Proverbs are popular sayings that provide a little dose of wisdom, a truth that is sometimes so obvious it’s overlooked.
Can you think of a proverb in your native language that touched you in an important moment of your life?
Well, I can think of one: “There is no time like the present.” So let’s get to it!
Proverbs add versatility and color to our spoken language, so today we’ll introduce you to the thirty most common Swedish proverbs. Using any one of these at just the right moment is sure to impress native speakers!
If you really want your language skills to shine, knowing proverbs in the Swedish language is a great way to start. And of course, it will also help you better fit in with Swedes and gain a deeper understanding of their culture!
As they say, “Laughter is the best medicine.” How true! So let’s start by having a look at some humorous Swedish proverbs and sayings that Swedes often use to express their wisdom (and their wit)… Surprise native speakers with these funny axioms!
1. Ingen ko på isen.
Literal translation: There’s no cow on the ice.
A cow on the ice would definitely be something to worry about! This one doesn’t really have an English equivalent, but it’s simply a way of saying “Don’t worry.”
2. Sitta med skägget i brevlådan
Literal translation: To sit with your beard in the letterbox
English equivalent: To be caught with your hands in the cookie jar
Change “hands” to “beard,” and “cookie jar” to “letter box,” and there you have it. In either case, you’ve been caught doing something dishonest.
3. Det ligger en hund begraven.
Literal translation: There’s a dog buried.
English equivalent: Something smells fishy.
This one just means that there’s something fishy going on.
4. Att ana ugglor i mossen
Literal translation: To suspect there are owls in the bog
English equivalent: To smell a rat
This is another way to describe the sensation of knowing something’s wrong. Even fishier than a buried dog!
5. Finns det hjärterum så finns det stjärterum.
Literal translation: If there’s room in the heart, there’s room for the arse.
Where there’s friendship, there’s always space for one more. You can also use it to mean, “Move over, I wanna fit on the sofa!”
If you’re “not shoveled all the way,” it means you’re really not the smartest.
7. Göra en höna av en fjäder
Literal translation: To make a chicken out of a feather
English equivalent: To make a mountain out of a molehill
This idiom refers to the act of making something unimportant seem very important.
8. Köp inte grisen i säcken.
Literal translation: Don’t buy the pig in the bag.
English equivalent: To buy a pig in a poke
Don’t buy something without having inspected it first. This proverb is also a warning against rash decisions.
2. Swedish Proverbs About Life
You know those sayings that make you feel all fuzzy inside, and leave you with a lovely feeling of knowing what life’s all about? Well, Swedes have quite a few of those!
These Swedish proverbs about life will make your heart melt like an icicle in front of a fire.
9. Rädsla mindre, hoppas mer; Ät mindre, tugga mer; Gnälla mindre, andas mer; Prata mindre, säg mer, Älska mer, och alla goda ting kommer att bli din.
Literal translation: “Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; love more; and all good things are yours.”
This one is pretty self-explanatory, if a bit long! Basically, it says that a great life boils down to relaxing, not worrying, and not being greedy.
10. Älska mig mest när jag förtjänar det minst för då behöver jag det bäst.
Literal translation: “Love me when I least deserve it, because that’s when I really need it.”
Again, pretty clear, yet poetic. Use this phrase if you’re dating a Swede and they’ll be impressed!
11. De som önskar att sjunga hittar alltid en låt.
Literal translation: Those who wish to sing, always find a song.
English equivalent: To make one’s own luck
If you really want something, you’ll find a way to get it.
12. Ett liv utan kärlek är som ett år utan sommar.
Literal translation: A life without love is like a year without summer.
I mean, imagine a year in Sweden with no summer. That’s how important love is in life. You can definitely see how much Swedes love their summers!
13. Oro ger små saker en stor skugga.
Literal translation: Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.
This is a beautiful way of saying, “Don’t worry.” Much more poetic than the cow on ice, if you ask me. 😉
14. Borta bra, men hemma bäst.
Literal translation: Away is good, but home is best.
English equivalent: Home sweet home.
This phrase is usually said after spending some time away from home.
15. Ibland kan man inte se skogen på grund av alla träd.
Literal translation: Sometimes you cannot see the forest because of all the trees.
This is something along the lines of a certain Zen proverb: “When the sage points at the moon, the fool looks at the finger.” Look beyond, and see the bigger picture!
16. Delad glädje är dubbel glädje; delad sorg är halverad sorg.
Literal translation: Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow.
Always share with your loved ones, both in joy and in sorrow.
3. Practical Swedish Proverbs
There are sentimental truths about life, like the ones we just looked at. And then there are practical truths, like “a watched pot never boils” (I’ve tried, it’s a real thing!).
So let’s dive into some practical Swedish sayings that will make our lives easier!
17. Det bästa stället att hitta en hjälpande hand är i slutet av din egen arm.
Literal translation: The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your arm.
English equivalent: God helps those who help themselves.
This has basically the same meaning as the English version. If you want a better life, just make it happen.
18. Dra inte alla över en kam.
Literal translation: Don’t pull everybody over the same comb.
English equivalent: Don’t judge a book by its cover.
This proverb just means that you shouldn’t generalize people.
19. Det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder.
Literal translation: There is no bad weather, there are only bad clothes.
This one is widely used in the winter months, and for a reason! But if you think there’s something wrong with the Swedish winter, think again: you’re probably just wearing the wrong clothes.
20. Den enes bröd är den andres död.
Literal translation: One man’s bread is another’s death.
One person’s fortune is another’s misfortune. This one is often said in a philosophical manner to describe a situation where one prospers from the misfortune of another.
21. Den som köper det han inte behöver stjäl från sig själv.
Literal translation: He who buys what he does not need steals from himself.
This is a great anti-consumerist Swedish proverb. If you don’t need something, just don’t buy it!
22. När den blinde bär den lame går båda framåt.
Literal translation: When the blind man carries the lame man, both go forward.
English equivalent: Unity is strength.
It’s a weird way of saying it, but it basically promotes collaboration to overcome problems… The Blind Man and the Lame is actually a Greek fable!
23. Lycka ger aldrig; den lånar bara ut.
Literal translation: Luck never gives; it only lends.
English equivalent: Luck is loaned, not owned.
You may have a lucky strike, but rest assured it won’t last!
4. Swedish Proverbs Shared with English
Some proverbs are, let’s say…international! They appear in many different languages, probably as a result of early travelers sharing their wisdom with different people in different places.
Here are some Swedish proverbs that also exist in English (and in many other languages, too!).
“All good things must come to an end…” But it’s not really the end, is it? There’s so much more to learn about the Swedish language!
As they say, “Practice makes perfect,” so continue practicing your Swedish language skills on SwedishPod101.com. Using all the features we offer (audio podcasts, videos with transcriptions, word lists, a dictionary, and more), you’ll pick up this beautiful and interesting language in no time.
And remember, if someone you know feels down one day, cheer them up with one of the humorous Swedish proverbs from this list and make them laugh… We already know what the best medicine is, right?
Which of these Swedish proverbs is your favorite, and why? Let us know in the comments!
But if you dropped in unexpectedly on a Swedish company’s conference call, you might be a little surprised to hear everyone speaking in English despite the fact that everyone working there was born and raised in-country.
What gives?
Shouldn’t they be speaking…Swedish?
Well, because of many different factors, there are quite a few modern colloquial English words in Swedish. They call this phenomenon “Swenglish,” and here’s what it’s all about.
First off, this name isn’t really fair. It’s taken from the German equivalent “Denglish,” which refers to German laced with far too many English loans. However, “Swenglish” is actually used to describe English with Swedish characteristics, which we’ll get to in a little bit.
But how did all this English get into the Swedish language in the first place?
Well, the Vikings invaded England in the early Middle Ages. But that’s not the whole story, as many of them stayed there and ended up influencing the English language instead.
You see, Swedish is a Northern Germanic language while English is a Western Germanic one. This means that many centuries ago, around the fifth century BC, there was one parent language that later split up due to migration patterns and natural language change.
