Learning Swedish

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Nu går vi mot ljusare tider

Nu gar vi mot ljusare tider! A phrase for the optimists. So what does it mean?

- Nu = Now

- Går = Go / walk

- Vi = We

- Mot = Towards / against (complicated one, wait for another post)

- Liusare = Brighter

- Tider = Times

"Now we go towards brighter times", which sounds very optimistic. But it's also a fact.

The darkest day of the year is now behind us. So from now on, the days will only get longer and longer. More minutes of light, every day!

For example, In Stockholm, by the end of the year we will have 8 MORE minutes of SUNLIGHT compared to now!

(If you are in the very north, like Kiruna, you might have to wait a couple of weeks to notice

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Annandag jul

This year Christmas landed on a weekend!

Luckily in Sweden, there are 3 days of Christmas!

Everyone has julafton (24th) and juldagen (25th). But I’m Sweden there is another day of Christmas, the 26th. And it’s called… well… “another day of Christmas”.

Annan = Another / other

Dag = Day

Jul = Christmas

So today is called annandag jul. Another day of Christmas, because 2 is not enough.

Ps: you could argue that it could be translated to “second day of Christmas” since annan could be either second or another

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Little difference

Sometimes you wonder in Swedish which preposition should I use?

And very often, the answer is in another word.

For example, if you want to invite someone to your home.

Bjuda in = To invite (to your house or maybe a party or a meeting).

But how were you supposed to know it was "in" and not "att" or "för"?

Well, there is another word.

(en) inbjudan = Invite / invitation (the thing you receive or send).

Here, in the noun for the same idea we see the IN at the beginning, and that can be a way of remembering those pesky prepositions.

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Avoid being eaten

The word vegetarian looks totally innocent, but it can be super dangerous.

In Swedish we have 2 different words for the English vegetarian:

Vegetarisk = Vegetarian (food)

Vegetarian = Vegetarian (person)

It all comes down to what you are talking about.

Jag äter vegetarisk mat = I eat vegetarian food

Jag är vegetarian = I am vegetarian

So, if you were to say, Jag är vegetarisk ( I am vegetarian), while at first glance it would sounds right, on further analysis it would appear quite dangerous, and also a lie.

What you’d be saying is that if someone were to eat you, the meal would qualify as a vegetarian meal.

Now, I’m not a scientist, but I’m pretty sure that if you eat a person, that would put an end to your vegetarian status.

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ABC-stad

ABC-stad is a Swedish concept. 🇸🇪

No, it’s not the alphabet. ABC-stad stands for Arbete, Bostad, Centrum.

Arbete = Work

Bostad = Housing

Centrum = City center

The ABC concept is all about city planning. Aiming to reduce the need for people to commute all to the same place. Alleviate traffic and save everyone time.

Small centers were built in every komun, called Centrum. There you would have all the basics. A department store, grocery store, restaurants, a vårdcentral, a library, and, of course, a systembolaget.

One of the first and most well known examples of this is Vällingby. In the 50s, it became the poster child of the ABC-star concept.

But that is not the only one. If you look at the metro stations, there are ones called Mörby Centrum, Solna Centrum, Sundybergs Centrum, making it a bit obvious.

But there are many more centrums all over the place. Almost every tunnelbana or pendeltåg station has a center once you are “outside of the city”. Farsta, Huddinge, Årsta, Bergshamra, Skärholmen, Haninge, just to name a few.

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In Swedish we don’t say that someone “has it easy”, we say that that “glider på en räkmacka” and I think that’s beautiful.

Glida = To glide/slide

Räkor = Shrimps/prawns

Macka = (open) Sandwich

So the phrase “glider på räkmacka” translates to “glide/slide on a shrimp sandwich”. And you should probably know that Swedes love their mackor (which is another word for smörgås)

What this expression really means is that someone has an easy time… that things work out for them with little effort.

This is used to talk about people that are perceived as lucky, who move forward through life, fast, “gliding”. And of course, all done in a seemingly easy and very pleasant way. Most swedes love a good räkmacka.

Also räkor are highly considered in Sweden. Tasty and healthy, but not cheap. So it is a bit fancy as well. Probably the fanciest of all mäckas. The good life. Which sometimes, might also point to the fact that you have it easy because you have rich parents.

