to them at all.

Photo: Tuukka Ervasti/imagebank.sweden.se

Updated June 12 2024