That makes it easy to pull words from one language to the other, kind of like baking cookies from the same mold and putting them on different trays.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, English started becoming more and more of a world language, and Swedes began facing greater pressure to learn it. By the twenty-first century, they had achieved that goal in spades. The vast majority of Swedish youth these days gain full mastery of English while still in high school.
Because English is of such great international importance and considered trendy to learn, it’s the perfect language to pull words from, even among Swedes speaking Swedish to each other. Plus, recent immigration and English-taught higher education efforts both point to a rising use of English in Sweden.
But some Swedes are pushing back, saying that it’s unnecessarily eroding a perfectly good language and culture. However, this kind of popularity-driven language transition is quite tough to ignore, and sooner or later English words will have entered Swedish for good.
Examples of Swenglish
So what does this “Swenglish” or “Svengelska” look like in real life?
‘Swenglish’ refers to English words that mean something else in Swedish, having been adopted into the language and undergoing changes over time. After all, when non-native speakers start using a foreign word in their own language, it can easily take on a life of its own. To give you an idea of what we mean, let’s look at several Swenglish examples.
We’ll start with the word “athlete.” In English, it refers to anyone who practices a sport and uses their body to enter competitions. In Swedish, though, it typically refers to “a bodybuilder,” or someone who sculpts their muscles for aesthetic reasons. The “pure” Swedish word for “athlete” would be friidrottare.
Another example is the word sejfa, which sounds an awful lot like the English word “safe.” This one actually means “to play it safe,” or in other words, to be careful when attempting something new.
If you’ve studied any German, you may be familiar with the false friend tränar, which is also used in Swedish. It’s not “to train” as you would train a dog or cat, but “to exercise.”
Some words seem like they shouldbe English words from their look and sound, and many Swedes might even swear to you that they are—but you won’t find them in an English dictionary.
Such words include legitimation (otherwise known as an ID card) and hangarounds (supporters of a political movement). Finally, if you hear a Swede complimenting your backslick, your first instinct might be to turn around and see if something’s gotten spilled on your shirt. But in reality, it just means “slicked-back hair.”
English Loanwords
Now that we’ve seen some examples of words that are slowly becoming native Swedish, we should mention that there are also plenty of words that are clearly English (for the time being, at least). Many of these English words used in Swedish are ones you’d hear in science, technology, and business meetings. This is because they’ve simply become the preferred way for experts in these fields to communicate.
Words like midquarter report, pressrelease, call center, and all time high are extremely commonplace in big Swedish business firms—remember, the official language of many Swedish businesses is English to begin with!
Note that the spacing or hyphenation of the examples above might be a little different from what English-speaking countries mandate as the norm. This is intentional, as these words have been adopted into Swedish orthographic conventions instead of maintaining the English ones.
Although Swedish verbs don’t conjugate for person or number, you can still see the Swedish verb suffix on loanwords like chillar (“to chill out”) or mailar (“to send by email”).
This is where the Swedish linguistic purists start tearing their hair out, by the way. They feel that Swedish speakers should make an effort to come up with their own native-Swedish equivalents, much like the Mandarin and Icelandic languages do.
If that were the case, you’d see loans like design replaced by formgivning and food processor replaced by matberedare. Only a serious and widespread effort to get rid of English loans could stop the process at this point, and that’s not very likely to get underway.
By the way, here is a quick fun fact before we move on to the next section: the word präst (“priest”) is actually a loanword from English, not a common Germanic word that happened to stay roughly recognizable. Scholars believe it comes from the Middle Ages and/or Renaissance!
What a Swedish Accent Sounds Like in English
Unfortunately, there’s one extremely famous rendition of a “Swedish accent” permanently entrenched in the minds of Americans—the character of the Swedish Chef from the children’s show Sesame Street.
While not really crossing any line into “offensive,” this has been the basis of quite a few good-natured jokes toward Swedes living abroad, to the extent that it should probably be laid to rest at this point.
The reason why that stereotype is so enduring, though, is because there really is a distinctive rhythm to Swedish speech. This is because the Swedish language, like Norwegian, Japanese, and a handful of other European and Asian languages, has a “pitch accent.”
You can find a few other good resources about Swedish pitch accent online, but the gist of it is that each word in Swedish has either a rising or falling pitch pattern. To native speakers, pronouncing a word with a different pattern sounds understandable but odd.
And turnabout is fair play: when Swedes speak English, they often subconsciously apply the pitch rules of their own language to English, leading to that musical rhythm.
Other than that, the long exposure many Swedes have to the English language means that they tend to pick up even subtleties of the pronunciation quite well. It helps that most of the sounds in English exist in Swedish, more so than for French or German speakers!
English Words Originally From Swedish
Since Swedish has never been that big of a language, its cultural reach has always been rather small. Still, when you look carefully at English vocabulary, you can find some rather common English words from Swedish or other Scandinavian languages.
The hobby of “orienteering” comes from the Swedish orientering, explaining why this word doesn’t quite sound like an English word even though it’s spelled like one.
Fartleks, a type of exercise training for long-distance runners, comes from the Swedish words fart (“speed”) and lek (“play”).
The metal tungsten is a combination of the Swedish words meaning “heavy” and “stone.”
Finally, the ubiquitous European moped comes from a blend of words from 1950s Swedish: motoroch pedaler (“motor and pedals”).
Apart from those, many words that English speakers take for granted when discussing history and literature actually come from Old Norse, and so are Swedish by proxy if you will. These include elf, troll, and saga.
Conclusion
Even if Swedes end up using Swenglish and English in equal measure in the future, it doesn’t mean that there’s no hope for the Swedish culture as a whole.
People were probably saying the same thing when Anglo-Saxon speakers started using Norse terms on the British Isles! All languages shift and change with time, and Swedish is no exception.
Fortunately, you don’t have to get hired at a Swedish company to start picking up how the language is really used today. SwedishPod101 has got you covered.
Once you attain a strong level in Swedish thanks to our audio podcasts, videos with transcripts, word lists, and other useful resources, it’ll be easy for you to pick up and maintain a healthy balance of languages in your personal and professional Swedish lives.
How long was it after you heard the word “IKEA” that you started studying Swedish?
IKEA, like meatballs and beautiful nature, produces a strong image of Swedish culture and the Swedish people.
When you study a language, it’s important to know about the culture of where that language is spoken. If you learn from dictionaries and textbooks alone, you’ll never get a sense of what life is like on the streets in that country; if you only watch YouTube street interviews, you’ll never know what the literature is like.
How up-to-date or complete are your mental images of Sweden?
On this page, you’ll get to know Swedish culture a bit better. This knowledge, in turn, will act as an important complement to your language studies now and in the future.
Unlike many other diverse or fractured cultures around the world, we can easily point to a “Swedish Culture” based on the general population’s values and beliefs alone—before diving into all the other things that make up what culture really is.
This is reflected in political and economic discussion as the “Nordic Model,” describing the social structure and economic organization offered in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The state is expected to take care of its people, and it’s only able to do so if everybody in the society contributes.
Swedes feel at home with a government that provides generous social welfare benefits such as healthcare, for instance, because they feel that they’re all paying into it for the benefit of everyone in the country.
Finally, every Swede would tell you that they have a deep love of nature in their country. Cities are built with wide bike lanes and pedestrian paths so people can enjoy the world at a natural pace, and there’s always green space to be found. In the countryside, there’s actually a law guaranteeing everyone the right to camp and hike on all land, as long as it’s done in a responsible way with all waste and garbage picked up afterwards.
Religion and mindset are two key elements of Swedish culture and traditions.
When it comes to religion, a glance at demographics will give you a very different picture than an interview on the street would, for instance.
On official censuses, the vast majority of Swedes are Lutheran Christian, that is, following Christian teachings but not paying close attention to the Pope. However, Swedes will tell you that this is pretty much in name only. Most Swedes rarely attend church services, with fewer than 20% of the population reporting that religion is important to them.