Hans föräldrar köpte en lägenhet till honom = His parents bought him an apartment

Han glider på en räkmacka = He glides on a shrimp sandwich (he has it easy)

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Lillördag

Today is Onsdag (Wednesday)

Just has the Swedes have social norms that keep them from eating candy every day… there are also rules for drinking.

The weekend is when it is “acceptable” to drink. That is why the concept of lillördag or mini saturday was invented.

It is just a way of calling Wednesday when we want an excuse to drink in the middle of the week and not feel bad about it.

Ska vi ta en öl? = Shall we go for a beer today?

Det är ju lillördag! = Well, it is “little Saturday”!

Even though, now during Swedish summer, you might not need that excuse.

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Kvinnodagen Vocabulary

Here are some kvinnodagen related words you might hear or see today.

Uppmärksamma = To notice / To bring attention to

Jämställdhet = Gender equality

Ojämställdhet = Gender inequality (the o- makes it the opposite)

Rättigheter = Rights

For example

Kvinnodagen uppmärksammar ojämställdhet = The International Women’s Day brings attention to gender inequality

Mänskliga rättigheter = Human rights

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Kvinnodagen

Today is internationella kvinnodagen. ❤️ Which, you guessed it, is the Swedish word for The International Women’s Day.

The interesting word here is the compound word kvinnodagen.

Kvinna = Woman

Kvinnor = Women

Dag = Day

Dagen = The day

So in one word alone we can say “The Women’s Day” so you might also hear it called just kvinnodagen.

⚠️ Word of warning ⚠️

The word grattis doesn’t really work today. Since it would be a happy celebratory word. And it’s not really what this day is about.

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Closely related words

Like Swedish, every language has some associations native speakers tend to ignore, that can seem pretty weird at first for language learners.

Let’s look at these two words: “grow” and “plant”. These two words, in English seem to have no relation to each other. But Swedes are crazy about nature. So naturally, some words get their name from nature.

Plants grow. People grow. Companies might grow.

But from a Swedish perspective, you could say that plants grow. And other things... do just like plants.

Växt 🪴 = Plant

Växa 📈= To grow

Some examples

Fikus är min favoritväxt = Ficus is my favourite plant

Vilka växter växer snabbt? = Which plants grow fast?

And also applied to other things that are not plants

Hur snabbt växer hår? = How fast does hair grow?

Min svenska ordförråd växer för varje dag = My Swedish vocabulary grows every day

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Sportlovsvecka

If you are living in Sweden and have a kid, or if you are studying yourself, you already know this. But otherwise you might not, so here we go.

This week is what is known as sportlov or sportlovsveckan (in Stockholm, every region has their own)

Sport = Sport

Lov = Permission / Leave

Vecka = Week

This does not mean this is the only week when you have permission to do sports of course. It is a week when students have “lov” (leave AKA holidays), and the main argument behind it is to go do sports.

Not just any kinds of sports, winter sports of course! Sportlovsveckan should be by definition, the coldest week of the year. 🥶 Which normally means that there is lots of snow all over the place. Making it troublesome to go to school. And the perfect opportunity to do some skiing, pulka, or whatever sport you enjoy.

Not that much snow this year though. 😅

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Happy Birthday!

Time to talk about the birthday song!

The song is called “Ja, må du leva” (yes, may you live). You often replace the “du” for “han” (he), “hon” (she), or “hen” (gender neutral).

The song is about hoping that someone lives to 100 years... and then suggesting different ways of violently killing them. 😈 But then changing it to something more innocent that sounds similar. It’s a play on words. Nowadays, nobody sings the whole thing. For the most part, everyone just sings the first, child friendly, part. But we can take a deeper look into it just for fun.

Ja, må du leva! x2 (Yes, may you live!)

Ja, må du leva uti hundrade år! (Yes, may you live until you are 100 years old)

Javisst ska du leva! x3 (Of course you shall live!)

... uti hundrade år! (until you are 100 years old!)

Here is where it usually stops. And then the madness begins.

Och när du har levat x3 (And when you have lived)

... uti hundrade år! (until you are 100 years old!)

Ja, då ska du skjutas x3 🔫 (Yes, then you shall be shot/pushed)

... på en skottkärra fram! (... pushed on a wheelbarrow)

Most Swedes know up to here. So if they are feeling edgy, or drunk, they might continue up to here. But there are a lot more lyrics left.

