What not to say in Swedish (and English)

A list of 45 language mistakes

Don’t make the vikings angry - and don’t look silly when you’re raiding the Anglo-Saxons in your longships. Here’s a list of mistakes made in Swedish-English communication to avoid.

Originally posted as a thread on Mastodon: https://mastodon.nu/@Loukas/109460313105489568

Swedish-English language mistake 1: Lust. In Swedish it means interest, willingness to do something. In English it ONLY means horniness (kåthet). I'll never. Ever. Forget someone telling me that "Children's books should evoke lust".

Swedish-English language mistake 2: Feeling. If an English person hears "I have (a) feeling" they will wonder "which one?" In Swedish 'to have feeling' (att få feeling) is it's own thing. It means getting a vibe, a sudden rush of inspiration.

Swedish-English language mistake 3. Funny. Swedish people often translate 'roligt' as 'funny'; but in English 'funny' ONLY means something that is a joke, makes you laugh, or something that is weird. Hence ABBA thinking it's ok to say 'must be fun(ny)' in a rich man's world, when they really mean it must be FUN.

Swedish-English language mistake 4 This one is for the English-speakers. Learn to pronounce Swedish properly! I know the language seems simple and fairly phonetic but you need to hit all the notes and get each vowel right, or you will be misunderstood!

Swedish-English language mistake 5 To expand on the pronunciations. Long vowels or short vowels are crucial! If you tell someone you want to pruta it means you want to haggle, If you tell them you want to prutta it means you want to fart! Driving someone up the väg (road) is very different to driving them up the vägg (wall).

Swedish-English language mistake 6 A lot of Swedes are songwriters who write (almost) impeccable English. But 'Hit me baby one more time' seems to be based on Max Martin not understanding that 'hit me up' is what you need to say to make it clear you mean a phone call and not a punch.

Swedish-English language mistake 7 Swedish doesn't have the 'sch' sound, except when it does. In Brooklyn 99 when the Swede says 'her schlam poetry' that's totally correct, because when r and s happen together, even in different words, they make 'sch'. But if Jake Peralta then thinks 'schlam poetry' is how it's said he's wrong. See also Kenneth Brannagh wrongly calling it 'Yschtad' in Wallander.

Swedish-English language mistake 8 Hey Swedes don't ever refer to the UK as simply 'England'. There have been wars fought over less! I think the worst I ever heard was 'Edinburgh is a city in England'.

Swedish-English language mistake 9 Swedish still has words that English used to have that mean things like 'hither' and 'thither'. So if you want to ask where someone is (right now) you ask var. If you want to ask where they are on their way to, you ask 'vart'. To be honest, many Swedes find this one hard as well. Also it varies among dialects.

Swedish-English language mistake 10 There's two categories of this mistake. 'Swenglish' is when you say English things but get them wrong because of Swedish influence. 'Svengelska' is when you say Swedish things but get them wrong because of English!

Swedish-English language mistake 11 So for example, if Greta Thunberg says politicians should be 'put against the wall' that's Swenglish because she's directly translated a term for holding them to account (ställa mot väggen). In English to put someone against the wall implies that they are going to be executed by a firing squad!

Swedish-English language mistake 12 Meanwhile, if I say that I'm trying to 'hitta rätt väg att säga det' that's svenskelska because I've assumed I could use 'väg' (road, highway) as I would used English 'way'. I should say 'sätt'.

Swedish-English language mistake 13 Another major category is 'false friends'. Words that seem to be the same but which will lead you wrong. 'Lust' was such an example. Another would be 'consequent'. In Swedish ‘konsekvent’ means consistent while in English consequent means significant: Something that has major consequences.

Swedish-English language mistake 14 Here's a sex-related misunderstanding trap that the English-speakers might fall into. Don't say you want to 'pair' an outfit or a dish with another one (para). That could mean to couple, as in to copulate!

Swedish-English language mistake 15 If a Swede invites you to to their 'kick-off' there's very little chance of any football involved! It's a team-building event, or an organisation's away day. Actually that could involve football I guess.

Swedish-English language mistake 16 Maybe this is petty of me but I get a pain every time I see a sign in Sweden advertising how you can buy one 'scones'. In English it is a scone. Scone! If you say ‘en scones’ to an English person it will sound like you're saying 'ensconce', which is a funny old way of saying placing something somewhere.

Swedish-English language mistake 17 'Basically'. I saw a sign in a museum once saying an author was "basically a journalist". In English this is an insulting way of saying they are merely a journalist! This was a bad translation from 'i grunden journalist' which means more that the person's fundamental education or start of their career was as a journalist.

Swedish-English language mistake 18 English-speakers, be careful using the word 'ska' (unless you're in The Specials) 'Ska' has a kind of inevitability about it which can be rude. 'Jag skulle' or 'jag kommer att' are softer ways of saying you're going to do something.

Swedish-English language mistake 19 This is one i made quite recently; it's hard for me to shake off. Glass and glas. One means ice-cream the other means...glass. So when someone told me they used glasspinnar in teaching I was imagining these transparent rods of glass and was super puzzled. (Actually it was lollipop sticks for drawing lots).

Swedish-English language mistake 20 Here's a political one for journalists following Swedish politics. The abbreviation for the centre-left Social Democrats is simply 'S'. If you see 'SD' that is the far-right Sweden Democrats, who are in many ways the sworn enemies of 'S'.

Swedish-English language mistake 21 And here's a real political-language mistake a British politician made. When I referred to 'the Moderates' leaving his group in the EU parliament he got angry and assumed I was saying he and the rest of the ECR were by implication extremists. No... the Moderates is simply a name for Sweden's main centre-right party.