The big numbers come from the fact that until 1996, all newborn children in Sweden were automatically members of the Svenska kyrkan (Church of Sweden), which stopped being the state church in 2000. If your parents didn’t unregister you or you haven’t gotten around to it, you’re still counted as Lutheran in the books!
There’s also one general philosophy in Sweden that most Swedes would say is the quintessence of Swedish culture, tying in with the points made in the last section. This is lagom, a word roughly translating to “moderation.” Swedes might describe lagom as:
Inte för mycket, inte för lite. / “Not too much, not too little.”
This applies to physical moderation (such as with fast food and alcohol), but also to social moderation where individuals don’t want to be seen as overbearing or sticking out too much from the crowd.
In Sweden, it’s considered normal to move out of your parents’ house as soon as you can, even if that means living by yourself in the same city where your parents live. Swedes enjoy their privacy! Stockholm, for instance, has a huge proportion of single-occupied apartments and this has contributed to a large housing crash.
There aren’t many “stay-at-home moms” in Sweden. Most families have two working parents, and this is made possible by generous family leave policies mandated by law for both father and mother to remain salaried while taking care of a new child.
Housework is divided equally among the family members, at least based on age. Everyone pitches in to cook and clean, and they take care of each other both inside the home and out.
When it comes to actual careers, Swedes work a little less than eight hours a day on average and take a little more than a month of vacation during the year, mostly during the summer. This is why it always seems like every hostel has a couple of Swedish tourists no matter where you are!
The Swedish workplace culture is rather conservative despite the emphasis on work-life balance. Men and women are expected to wear modest and formal clothing at the very least, though lately this has become more relaxed.
4. Art
Sweden has actually had a bit more success than its other Scandinavian neighbors in promoting a unique type of minimalist and utilitarian design for tools, furniture, and household appliances. This is the world-famous Scandinavian Design, brought to consumers around the world by the Swedish company IKEA.
As for music, the most well-known Swedish band of all time is most likely the 1980s pop group ABBA. Folk music enthusiasts will find plenty to like in Swedish traditional music as well, from Viking Age stuff all the way up to the folk revivals of the past century.
Finally, at the turn of the twenty-first century, there were short-lived yet well-loved Swedish electronic music crazes for the likes of Swedish House Mafia and Basshunter.
5. Food
Swedish culture and food go hand in hand. We actually have an article all about Swedish food coming out soon, so stay tuned for that!
The first thing most people think about is meatballs (köttbullar). When you started learning Swedish, that might have been one of your first words!
Beyond that, though, there’s a whole world of Swedish cooking waiting to be explored. A lot of it can be considered “rustic” cooking, as many beloved dishes come from simple home cooking from the countryside. Examples of this include fried cabbage, salted fish, and thick brown bread.
Swedes are also big fans of sweet food in general.This is quite evident when you take a look behind the counter glass at a Swedish café: you’ll see a huge array of pastries ripe for the taking, usually covered in some kind of glaze or powdered sugar. Princess cake might be the most famous Swedish pastry, but cinnamon buns also trace their roots back to Nordic cuisine.
And it only makes sense that Swedish cafés have such great snacks. The fika culture of lunch breaks at work extends outside of the working day. Fika is an activity beloved by every Swede, whether they’re working or not. In fact, saying it’s “beloved” might be framing it wrong—it’s simply treated as an inseparable part of the cultural fabric.
6. Traditional Holidays
Few things are as central to the culture of Sweden than its holidays!
Sweden was never colonized by anybody, so you won’t find a “Swedish Independence Day” on the calendar. Instead, there’s Sveriges nationaldag (“National Day”), celebrated on June 6 every year. Interestingly enough, it commemorates the election of King Gustav Vasa from way back in 1523, but it wasn’t recognized as a holiday until the early twentieth century. On National Day, Swedes get together to wave flags, march in parades, and even visit the Stockholm Palace cost-free!
Finally, jul (Christmas) is celebrated with Advent lights and decorated Christmas trees. In Sweden, Christmas is typically celebrated on December 24 instead of December 25, when it’s celebrated in many other countries. Families exchange gifts on Christmas Eve and then have Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and annandag jul (“Boxing Day”) off to relax.
7. Conclusion
How much did you learn about Swedish culture and customs today? And more importantly, are you excited at the prospect of learning even more about Swedish culture? Let us know in the comments!
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Witches, sorcerers, costumes, tricks, and superstition…no, it’s not Halloween! We’re talking about Valborgsmässoafton (Valborg or Walpurgis Night) in Sweden.
While you might not associate the beginning of spring with witchcraft and sorcery, this correlation has some interesting roots in numerous European countries. In this article, you’ll learn about the origins of this mystical holiday and how it’s celebrated today.
Let’s go!
1. What is Walpurgis Night in Sweden?
In Sweden, Walpurgis and May Day take place each year on the night of April 30 and day of May 1 respectively. This festival is also common in a number of other European countries, including Germany, Finland, the Czech Republic, and Estonia.
Walpurgis Night is named after an eighth-century abbess named Saint Walpurgis (also known as Saint Walpurga). She was known for her effectiveness in spreading Christianity, as well as her supposed abilities to deflect witchcraft and heal a variety of ailments. People would invoke her in their prayers in the hope that she would keep the witches at bay.
You see, it was believed that witches and sorcerers would hold a Witches’ Sabbath each year on the night of April 30. They were thought to engage in crazy dances and conspire with demons—or even Satan himself—to harm Christians and cause other sorts of trouble.
In addition to invocations of Saint Walpurga, people would light bonfires on the hillsides and create as much noise as possible to scare away witches.
Over time, Walpurgis Day became less associated with actual witchcraft, and more and more people perceived this day as a time to reflect on the charms of such superstitions. Today, the holiday is mainly celebrated just for the fun of it, though the superstitions behind it are still strong in some places.
Walpurgis and May Day celebrations in Sweden vary from region to region, but there’s a large focus on enjoying the spring and the coming of summer. In the morning, some Swedes indulge in a delightful breakfast of champagne and strawberries. Later in the day, people often gather with friends, family, and loved ones in local parks and indulge in BBQ and alcoholic beverages.
Walpurgis Day in Sweden is particularly popular among university students, who engage in activities such as the donning of the student cap in Gothenburg and rafting on Fyris River. Uppsala University is particularly lively during Valborg.
People of all ages enjoy participating in the bål (bonfire)! Due to the historical background of this holiday, lighting these large fires on which to brinna (burn) an effigy of a witch is a common activity. Some bonfire festivities will have various stalls set up that offer tasty foods and drinks. Music and dancing also play a large role in the holiday, especially around the bonfire.
Finally, though this is less common nowadays, there are often left-wing demonstrations that take place following Walpurgis night in Sweden.
3. Beltane
While the Valborg holiday likely originated from a pagan Norse holiday linked to the dead, there’s another holiday that seems to share roots with it: Beltane.
This is a pagan holiday still celebrated today in Wiccan and Neopagan circles, and it shares many of the same tenets as Valborg. In times past, there were four important festivals celebrated throughout the year, Beltane one of them. It marked the end of the winter and the beginning of summer, and bonfires were popular on this day.
The main purpose of Beltane was to protect cattle herds, crops, and dairy products from harm. This was done by appeasing theaos sí, a type of fairy or other supernatural race in Irish/Scottish mythology.
4. Vocabulary You Need to Know for Walpurgis in Sweden
Ready to impress your Swedish friends or hosts with some new vocabulary? Here are some of the words and phrases from this article, plus a few more!
Vår / Spring
Noun, common
Eld / Fire
Noun, common
Valborgsmässoafton / Walpurgis Night
Phrase, common
Fyrverkeri / Firework
Noun, neutral
Fira / Celebrate
Verb
Bål / Bonfire
Noun, neutral
Brinna / Burn
Verb
Brasa / Campfire
Noun, common
Smällare / Firecracker
Noun, common
Ved / Firewood
Noun, common
To hear and practice the pronunciation of each word and phrase, be sure to head over to our Walpurgis Night vocabulary list.