Och när du har skjutits x3 (And when you have been shot/pushed)

... på en skottkärra fram (pushed on a wheelbarrow)

Ja, då ska du hängas x3 (Yes, you shall be hanged)

... på en häst bakåfram! 🐴 (... on a horse backwards)

This one just has no recovery to the good side 😅

Och när du har hängits x3 (And when you have been hanged)

... på en häst bakåfram!  (... on a horse backwards)

Ja, då ska du dränkas x3 (Yes, then you shall be drowned)

... i en flaska champagne! 🍾 (...in a bottle of champagne)

Och när du har drunknat x3 (And when you have drowned)

... i en flaska champagne!  (...in a bottle of champagne)

Ja, ska du firas  x3 (Yes, then you shall be celebrated)

... med jättelång låt! (... with a very long song!)

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Swedes and Art

Swedes have a strange relationship to art. A very weird one indeed. Maybe it’s a cultural thing. Or maybe it’s just a language thing.

Konst = Art

The Swedish word for art is consta. The one used for all kinds of art, from painting to music.

Konstnär = Artist

But a strange things happen when you look at another word “konstig”. It looks to be something related to konst (art) but the real meaning is weird and strange.

Konstig = Weird / Strange

Maybe Swedes just thing all artist are weird and strange.

Han gillar konst  = He likes art

Han är konstig = He is weird

And one very common phrase on a Friday.

Ska du äta nachos ikväll? = Are you going to eat nachos tonight?

Nej = No.

Vad konstigt! = How strange! (That’s strange!)

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Fettisdagen

Fettisdagen is finally here! 🥳 But what is fettisdagen?

Fet = Fat

Tisdag = Tuesday

Fettisdagen can be translated to “The Fat Tuesday”

If you are living in Sweden you have probably seen images of Semla everyday in the past month in preparation for fettisdagen.

The semla is a Swedish pastry. The best part of the semla is the mandelmassa (a type of almond icing) which is not to be confused with marzipan. The semla is then topped with a mountain of grädde (cream).

The fettisdagen tradition started a long time ago as a preparation for the fasting that was to come the days after. Consume a lot of calories in advance to be able to withstand the fasting. That makes sense. But as many religious traditions in Sweden, they kept some parts (the fun ones) and some others were forgotten.

Fasting? Meh, who wants to do that?

An excuse for eating like a pig? Ja, tack! (Yes please!).

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Enhörning

Swedish is not the only language that has some funny looking words. 🇸🇪

Yes, there is sköldpadda (shield toad) 🛡🐸, which is the word for turtle. 🐢

But sometimes if you really look into things Swedish seems to make more sense than English.

Or at least is my impression with the word enhörning.

En = One

Hörning = Horned (That has a horn)

Which is the Swedish word for Unicorn 🦄

Unicorn, however, sounds.... a bit off.

Uni means one... but one what? Uni corn? 🌽😅

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Moving vocabulary

Let’s continue with some moving vocabulary.

Att flytta = To move

And then of course, in classic Swedish fashion, we just add more words to it.

Flyttfirma = Moving company

Flyttstädning = Moving... cleaning (final cleaning)

Flyttkartonger / Flyttlådor = Moving boxes

Flyttdagen = Moving day

Flyttledighet = Moving leave

Flyttledighet can be an interesting, strange but very useful concept. Flyttledighet is a day of paid leave you might get, so that you don’t have to go crazy or have to take vacation days when moving places.

This is not one of those benefits everyone has. It depends on the terms of your contract and the collective agreement you may have. But, if you are moving it might be something worth checking out.

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Flytta

Today word is flytta. Which is a very commonly used one.

Flytta = Move

Just like the word move, flytta can mean a couple of things.

Jag ska flytta 🚚📦= I am going to move (from one house to another)

The simplest version of flytta is move as in moving houses. If you live in a big city in Sweden, chances are you are going to have to flytta quite a few times.

But flytta can be also used to move things from one place to the other.

Kan du flytta lite på väskan? 👜 = Could you move your bag a little bit? (passive aggressive Swede)

And even people.

Flytta på dig 😡 = Move (yourself)

Flytta på dig can be used, depending on the tone, from nice to a very aggressive “Get out of the way!”