Posts under "Swedish Language"

“What is this?” in Swedish

Posted by Katja 2 Comments
Jan 6 2012

So, after looking at the feedback some of you guys sent in many of you were interested in becoming more able to have everyday conversations. I thought, since I don’t really have a good idea of what level you all are at, I start somewhere in the really basic area and work towards more complex things as we go along.

The most important phrase ever probably is “What is this in Swedish?”

Vad är det här på svenska?

This phrase is used when for example pointing at something close to you. Det här means this. You can of course substitute “det här” for “det där” (that) or “det därborta” (that over there).

Swedish English equivalent
det här

det där

det där därborta

  this

that

that over there

Vad är ______ på svenska?

In the blank you just put in the English word you don’t know in Swedish.

Vad heter _____ på svenska?

Vad kallas ________ på svenska?

The same thing applies for heter and kallas. Heter literally means “named” and kallas is not too far off from the English “is called”.

If you know how to ask about the translation one way you should be able to ask what a unknown word’s meaning is the other way around.

Vad betyder _______ på engelska?

What does ________ (the word you didn’t understand) mean in English?

Vad heter _____ på engelska? Yet again, the same thing.

Vad kallas ______ på engelska? What is ______ called in English?

Vad är _______ på engelska? What is ________ in English?

If you want to know what the word means in a language other than English here are the names for some of the languages most commonly spoken in Sweden.

Note:  in English we say “in” English and use a capital letter for the language. In Swedish they do not use capitals for languages and they say “på engelska“. Literally translated as “on English”.

Swedish English equivalent
franska

tyska

spanska

arabiska

finska

danska

norska

kinesiska

ryska

japanska

engelska

svenska

 French

German

Spanish

Arabic

Finish

Danish

Norwegian

Chinese

Russian

Japanese

English

Swedish

The words you put in the blanks can be very advanced or extremely simple.

Heres and example of a very simple word put into a conversation. Person A first asks what the word is in Swedish and then checks that they pronounced it correctly.

Person A) “Vad heter apple på svenska?”

Person B) “Det heter äpple”.

Person A) “Äppel?”

Person B) “Nej, äpp-le.”

Person A) “Äpple?”

Person B) “Ja, precis så”

Person A) “Tack”

Swedish English equivalent
ja, precis så

 

 yes, just like that

 

 

Fika. Swedish Style.

Posted by Marcus Cederström 3 Comments
Dec 12 2011

After several years in Sweden and a move back to the United States, I realized I had picked up quite a few habits. Some decidedly Swedish. Like taking my shoes off every time I enter someone’s home. It’s just a nice thing to do in my opinion and it ensures that all of that gunk I’ve been walking on outside, doesn’t make its way inside.

One habit that I did not pick up was going out for a fika. Probably because I don’t drink coffee (on a side note, I was once told that me not drinking coffee made me a stereotypical American. Because Americans don’t drink coffee. Obviously.). But no trip to Sweden is complete without hearing the word fika on a regular basis.

A while back, Katja wrote about the classic snacks for a fika, and even took a look at the habit of fika-ing in cafes instead of at home.  Today, we’re going to talk a bit about the word and the cultural mainstay it has become.

First, what is it? Fika is a cultural phenomenon that is similar to English tea.  You’re supposed to have yourself some coffee, maybe some saft if you’re not into coffee, and some baked goods.  Fikas are common in the work place, where you’ll sometimes have both a morning and an afternoon fika.  They’re a common way to go on a first date. A common way to go on a last date.  A common way to meet new people, meet old friends, meet new colleagues.  Sometimes you might even have a job interview over a fika.

As you’ll notie above, there’s not much the fika can’t do.  It’s amazing really. The word itself is pretty impressive.  It can act as both verb and noun.  For example:

Verb form: Ska vi fika imorgon eftermiddag? (Shall we fika tomorrow afternoon?)
Noun form: Ska vi ta en fika lite senare? (Shall we grab a fika a little bit later?)

Fascinating isn’t it?  It gets better. Or at least for the linguistics amongst us it gets better.  Nationalencyklopedin has a very short, but very interesting (and unfortunately, now NOT free service) that describes how the word originated from a slang language used by marketplace merchants in Västergötland.  The Swedish word for coffee is kaffe, which became kaffi. Somehow, and this is where my linguistic knowledge hits a wall, the letters were rearranged and we are left with the word fika.

So next time you find yourself in Sweden and someone asks you out for a fika. Say yes. You’ll already have a great conversation starter (speaking of which, Katja has written a lovely post about a classic conversation starter in Swedish. Check it out.).

Svenska Akademien’s Mobile App

Posted by Marcus Cederström 5 Comments
Nov 29 2011

I am not technically inclined. When in technical doubt, I turn to my brother. He knows what he’s doing. So what I am about to write comes from absolutely no technical background. Take that for what it is worth.  It does however come from a Swedish language standpoint.  And I am excited to see that Svenska Akademien has created a mobile app that is available completely free.