Final Thoughts
Valborg is a fascinating, whimsical holiday with some unclear origins, though its celebrations today are still popular in Sweden.
How do you celebrate the arrival of warmer weather in your country? Is there a special holiday involved? We look forward to hearing from you!
If you would like to continue learning about Swedish culture and the language, make sure you continue to explore SwedishPod101. Here are some fun pages to get you started:
Would you say that you’re the adventurous type? One for tall waves on high seas, long journeys, and tough challenges?
Whether you’re a beginner or an expert in Swedish, you know that the Swedish language can have its rough spots. Why not anchor yourself with something nice and tasty, something closely connected to Swedish culture?
Aside from language, cuisine is one of the most tangible aspects of culture. Go down any main street in any town and you’ll see restaurants serving local and foreign foods right alongside each other. But what about Swedish food?
None of the above? Well in that case, it looks like a trip to Sweden is in order. Start with the stomach, and the head will follow. In this article, you’ll learn about some of the tastiest Swedish food staples for Swedes both inside and outside of Sweden.
Unless you live in a very international city or a place with a large population of Swedish immigrants, you probably don’t have a particularly clear idea of Swedish cuisine. Aside from “meatballs,” most people would vaguely guess at fish and bread if they had to imagine what Swedes eat.
There’s some truth to that, but that’s far from the only staple food!
Traditional Swedish foods have a rustic flavor because of Sweden’s relatively poor recent history. A lot of people lived off of their own farms, and so they ended up cooking with preserved meat, bread, and vegetables. Cabbage, or kål, is a particularly common ingredient, as you’ll see in this article!
A lot of Swedish food can be described as quite hearty, with rich meats and sauces as well as desserts made with syrupy preserved fruits.
Later on, Sweden began attracting more immigrants. If you walk around a Swedish city today, you’ll see restaurants from places like the Middle East, India, and Asia.
Speaking of restaurants, cafe culture is very important in Sweden and there are lots of pastries and cakes to choose from. The concept of fika, or a coffee break, is one of the most “typically Swedish” things that most Swedes themselves can think of.
Many Swedes treat a fika as a natural break in the work day, as well as a way to meet up with friends or even go on dates. It’s not unheard of for a single fika to last more than an hour and a half on a weekend!
2. Authentic Swedish Food vs. Overseas Swedish Food
Many authentic Swedish cuisine dishes have made their way into other countries, but with regional twists.
Sweden’s most popular cultural export by far is the Swedish meatball, a mixture of ground beef and pork baked in a thick gravy for close to an hour before being served. However, in the U.S. at least, meatballs are more of a finger food served with cheese—no doubt due to Italian influence. In Sweden, they’re a main course served with mashed potatoes or with pasta.
The word gravlax (literally, “buried salmon”) might be somewhat familiar to people who enjoy cured salmon and bread. Indeed, it’s quite similar to smoked salmon on a bagel, a classic dish for New Yorkers. Gravlax, though, is not smoked; instead, it’s dry-cured through a mix of sugar, salt, and white pepper. Then instead of cream cheese, the typical topping is a light mustard sauce.
Why “buried,” then? Traditionally, the curing agents are mixed together in a jar with the salmon and it’s literally buried in the ground.
If you had to think of a berry associated with Sweden, you’d probably come up with the word lingonberry. It’s a small, red berry often made into jams and jellies in Scandinavia. In the United States, though, people tend to pair meat with cranberry sauce, not lingonberries. Lingonberries are a little bit smaller and a shade sweeter than cranberries, making them a bit more suitable for desserts.
And speaking of desserts, remember all the pastries in Swedish cafes? A classic one is smulpaj (“crumb pie”). Most pastries in English-speaking countries have a crust and a topping, but not smulpaj. This dessert has a topping of oats and flour and little else—it’s baked directly with the fruit filling on the baking dish.
3. Unique Swedish Food
It’s tough to find foods other than the meatballs and lingonberry jam mentioned above when you’re outside of Sweden. In this section, we’ll introduce some typical Swedish dishes that rarely make it across the border.
First up is a sort of street snack known as tunnbrödsrulle. From the name, you can see that this has something to do with tunnbröd, or flatbread. Indeed, these are flatbread hot dogs! You take an ordinary sausage as bought from a street cart and lay it in a piece of flatbread before drizzling it with the topping of your choice.
The concept of eating fruit or roses in soup is a bit alien to some cultures. However, wild roses and their fruit grow all over Sweden. Therefore, nyponsoppa is a classic rosehip soup served as an appetizer or as a dessert.
Finally, brunkål (“fried cabbage”) is something that virtually every Swede had growing up at one point. Fast and easy to make, this is cabbage seasoned with meat or vegetable broth and vinegar before being rapidly stir-fried in a pan. It’s often eaten at Christmas to complement a Christmas ham.
4. Food-Related Vocabulary
Now it’s time to put down the dictionary and pick up a fork—let’s learn some Swedish phrases for the café or restaurant!
Har ni någon lokal specialitet?/ “Do you have a local specialty?”
Har ni vegetarisk mat?/ “Do you have vegetarian food?”
Perhaps you’re lucky enough to be invited for a fika, that luxurious time for coffee and pastries.
5. The Top Five Must-Try Dishes in Swedish Restaurants
To round it off, here are some of the most beloved dishes in the entire Swedish cooking lexicon.
A- Strömming
Herring is the small fish strongly associated with Scandinavia. There are actually two different types: the sill in the North Sea and the strömming caught in the Baltic Sea. Typically, Swedes pickle their herring in a sweet curing agent with plenty of salt and sugar. A couple of other popular Swedish herring recipes include nysekt strömming (fried and eaten in sandwiches) and a variety that’s served in sandwiches with senap (“mustard”).
B- Glögg
Even in the southernmost parts of Sweden, winter can get extremely cold. That’s a perfect time for a steaming cup of glögg, or Swedish mulled wine. Although other European countries have mulled wine traditions, in Sweden the glasses have raisins and almonds placed at the bottom. Additionally, the glasses are kept small as people tend to add vodka or cognac in the mix—giving the drink a bit of a kick!
C- Kåldolmar
One more appearance of cabbage here before the end. The word dolmar in the second half of the word actually comes from Turkish, similar to the English word dolmas. These cabbage rolls are stuffed with beef and pork before being baked in a thick broth in the oven. They’re super-rich and hearty, especially when served with a dash of lingonberry jam.
D- Kanelbulle
While they’re called ‘cinnamon rolls’ in English, the word bulle means “bun” in Swedish. This is probably Sweden’s most popular pastry—on average, each Swede consumes about six of them per week! The secret ingredient separating them from other cinnamon rolls (for those in the know) is cardamom, a spice from India.
E- Prinsesstårta
Legend has it that this delicate multi-layered cake was named in honor of Swedish princesses who adored baking and eating such a flavorful thing. It has three layers of cake separated by jam, custard, and cream, and the whole thing is topped with green marzipan. Lately, a few cakes with pink marzipan have made an appearance too.
6. Conclusion
Did this article whet your appetite? Hopefully not just for eating, but for learning as well. At SwedishPod101.com, you can get a whole lot more than just this sampler platter.
From our flagship podcast series to our YouTube videos and our longform articles, there’s something to suit any palate. The best part is, learning about interesting things like Swedish cooking actually helps you remember vocabulary! You’re going to see the word kanelbulle quite a few more times before your Swedish learning journey is over; you’re pretty much guaranteed to never forget its meaning.
Connecting a new word to something meaningful and emotional is absolutely the best way to learn a language. Sign up for an account at SwedishPod101.com and find out just how tasty the whole journey can be!
What if I told you there was one day a year when you could eat all the waffles you could possibly want? Yes, I’m talking about Waffle Day (formerly known as Our Lady Day) in Sweden.
If you have a mighty sweet tooth on you (or just love pastries a lot), it’s your lucky day! We’ll discuss the origins of this holiday, get your mouth watering with some info on Swedish waffles, and cover some key vocabulary.
Let’s get started!