Swedish-English language mistake 22 English speakers I am begging you to stop putting random Ö and Ä on things because you think it looks cool. Maybe this is more a German thing, but I can't take 'Motoerhead' and 'Moetly Cryue' seriously anymore.

Swedish-English language mistake 23 And for fairness' sake, Swedish speakers I am begging you to stop taking in English words and j-ing them (fejs, tajming, beijkon). It feels fejk!

Swedish-English language mistake 25 In Swedish it's normal to refer to someone as, say, engelsman or fransman. Just remember if you call someone an 'Englishman' or a 'Frenchman' you'll get strange looks as though you stepped out of a racist time machine.

Swedish-English language mistake 26 Be aware that while, yes, 'after work' is technically English, no one in England knows what 'an after work' is. Just like with 'feeling' they will be waiting for you to say: an after work....what?

Swedish-English language mistake 27 Be likewise aware that while you say 'rolig/roligt' for having a good time in Swedish and 'kul' also means fun, but 'kult' simply means a cult. Like for worshipping Cthulhu. Be careful how you describe your weekend to your Swedish friends!

Swedish-English language mistake 28 Also watch out for 'coolt' which means something is cool (as in a little Fonzie).

Swedish-English language mistake 29 'How are you doing' should never be translated as 'hur mår du' unless you really do want to go on a journey of investigation into the current heart of Nordic suffering.

Swedish-English language mistake 30 'Avlösning' is a relief. 'Utlösning' is a... release. Often sexually. Know the difference unless you want to tell your partner you just had a premature changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. Actually that's a pretty good way to say it.

Swedish-English language mistake 31 Watch out for 'revansch'. Although it comes from a French root that means something similar it isn't really used in Swedish to mean 'revenge'. Instead it means more a comeback, a return. There's literally an organisation called criminals' revansch in society. It's not as scary as it sounds! It's about rehabilitation.

Swedish-English language mistake 32 Pronunciation for English-speakers again. You really need to commit to the curves and bends of Swedish. If you're a native English speaker you might be used to compressing and smoothing out letters and not voicing them. But in Swedish you should voice them in an EXAGGERATED way.

Swedish-English language mistake 33 We can take some examples. English speakers might be tempted to say 'kvinna' as kv'nh. No! Each syllable in Swedish is practically its own word. ‘Kvii-nnah.’

Swedish-English language mistake 34 And at the same time, Swedish words are often composed of lots of other words, or fragments of words. So it's only when you can see the little cracks separating the words’ particles from each other that you'll know how to sing Swedish properly.

Swedish-English language mistake 35 I spent HOURS once practising how to say jordbruksbidrag, for a radio story about... jordbruksbidrag. Yodgh-brookz-BI-draarg. So I not only needed to make sure I sounded out the ghost gap between jordbruk and bidrag, I also had to make it effortlessly clear that jord-bruk and even bi-drag are also composed of smaller units.

Swedish-English language mistake 36 I say speaking Swedish is like singing not as a joke but to help you. If you play music think about the way that notation guides you and try to use that for learning to speak Swedish. You need to see each fragment of a word as it's own note, but within an overall 'phrase' in the musical sense.

Swedish-English language mistake 37 In Swedish W exists only as an old-fashioned way to spell V. Yet somehow many Swedes end up pronouncing Vs in English as 'Ws'. I guess a linguist could explain this? So you get Swedes watching the T-wee or asking if participation is ‘woluntary.’

Swedish-English language mistake 38 Don't be too definite. In Swedish important concepts like 'life', 'death' and 'nature' are often given the definite article. But if a Swedish text says 'hon tänker ibland på döden' this does NOT mean she thinks sometimes about 'the death'. That would mean she's thinking about a particular death. In English we just say life, death, nature. Although it is called ‘the universe’.

Swedish-English language mistake 39 In Swedish 'Manchester' clothes are... corduroy! I think that's adorable and also speaks of a time 100+ years ago when mass-produced industrial Lancashire products came to Sweden.

Swedish-English language mistake 40 Although be aware that 'manschetten' are cufflinks. I could go into why, but I'll save Swedish-French discourse for another day.

Swedish-English language mistake 41 Looking at a sign on the train right now I can give you another example. "Please contact us in the event of ongoing threats." The poor translator is trying to convey a Swedish text about imminent and urgent threats. Unfortunately the English word 'ongoing', while a literal translation from 'pågående', actually means something that is less urgent and more of a longer-term problem.

Swedish-English language mistake 42 How could I forget this one? Swedish 'aktuellt' means something that is relevant, timely and current. It is not the same thing as English 'actual' or any sense of 'actual' as truth or reality. See also 'actualité'.

Swedish-English language mistake 43 Another pronunciation one. The rhotic-R. What's that? It's when you pronounce every R, instead of letting them shyly disappear. A native English speaker might be tempted to say 'bah' instead of 'bar' or 'bohd' instead of 'bord'. No! In Swedish we are giving those Rs all respect and attention! I've started doing it all the time, including in English. It means that nowadays I sound like a pirate. Arrrgh.

Swedish-English language mistake 44 In Swedish when you throw a drink back in one gulp you 'halsa' it. Beware that 'throating' something has very different connotations in English...

Swedish-English language mistake 45 Likewise in English when you drink in one gulp you could say you 'neck' it. Meanwhile in Swedish to 'nacka' something means to break or cut its neck!

Swedish-English language mistake 46 ‘Eventually’ and ‘eventuellt’ mean almost the opposite of each other. Something that is ‘eventuellt’ is something that is only possible. Something that will happen eventually is all-but inevitable.