I suppose first we need to know what Svenska Akademien is exactly.  Founded hundreds of years ago, Svenska Akademien attempts to kmaintain the style and taste of the Swedish language. That might sound familiar, Svenska Akademien follows the lead set by Académie française. Both attempt to preserve their respective languages. It just seems that the Swedes are a bit less hoity-toity about it. I kid, I kid. French is a beautiful language and one that should be preserved. In fact, we’ve got a wonderful French language blog from Transparent that is well-written and incredibly helpful.

But back to Swedish.  How exactly does this tie in with an app for iPhones and Android? Well, because Svenska Akademien is also the organization which tends to be the end-all be-all when it comes to Swedish spelling and declensions.  Will it teach you Swedish? Absolutely not (for that be sure to check out Transparent’s Swedish software). But once you get that base going, this app is a great way to check all those pesky little grammatical forms you’ve been working so hard at.

Like plural forms. Or en or ett. Or definites. Or possessive. It’s a beautiful technological world we live in.  It’s important to note that this will not translate for you. It is solely in Swedish. It does not give you definitions either. Only declensions and spelling.

This first go-round has approximately 125,000 words and a couple of exciting features which should be mentioned. One, perfect for beginners (or poor spellers like me) is a function that gives you suggestions for misspelled words.  It works quite well.

And, if you are a cross-word nerd. And a Swedish one at that, this app has a function that allows you to plug in a few letters and asterisks for the missing letters, and suddenly several suggestions pop up. Some might call that cheating. I won’t. Not if you’re doing this in Swedish. There’s plenty more that is exciting, a list of new words, a list of abbreviations, etc. But some things are best discovered on your own.

I’ll be honest, I was skeptical when I first heard they were going to release an app. Mostly because I think their website is overwhelming and weighty. But I love the new possibilities offered by SAOL.  So if you’re looking for just a little bit of help for your Swedish skills, it is well worth checking out SAOL’s mobile app.

The Days of the Week in Swedish

Posted by Marcus Cederström 2 Comments
Nov 28 2011

I was reading through some of our older posts here and realized it had been quite some time since we got down to some of the basics. The days of the week. And the months.

Luckily for you, Tibor did an amazing job of explaining the Time Adverbs with certain tenses. It’s a great way of explain what you did yesterday, what you’re doing today, and what you plan to do tomorrow. Of course, you might want to know exactly how to say the days of the week you plan on doing something.

They’re pretty straightforward. In fact, you’ll notice quite a few similarities between the English words and the Swedish words. So, without further ado, the days of the week:

måndag = Monday
tisdag = Tuesday
onsdag = Wednesday
torsdag = Thursday
fredag = Friday
lördag = Saturday
söndag = Sunday

You’ll notice I started with måndag when listing the days of the week. I did that on purpose. When listing the days of the week in Sweden, people star with måndag and work their way down to söndag.

You’ll also notice within the sentence that I did not capitalize the word måndag. That’s because you don’t capitalize days of the week or months of the year in Swedish. While this might not have any bearing on your ability to speak Swedish, it most definitely does on your ability to write in Swedish. Just something to keep in mind as you continue working on your Swedish production.

Now that we’ve got the weeks down, let’s work on the months of the year. Again, you’ll notice quite a few similarities between the Swedish words for each month and the English word for each month.

januari = January
februari = February
mars = March
april = April
maj = May
juni = June
juli = July
augusti = August
september = September
oktober = October
november = November
december = December

So there you have it. One of those things that sometimes gets neglected, but is incredibly important in your everyday life.  Plus, it’s super easy. And when learning a language, it really is important to get those little victories that remind you that you did learn something and that you are making progress.  If you find yourself struggling with your language skills, check out our post Swedish Language Learning Tips for a few more helpful hints.  As always, good luck!

Writing utensils in Swedish

Posted by Steve 1 Comment
Nov 25 2011

Sweden has just as many different types of writing utensils as any other country. And as in many languages (although certainly not all) there are different words for these different types of writing utensils. However, there is one main word used to refer to a writing utensil, and that is penna. Penna can mean either ‘pen’, ‘pencil’, or ‘marker’, to name a few, depending on the context.

If you are going to take a test and you’re told to use a ‘pencil’, then instead of saying blyertspenna in the following description of the test, the word is replaced with just penna. The same goes for bläckpenna, or what we know simply as ‘pen’—that is, an ink pen—if it is already understood that the speaker/writer means ‘pen’, then he or she may simply use the word penna in the following text. En markeringspenna is a ‘marker’, and this word can be used the same way.

In contrast to these scenarios, if there is no context, then you can assume that the speaker/writer means that you can use whatever type of writing utensil you will.

Here’s how you conjugate the word penna (here its translation will be simplified to ‘pen’):

en penna a/one pen
pennor pens
pennan the pen
pennorna the pens
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