1. What is Waffle Day?
In Sweden, Våffeldagen (Waffle Day) is a springtime holiday during which the general population can indulge in a feast of waffles! But despite the holiday’s festive and indulgent nature, it was originally celebrated as a solemn feast called Vårfrudagen (Our Lady’s Day). A quick look at the two names is all you need to understand how a serious religious holiday came to be associated with this favorite Swedish pastry!
Our Lady’s Day is a holiday observed in numerous majority-Christian countries. It’s considered one of the most important dates on the Christian calendar, because it marks the supposed date on which the Angel Gabriel visited the Jungfru Maria (Virgin Mary) and told her she would give birth to Jesus Christ.
Nowadays, Swedish National Waffle Day is of a less religious nature and the focus is on making and consuming waffles!
Even though this Swedish holiday has largely left its religious roots behind, you’ll still find it useful to learn some Religion vocabulary.
2. When is Waffle Day in Sweden?
Waffle Day takes place on March 25 every year, setting it apart from many other Catholic holidays, which are moveable. While this date is associated with Gabriel’s visit to Mary, its association with the springtime is also significant.
In the past, food was scarce during the winter months and people would have very few perishable items (such as eggs or milk) on hand. The arrival of spring meant the beginning of soil preparation for farms, and people once again had access to two of the most important ingredients in waffles. It was indeed a time for celebration. 😉
For most of the population, Waffle Day in Sweden means just one thing: plate after plate of waffles! Typically, Swedish waffles are eaten with grädde (cream), sylt (jam), and sometimes even fresh fruit or berries. For this annual waffle festival, some restaurants will have special deals and many Swedish households will be filled with the aroma of waffles on the iron.
It’s interesting to note that waffles were not introduced to Sweden until the 1600s, and began as a savory dish rather than the sweet and decadent pastries we think of today. In the nineteenth century, Swedish waffles took on a distinctive shape and design with the introduction of the “Swedish waffle iron” which makes waffles with heart-shaped pieces. Prior to adopting this unique shape, they were square and cooked over a fire.
In times past, there was another interesting tradition associated with Waffle Day. As we mentioned, this holiday takes place near the beginning of spring, when farmers begin their new crop season. To help the crops grow better, children were encouraged to run barefoot around the house or through a manure pile. This act was also thought to prevent the children’s feet from cracking during the hot summer months!
That doesn’t sound too pleasant, does it? I think I prefer the waffles…
5. Essential Swedish Vocabulary for Waffle Day
If learning about this holiday has made you drool, it’s a good sign that you should learn some waffle-related vocabulary! Let’s review some of the Swedish vocabulary words from this article, plus a few more.
Smör (Butter) – noun, neutral
Mjöl (Flour) – noun, neutral
Våffeldagen (Waffle Day) – proper noun
Jesus (Jesus) – proper noun
Grädde (Cream) – noun, common
Våffeljärn (Waffle iron) – noun, neutral
Våffla (Waffle) – noun, common
Jungfru Maria (Virgin Mary) – proper noun, common
Vårfrudagen (Our Lady’s Day) – proper noun
Sylt (Jam) – noun, common
Also make sure to check out our Waffle Day vocabulary list. Here, you can listen to the pronunciation of each word and practice along with the audio recording.
Final Thoughts
Who’s ready to bring out the waffle iron and get cooking? *raises hand*
Seriously though, we hope you enjoyed our lesson on this March 25 holiday and that you’re even more curious about Swedish culture after reading! If you would like to expand your knowledge even further, you can visit the following pages on SwedishPod101.com:
If you like what we have to offer, please consider creating your free lifetime account today. Doing so will give you access to even more Swedish-language content and lessons!
Before you go: Do you prefer waffles or pancakes? (We won’t judge…) 😉
People are, it seems, primed to enjoy quoting others. In Western culture at least, quoting something well-known is a sign to others that you belong, that you’re part of the in-crowd that knows the book, movie, or TV show in question.
For that reason, quotes have existed long before books, movies, and TV shows, and they’ll certainly persist into the distant future.
In this list of Swedish quotes, you’ll find some old favorites that everyone in the world knows, as well as some classic Scandinavian sayings that you probably haven’t heard before.
Ready to impress your friends with these Swedish quotes?
These inspirational quotes in Swedish have English counterparts with nearly the same meaning. It’s interesting, though, to see how Swedes express the same concepts in different ways.
Bättre en fågel i handen än tio i skogen./ “Better a bird in the hand than ten in the forest.”
You’re probably familiar with the equivalent English expression that ends with “than two in the bush.” In Swedish, the “bush” is extended to a whole forest—which may be better for some learners who associate birds with forests rather than bushes.
Man ska inte köpa grisen i säcken./ “One shouldn’t buy a pig in a sack.”
Here you can see the “impersonal man” in Swedish. It means “one” or “people,” and that’s how it’s translated here. That said, you should know that in Swedish, it’s used in a common, conversational way. In English, we’d use “you” in the same informal context.
By the way, this quote advises you to take good care in examining your decisions from all angles before following through with them—you don’t want to make a big purchase blind!
Are you feeling stuck or unsatisfied with your life? Maybe you just need these quotes about life in Swedish to get back on the right path.
För att lyckas i livet behöver du två saker: okunnighet och självförtroende./“To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.”
The word självförtroende might look totally foreign to you at first, but let’s break it down. Själv means “self” and troende means “believing.” The för prefix is a common Germanic feature, linking the other two parts of the word and giving you “self-trust.”
Jag har misslyckats om och om igen i livet och det är därför jag lyckas./ “I’ve failed over and over and over again in life and that is why I have succeeded.”
Look carefully at the word lyckas (“success” / “to succeed”) in this example and in the previous one. Since this example begins with Jag har (“I have”), we know that we need to use the supine form lyckats in the root misslyckas (“to fail”). Confused by the word “supine”? Take a look at our Swedish Grammar page!
En arbetsam människa är bättre än en hop dagdrivare./ “A hard-working man is better than a crowd of loafers.”
In a sense, this quote is rather similar to “a bird in the hand…” Both compare the positive benefits of a small amount of completed action with a huge amount of unrealized action. As long as you’re doing something, you’re better off than those who are doing nothing.
3. Quotes About Time
The following life quotes in Swedish touch on the topic of time and the influence it has on our lives.
Den som lever får se. / “He who lives shall see.”
Don’t worry, this is not a sentence you would hear before a duel breaks out! It means, “Only time will tell,” and in fact, it makes a bit more sense than the English equivalent. Time doesn’t reveal anything, but those who live through the experience will know how things work out.
Efter regn kommer solsken./ “After rain comes sunshine.”
This kind of sentiment exists in lots of different languages and cultures all over the world. Bad times always come to an end, and they’re always followed by good times. Also, note the word solsken (“sunshine”) in this phrase. This is a typical sound change present in Swedish, where the “sh” in English became sk in Swedish—but recall that skhas shifted its pronunciation and is now a breathy “sh” sound as well.
4. Quotes About Food
Who doesn’t enjoy sitting down to a nice meal now and then? Food is a major aspect of any culture, so it should come as no surprise that they feature in several quotes and proverbs. Take the following quotes in Swedish for example.
Låt maten tysta mun./ “Let the food silence the mouth.”
Confused what this quote might mean? Well, if your mouth is silenced, it means you can’t talk with your mouth full! Despite the many tasty foods available in Swedish culture, it’s not polite to speak with your mouth full or to eat loudly. Remember that before you have to endure someone quoting this to you!
Ratar man agnarna, kan man lätt gå miste om kärnan./ “If we reject the chaff, we may easily lose the kernel.”
This quote is an agricultural equivalent of the English saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.” Don’t be so keen on discounting something because of its flaws that you ignore its benefits.
Bränn inte dina läppar på andras soppa. / “Don’t scald your lips on another’s soup.”
To get this quote locked in your memory, try and imagine a stern Swedish grandmother saying it at the dinner table. The meaning here is beautifully metaphorical: Don’t involve yourself too much in other people’s business, and you won’t become affected by their problems.
