| The Zen of Swedish
or Sweedish the E-Z Way* |
Swedish is an easy language to learn - trust me - I've heard 3 year olds speaking it... Stop thinking like an adult, stop caring about understanding the grammar. Learn as a child does with lots of pictures and actions and everything else will fall into place later.
| Key to
the symbols:
Words in brackets [ ] are
international phonetic transcriptions. Words in { } are the
regular American English word that they sound like.
[ : ] indicates where the stress should be. |
| Quick Zen Index: |
| Pronounciation and Spelling Tips |
| Zen Language Tips |
| Zen Words and Verbs |
| Zen Sentences |
| Zen Confusion - False Cognates |
| Strange Observations |
| Disclaimer |
| If it says SWINGLISH { }, it SOUNDS LIKE ENGLISH, just add a little bounce to the way you say it in English. Think of how a Swede mispronounces English words and put that same spin on it. |
| Don't let the Swedish spelling
fool you, many words appear unrecognizable but if you could hear them you'd
easily know what they mean: köp = {shop} purchase. "k" before the closed vowels e,i,y,ä,ö is pronounced sh tajm = {time} the "aj" combination gives the long i sound. sajt = {site} |
| The great sk debate:
(also applies to sj, skj, stj, s/tion) Depending upon where
you come from in Sweden, this consonant cluster is pronounced differently.
The majority of people pronounce it like the wh sound
in the word "whew!" So number 7, sju, sounds like whoo.
Others, including Finns from the south of Finland where Swedish is their native language, use more of a sh sound. There is no right or wrong here - it simply identifies you as to where you come from, just like someone from Brooklyn might be spotted by saying "dirty-dird" street (33rd). |
| Swedes don't say the consonant
cluster "th" so...drop the "h"
törstig {torsh-tig} - thirsty, ting = thing, termometer = thermometer |
They don't use "w," except
when asking for whisky so...change it to a "v"
vatten = water, vi = we, vinter = winter. And naturally then their information seeking questions are not wh-questions they are v-questions:
And since you asked, hur = how. |
Swedish doesn't conjugate
verbs. What a break!
In the present tense
kommer means "come," and the form of the verb doesn't change:
(I) jag kommer,
(you) du kommer, (we) vi kommer, (he) han kommer,
etc.
They don't use the
progressive form either (-ing), so "he comes every day," and "he
is coming now" is still han kommer.
vi - we
du - you
han - he, think of
"Hans" without the "s"
måndag, tisdag,
torsdag, fredag, söndag - Just don't make plans on Wednesday or Saturday
(onsdag, lördag).
| Swedish | Swinglish | English
Translation |
Comments and memory pegs |
| absolut | absolute (adj)
absolutely (adv.) |
if capitalized: vodka | |
| ägg | {agg} | egg | it doesn't get any easier than this. |
| badrum | {bad rum} | yep, it's the bathroom | where you spend a lot of time after consuming a lot of bad rum. |
| gaffel | fork | In case you didn't know, a gaff is an iron hook attached to a long pole, used for landing large fish. Btw... Swedes do eat a lot of fish. | |
| gång | {gang} | path, walkway | Think of walking off a gang-plank. And who knows? Maybe all those rawdy people waiting to walk the plank, formed a gang... |
| glad | {glad} | happy | |
| kniv | [kni:v] | knife | They say the "k." Trust me, you don't want a spoon. |
| kram | {cram} | hug | Think of someone hugging you too hard, cramming you into a small space. |
| hungrig | hungry | ||
| mjölk | m-yell-k | milk | |
| pulver | powder | When you pulverize something, you make it into powder. | |
| puss | {puss} | kiss | Just a friendly one. |
| Swedish | Swinglish | English |
| kan | {can} | can |
| kom | {come} | come |
| gå | {go} | go |
| se | {see} | see |
| säg | {say} | say |
| Vi kan gå och
se Alf.
We can go and see Alf. (Alf is not an Alien Life Form, it's a common name.) |
| Vi kan dricka kaffe
om du är törstig.