5. Quotes About Love
Are you madly in love with someone? Or maybe you’re a hopeless romantic? Either way, we think you’ll enjoy these love quotes in Swedish.
Bättre älskat och förlorat än att aldrig ha älskat./ “Better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.”
Here we see the verb älskar (“to love”), which is an Old Norse word quite different from the noun form kärlek (“love”). You’re about to see an example of this noun form, too!
Gammal kärlek rostar aldrig. / “Old love never rusts.”
Out of these four words, three of them (all but rostar) are typical Scandinavian/Norse words with no clear equivalent in English. Kärlek (“love”) is actually a compound word made up of cognates, and would be something like “care-like” in English. But that’s so far removed from modern English that it doesn’t quite count as a transparent word.
Family is a cornerstone of any society, and there are tons of quotes and proverbs regarding the topic. Here are a couple of quotes in Swedish about familial relationships and childhood.
Sådan far, sådan son./ “Like father, like son.”
The word sådan actually has several possible translations. This version of the world-famous quote means that a son becomes very similar to his father in his manners and behavior.
Barnaminnet är långt. / “Childhood memories last long.”
Here we have a typical example of Swedish compound noun formation. Barn means “child” (people in Scotland may recognize this term), and minnet means “memory.” The two words connect with an a and form barnaminnet (“children’s memories”).
Friends are one of life’s greatest joys and necessities. Here are a couple of friendship quotes in Swedish to warm your heart!
Vänner visar sin kärlek i svåra tider, inte i tider av lycka./ “Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in times of happiness.”
This quote translates almost word-for-word into English, so we’ll just focus on one point: In English, “times of trouble” is a set phrase, but in Swedish it’s actually “hard times.”
Min bästa vän är den som tar fram det bästa i mig. / “My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.”
Here we can see the Swedish verb tar (“to draw out”) combining with the adverb fram (“forward”) to form the verb phrase “to bring out.” Also note that we don’t say “the one who” in Swedish; we just say densom (“that which”).
→ These Top 10 Quotes About Friendship are perfect if you’re looking for new ways to express your adoration for your friends!
8. Quotes About Health
You should always prioritize your health, because good health is required to do more important things and achieve goals. Here are a couple of quotes in Swedish on the topic.
Det som inte dödar, härdar./ “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
This classic quote is even more concise in Swedish. Here, we don’t have an object for either verb, and härdar is the equivalent of “to harden.” So in translation, we get: “What does not kill, hardens.”
Hårt bröd gör kinden röd. / “Hard bread makes the cheek red.”
When written with a space, hårt bröd simply means “hard bread.” This hard bread refers to the Swedish knäckebröd, aspecific type of hard flatbread eaten in Scandinavia as a staple for centuries. This quote is similar to, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Even if apples or crispbread aren’t the most exciting foods, a steady and nourishing diet keeps you healthy.
9. Quotes About Language Learning
Finally, let’s look at a couple of quotes about language learning. What better way to inspire you in your studies?
Ett nytt språk är ett nytt liv./ “A new language is a new life.”
This one has a perfect one-to-one translation in English! This quote may resound particularly well with the many immigrants coming to Sweden to seek a better life—for them, learning Swedish well is an important step to take in their new lives in Sweden.
Gränserna för mitt språk är gränserna för min värld./ “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.”
Now that you’ve finished this list of Swedish quotes, do you feel your gränserna (“borders” / “limits”) expanding a bit?
As you can see, Swedish is such an accessible language for English speakers that you don’t even have to try that hard to see the links between the example sentences.
The fact that learning these examples will make you sound like an educated, worldly person is just a bonus!
By the way, if you want to continue learning Swedish in a relaxed and easy way, sign up now for SwedishPod101! You’ll find tons of content in Swedish that will help you bridge the gap from total beginner to comfortable Swedish speaker. Enjoy our videos, podcasts, and articles just like this one, and start taking your Swedish to the next level today!
Before you go, let us know in the comments which of these Swedish quotes is your favorite, and why. We look forward to hearing from you!
Many say that conversation is an art. And more than that, conversations are our primary way of getting to know other people. There are conversations for every situation, and a good one should address topics that are of interest to both people.
The best way to start a conversation is by asking a question. But asking questions in a foreign language can feel intimidating, especially when you’re not sure what kinds of questions to ask in the first place.
Learning how to ask questions in Swedish is one of the first steps that students of the language must take, after basic greeting phrases. This is mainly because questions are such a good way to start a conversation, and the trick to learning any new language is to practice as much as possible.
When you’re a beginner, it might feel a bit scary to start speaking. But remember that practice makes perfect, and that Swedes are kind and forgiving when it comes to language mistakes. The fact is, they’ll probably be impressed that you know any Swedish at all!
→ In this article, we’re going to focus mainly on common Swedish questions and answers. If you want more information on what an introductory conversation would look like, read our relevant article!
Before we move on to our guide on the top Swedish questions for beginners, there are a few things you need to know. Namely, the Swedish question structure and question words. Let’s take a look.
Swedish Question Words
A question in Swedish will usually start with a question word. Here’s a quick table for you:
What
Vad
Which (singular)
Vilken
Where
Var
When
När
Who
Vem
Whose
Vems
Why
Varför
Which (plural)
Vilka
From where
Varifrån
How
Hur
Swedish Question Word Order
Learning the Swedish question structure can be difficult for new learners, especially those who speak English as their first language. But there’s a simple pattern for you to memorize:
Question Word + Verb + Subject
Here are some examples:
Where are you from?
Question Word
Verb
Subject
Complement
Var
kommer
du
ifrån?
Where
come
you
from?
What is Lisa doing?
Question Word
Verb
Subject
Vad
gör
Lisa?
What
doing
Lisa?
→ Interested in learning more? SwedishPod101.com has a page dedicated to the basics of Swedish grammar for you to study!
2. The Top Swedish Questions and Answers
Without further ado, here are the basic Swedish questions every new Swedish learner should know, and how to answer them yourself!
1 – What’s your name?
In Sweden, it’s important to introduce yourself properly before diving into the questions. Keep in mind that in Sweden, you don’t need to use titles such as “Mr.,” “Mrs.,” or “Dr.” when addressing someone. In addition, you needn’t worry about using a person’s last name either. You can and should use first names only, regardless of whether you’re speaking with a new friend, a manager, or a colleague.
Introducing yourself in Swedish is pretty straightforward. Here’s an example of how you can begin the conversation:
Hej jag heter ___. Vad heter du? “Hello, my name is ___.” What is your name?”
The person you’re talking to will respond with:
Hej, jag heter ___, trevligt att träffas! “Hello, my name is ___, nice to meet you!”
And you should respond:
Trevligt att träffa dig också! “Nice to meet you too!”
2 – How are you?
In British and American culture, a “How are you?” can be thrown into a greeting with no expectation of an answer. But the importance of this question in Swedish can’t be overstated.
When Swedes ask this, they really want to know. They’re not asking just to be polite!
In Swedish culture, asking how someone is signifies that you care about that person, and it plays an important role in the conversation. Asking this question can establish the status of the day, and maybe even give you or your friend the opportunity to complain a little or talk about your fantastic day.
Here’s an example conversation:
A: Hur mår du? (“How are you?”)
B:Jag mår bra, tack!Hur mår du själv? (“I am well, thanks! How are you?”)
A:Inte så illa. (“Not too bad.”)
However, life’s not always so perfect. What if your friend says something like this?
Inte så bra. “Not so good.”
Well, you can expect your friend to add an explanation to this answer. Here are examples:
Jag är trött. “I am tired.”
Jag har haft mycket att göra idag. “I had a lot to do today.”
Jag hade en stressig morgon. “I had a stressful morning.”
You should then reply with something empathetic, such as:
Vad tråkigt att höra. “I am sorry to hear that.”
Other ways of responding to the question Hur mår du? (“How are you?”) are:
Mycket bra, tack! “Very well, thank you!”
Helt okej! “It’s okay!”
Det är bra! “All good!”
Regardless of the answer, it’s very important to listen and show empathy and interest when replying. Otherwise, the Swede you’re talking with might think you’re rude.
In Sweden, finding out where someone lives is also a way to get clued in on that person’s social status. Sweden has no official class system, but unofficially, people will classify you and themselves according to where you live. What street do you live on? Do you live in a house, a building with flats? Which floor?
All of these things have meaning, which is why it’s so important for Swedes to ask this question:
Var bor du? “Where do you live?”
If you live in a city, such as Stockholm, always add the name of the street that you live on as well:
Jag bor i Stockholm på Hornsgatan. “I live in Stockholm on Hornsgatan.”
If you live in a smaller town or village, it’s enough to say:
Jag bor i ___. “I live in ___.”
5 – Which languages do you speak?
Many Swedes speak at least two languages. The most common are Swedish and English, but many Swedes also speak French, Spanish, or German since it’s mandatory for students to add a language for most high school and college level courses. Another reason for this is that Sweden is a relatively small country and Swedes don’t expect people from other countries to know their language.
Here’s a dialogue that uses a relevant question and answer in Swedish.
A: Vilka språk talar du? (“Which languages do you speak?”)
B: Jag talar svenska, engelska och franska. Vilka språk talar du? (“I speak Swedish, English, and French. Which languages do you speak?”
A: Jag talar engelska och lär mig svenska. (“I speak English and am learning Swedish.”)
6 – Where did you study Swedish?
Swedes are almost always surprised when they find out that a foreigner is learning their language. It’s a small country, and as mentioned, most people speak at least one language in addition to Swedish, usually English. They’ll be curious and ask you where you learned Swedish:
Var lärde du dig svenska? “Where did you learn Swedish?”
Here are two possible ways you can answer:
I språkskolan ___. “In the language school ___.”
På onlinekursen ___.
“In the online course ___.”
7 – Why did you study Swedish?
You’re very likely to receive this follow-up question:
Varför ville du lära dig svenska? “Why did you want to learn Swedish?”
Of course, your answer will vary depending on your personal reasons for wanting to learn. But if you don’t have a particular reason, you can always reply with:
Jag är intresserad av Sverige och svensk kultur.
“I am interested in Sweden and Swedish culture.”
If your interlocutor happens to be a huge travel buff, they may also want to know where else you’ve been.
Vilka andra länder har du rest till? “Which other countries have you traveled to?”
You can then reply:
Jag har varit i ___ och ___. “I have been to ___ and ___.”
3. Ending the Conversation
In Swedish, there’s mainly one way to say goodbye: Hej då. However, Swedes will often add to this when ending a conversation.
Hej då! Vi ses! (“Bye! See you!”)
Hej då! Vi hörs! (“Bye! Keep in touch!”)
To reply, you can simply say:
Vi ses! (“See you!”)
Vi hörs! (“Keep in touch!”)
When a Swede says to “keep in touch,” this should not be taken as a promise or indication that the person wants to actually keep in touch—but they might want to! Depending on the tone, you can determine if they really want to see you again or keep in touch.
If you’re not sure what they mean and you liked the person, don’t be afraid to reach out and invite him/her for a Swedish Fika. This simply means having a cup of coffee, something sweet, and another conversation.
4. Conclusion
By now, you should have a better understanding of what kinds of questions you should expect to hear when visiting Sweden (and how to answer them). Are there any question patterns we didn’t cover in this article that you want to know? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll do our best to help you out!
Learning questions in Swedish is a major step forward in your language-learning journey, but there’s still so much more. SwedishPod101.com has tons of lessons for beginners, intermediate learners, and more advanced students—this means that there really is something for everyone!
For more information on the Swedish language, check out the following pages:
What’s your relationship with the clock like? Does it run your day from a morning alarm to a cut-off chime for bed, or are you more of a go-with-the-flow type, letting your mood and emotions decide how much you fall in line with time?
Understanding time in Swedish is an important part of your studies. As humans, our lives are filled with habits and schedules. From waking up and going to work or gym, to missing rush hour traffic on our way home, we’re always aware of time. We have routines around coffee breaks, meetings, soccer games and vacations. In fact, time can seem rather capricious – going slowly, going fast, sometimes against us, other times on our side – like a force that has a life of its own.
In science, time is often referred to as a fourth dimension and many physicists and philosophers think that if we understood the physics of the universe, we would see that time is an illusion. We sense an ‘arrow’ or direction of time because we have memories, but really time is just a construct that humans have created to help make sense of the world.
On the other hand, poets through the ages have written impassioned thoughts about time, depicting it as both a relentless thief and an immensely precious resource, not to be wasted at any cost.
Well, poets and scientists may have their views, but in our everyday lives there’s the question of practicality, isn’t there? I mean, if you have plans and want things to happen your way, there’s a certain amount of conforming to the human rules of time that you can’t avoid.
In ‘The Little Prince’ by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the prince has a rose that he falls in love with, and he tenderly protects it with a windscreen and places it under a glass dome on his tiny planet. I love this quote from the book: “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” If we truly love something, we spend time with it and not a second of that time could ever be seen as wasted. I feel that way about horses, my children, travel and learning languages.
With that in mind, I’d like to take you on a journey into ‘time’ from a Swedish perspective. It’s fun, it’s informative and it’s a basic necessity if you’re learning the language – especially if you plan to travel. SwedishPod101 has all the vocab you need to fall in love with telling time in Swedish, and not a minute will be wasted.
As a traveler, your primary need for knowing how to read the hour in Swedish will be for transportation schedules: the bus, train, airplane, ferry, taxi… whatever you plan to use to get from A to B, it won’t wait for you! Fortunately, it’s really not complicated. You already have a firm grasp of time in English and you know you’ll need to reset your watch and phone to the local time. Great – that means you’ll have the correct time on your person.
We’re so used to just looking at our phones for the time, that it’s easy to take this convenience for granted and forget some travel basics: in a foreign country, times won’t always be written digitally. If you see the time written in words, it’ll be the same challenge to you as hearing it spoken: you’ll need to be familiar with the language.
You may be surprised at how often ‘time’ comes into conversation. Learning the Swedish terms for time will help you when you have to call a taxi, ask about opening and closing times of events and tourist attractions, restaurants and bars and even late-night food cafes.
My biggest annoyance when traveling is not being able to get coffee and amazingly, even at nice hotels this has happened more times than I care to think about. I’ll be up late planning something, writing my blog or chatting and when I go looking for coffee downstairs, I’m told the kitchen is closed or the ‘coffee lady’ has gone to sleep. Frustrating!
If you’re doing a homestay or at a youth hostel or backpackers, there will probably also be a limited timeframe for when you can grab dinner. Do you know how to ask when it’s time to eat in Swedish? I’ve learned that it’s vital to know how to make my queries clearly understood to accommodation staff and for me to clearly understand their answers. Perfect your ‘time in Swedish’ translations early on – you’ll thank me.
Morning is the time when we wake up from our dreamworld, hopefully fully rested and restored; we brew the first delicious cup of coffee for the day and watch the sunrise as we prepare for another glorious twelve hours of life. No matter what happened the day before, a new morning is a chance to make everything right.
I like these quiet hours for language practice, as my mind is clear and receptive to learning new things. I start by writing the Swedish time, date and word of the day on my whiteboard, then get back under the covers for an engrossing lesson.
Time in the morning is written as AM or A.M., which stands for ante meridiem – meaning ‘before midday’ in Latin.
2- Evening – kväll
Evening is the part of night when we’re still awake and doing things, winding down from the day. Whether you enjoy a tasty international dinner with friends, go out to see a show, or curl up on the couch with a Swedish snack and your favorite TV series, evening is a good time to forget your worries and do something that relaxes you. If you’re checking in with your Facebook friends, say hi to us, too!
Evening is also an ideal time to catch up on your Swedish studies. The neighbourhood outside is likely to be quieter and time is yours, so grab a glass of wine or a delicious local tea, and see what’s new on your Mac App or Kindle.