We can drink coffee if you are thirsty. (Pronounce kaffe like you're going to say "cafeteria" and törstig like you are from Brooklyn and thirsty.) |
| Swedish | Swinglish | English / comments |
| and | means "wild duck." | |
| barn | not where the animals live, but a different kind of animal - children. | |
| butter | for describing your mood - "sullen." How Swedes feel in the winter. | |
| egg | {egg} | the non-edible "edge." |
| fan | [fon] | swear word meaning "devil." Doesn't sound too bad too us but curses involving the devil are equivalent to ours involving anatomy. |
| ful
full |
{fool}
{full} |
These words still sound very similiar to me when Swedes say them. If you say you're full after dinner, it means your drunk. The other word means "ugly." Connection? |
| gift | [yift] | this may not be the present you want - means "married." It also means "poison." No comment. |
| glass | eat it, it's only "ice cream" (glas [gla:s] is a glass). | |
| gymnasium | upper secondary school. Evidently, Swedes only take gym in high school. | |
| haj! | {hi!} | "Shark!" Explains why Swedes don't say "hi," especially at the beach. *Also see "buy/bye" below. |
| hiss | it isn't a sound you make, it's the elevator you take. | |
| hugg | you don't want one of these. Means "cut, slash." | |
| hår | {whore} | don't take offense, it's your "hair" they are referring to. |
| kissa | {kiss-a} | sounds a little like kiss, but it means somebody has to "pee." See kyss below. |
| kitt | {shit} | sounds a lot like shit, but it's "putty." |
| kock | {cock} | a cook or a chef |
| kyss | {shish} | looks like it but doesn't sound like it: "kiss." |
| mus | {moose} | mouse. Also used as slang, like the American slang "pussy." |
| ny | {knee} | not the abbreviation for New York, it only means "new." |
| prick | en trevlig prick - "a nice guy." Quite the opposite of what you were thinking he was. Also means "spot/dot." | |
| sex | {sex} | means both "six" and "sex." You can usually figure out which they mean. |
| slapp mig! | {slap may!} | make sure the bilingual Swede you're talking to knows your speaking Swedish when you say this. It means "let go of me!" |
| slut | {sloot} | not offensive, means "stop/terminate." |
| tack | not something sharp but how they say "thanks." Use often. | |
| vill | it doesn't mean "will," it means "want." Very confusing. It is an auxillary or helping verb in Swedish (t.ex. must, can, will, in English), meaning it must be followed by verb (infinitive). Where in English you can say, "I want food/money/etc.," in Swedish you have to say "I want to eat food." |
*so don't say "bye!" to a Swede, say "hej då!" {hey door}
Little Jack Horner sat in a corner... Where did Jack get that last name? Interesting when you consider that hörnor means corners in Swedish.
The farmer in the dell, the farmer in the dell... What dell? Where? It's a stretch (but what isn't on this page?) but del means a part of something. So if you want to ask someone which part of Stockholm they are from: Vilken del av Stockholm kommer du ifrån?
Ohhh, that smarts!... Don't you just hate when you bump your elbow? Smärta = pain.
In British English, a "swede" is a rutabaga. This variety of turnip is called kålrot in Swedish. This useless piece of information is only here for Americans who otherwise wouldn't get the joke about vegetarian cannibals on the Swedish Links page.
*OPPS! DISCLAIMER: This page in no way claims to do a serious study in entomology, language influence, assimilation or transference. It doesn't even claim to teach. Just because I have a degree in linguistics doesn't mean I am any more sound than you are. The author takes no responsibility for any damage incurred by any individual applying its contents to the non-cyber world.
Copyright 1999-2004, Mari
JP Söderberg {Soda berry}, Mari Michaelis 2004-2008
This page is updated whenever I feel
frustrated with learnng Swedish. If something is wrong, consider it a typo.
Send your comments or questions (I probably don't know but I'll find out) to: marijp@aol.com