3- Daytime – dagtid
Daytime is defined as the period from early morning to early evening when the sun is visible outside. In other words: from sunrise to sunset. Where you are in the world, as well as the season, will determine how many daylight hours you get.
Interestingly, in locations north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle, in summertime the sun does not sink below the horizon within a 24-hour period, bringing the natural phenomenon of the midnight sun. You could only experience this in the north, though, because there aren’t any permanent human settlements south of the Antarctic Circle.
4- Nighttime – nattetid
Nighttime is all the hours from sunset to sunrise and depending on where in the country you are, people may be partying all night, or asleep from full-dark.
In the same northernmost and southernmost regions where you can experience a midnight sun, winter brings the opposite phenomenon: the polar night. Can you imagine a night that lasts for more than 24 hours?
5- Hour – timme
An hour is a unit of time made up of 60 minutes and is a variable measure of one-24th of a day – also defined by geeks as 3 600 atomic seconds. Of all the ‘time’ words we use on a daily basis, the hour is the most important, as time of day is typically expressed in terms of hours.
One of the interesting methods of keeping time that people have come up with is the hourglass. Although the origins are unclear, there’s evidence pointing to the hourglass being invented around 1000 – 1100 AD and one of the ways we know this, is from hourglasses being depicted in very old murals. These days, with clocks and watches in every direction we look, they’re really only used symbolically to represent the passage of time. Still – a powerful reminder of our mortality and to seize the day. In his private journal, the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, wrote: “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”
6- Minute – minut
Use this word when you want to say a more precise time and express minutes in Swedish. A minute is a unit of time equal to one sixtieth of an hour, or 60 seconds. A lot can happen in the next 60 seconds. For example, your blood will circulate three times through your entire vascular system and your heart will pump about 2.273 litres of blood.
7- O’clock – klockan
We use “o’clock” when there are no minutes and we’re saying the exact hour, as in “It’s two o’clock.”
The term “o’clock” is a contraction of the term “of the clock”. It comes from 15th-century references to medieval mechanical clocks. At the time, sundials were also common timekeepers. Therefore, to make clear one was referencing a clock’s time, they would say something like, “It is six of the clock” – now shortened to “six o’clock”.
We only use this term when talking about the 12 hour clock, though, not the 24 hour clock (more on that later!) The 12-hour clock can be traced back as far as Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. Both an Egyptian sundial for daytime use and an Egyptian water clock for nighttime use were found in the tomb of Pharaoh Amenhotep I. Dating to c.1500 BC, these clocks divided their respective times of use into 12 hours each. The Romans also used a 12-hour clock. Daylight was divided into 12 equal hours and the night was divided into four watches.
These days, the internet has made it very easy to know what the time is in any part of the world. Speaking of which, why not add the Swedish time zone clock to your laptop?
8- Half past – halv
When the time is thirty minutes past the hour, in English we say “half past”. Just like the hour, the half-hour is universally used as an orientation point; some languages speak of 30 minutes before the hour (subtraction), whereas others speak of 30 minutes after the hour (addition).
9- AM – förmiddag
As mentioned earlier, AM is the abbreviation of the Latin ante meridiem and means before midday. Using ‘AM’ as a tag on your time simply tells people you’re speaking about a time in the morning. In some countries, morning is abbreviated to “AM” and you’ll see this on shop signs everywhere, announcing the opening hour. A typical shop sign might read something like this:
“Business hours are from 7AM to 6PM.”
10- PM – eftermiddag
PM is the abbreviation of the Latin post meridiem and means after midday. Along with ‘AM’, you’ll usually find ‘PM’ on store signs and businesses, indicating the closing hours. It’s advisable to learn the difference between the two, since some establishments mightonly have one or the other on the sign. For example, a night club sign might say:
“Open from 10 PM until late.”
11- What time is it now? – Vad är klockan nu?
Here’s a very handy question you should memorize, as you can use it in any situation where you don’t have your watch or phone on you. This could be on the beach, in a club, or if you’re stuck anywhere with a flat phone battery. It happens at home, so it can happen when you’re traveling!
12- One o’clock – klockan ett
One o’clock, or 1 PM, is the average lunch time for many people around the world – at least, we try to get a meal in at some point between midday and 2 PM. In terms of duration, the nations vary: Brazililans reportedly take the longest lunch breaks, averaging 48 minutes, whereas Greece reports an average break of only 19 minutes. Historically, Greeks were known for their very leisurely lunch breaks, so it just goes to show how fast the world is changing. If you’re curious about what to expect in Sweden, try asking our online community about lunch time in Swedish.
13- Two o’clock – klockan två
In his last days, Napoleon Bonaparte famously spoke of “Two o’clock in the morning courage” – meaning unprepared, spontaneous courage. He was talking about soldiers who are brave enough to tumble out of bed in an instant, straight into action, without time to think or strategize. Do you think you have what it takes? I’m pretty sure all mothers know this feeling!
14- Three o’clock – klockan tre
3 AM can be perceived as the coldest time of day and is not an hour we want to wake up, but meteorologists will tell you that the coldest time is actually half an hour after sunrise. Even though the sun is peeking over the horizon, the solar radiation is still weaker than the earth’s infrared cooling to space.
15- Four o’clock – klockan fyra
Do you know anyone who purposely gets up at 4 o’clock in the morning? As crazy as it sounds, there is something to be said for rising at 4 AM while the rest of the world sleeps. If you live on a farm, it might even be normal for you. I know that whenever I’m staying in the countryside, rising early is a lot easier, because there’s a satisfying reason to do so: watching a sunrise from a rooftop, with uninterrupted views, can’t be beat! It’s also likely that you’ll be woken by a cock crowing, or other animals waking to graze in the fresh pre-dawn air.
In the world of business, you’ll find a small group of ambitious individuals – many entrepreneurs – who swear by the 4 o’clock in the morning rise. I’m not sure I like that idea, but I’d wake up at 4 AM if it was summer and I had my car packed for a vacation!
16- Five o’clock – klockan fem
What better way to signal the transition between work and play than the clock hands striking 5 o’clock? It’s the hour most working people look forward to each day – at least, those who get to stop working at 5 PM. Meanwhile, millions of retired folks are taking out the wine glasses, as 5 PM is widely accepted as an appropriate time to pour the first glass. I don’t know how traditional your families are, but for as long as I’ve been alive, my grandparents have counted down the milliseconds to five o’clock, and the hour is announced with glee.
17- Six o’clock – klockan sex
This is the time many working people and school kids wake up in the morning. In many parts of the world, 6 o’clock is also a good time to watch the sunrise, go for a run or hit the hiking trails.
18- Seven o’clock – klockan sju
Health gurus will tell you that 7 o’clock in the morning is the best time to eat your first meal of the day, and 7 o’clock in the evening is the time you should eat your last meal. I’ve tried that and I agree, but it’s not always easy!
19- Eight o’clock – klockan åtta
8 o’clock in the morning is the time that most businesses open around the world, and the time most kids are in their first lesson at school – still full of energy and willing to participate. Interestingly, it’s also the time most babies are born in the world! In the evening, 8 o’clock is many young children’s bedtime and the time for parents to watch the evening news.
20- Nine o’clock – klockan nio
It’s good to occasionally sleep late on a weekend and for me, this means waking up at 9 AM. If you’re traveling in Sweden and staying at a hotel, planning to sleep late means politely requesting to not be woken up by room service.
21- Ten o’clock – klockan tio
10 o’clock in the morning is a popular time to conduct business meetings, and for first break time at schools. We’re usually wide awake and well into our day by then. But what about the same hour at night? Modern people are often still awake and watching TV at 10 PM, but this isn’t exactly good for us. Experts say that the deepest and most regenerative sleep occurs between 10 PM and 2 AM, so we should already be sound asleep by ten o’clock.
In advertising, have you ever noticed that the hands of the clock usually point to 10:10? Have a look next time you see a watch on a billboard or magazine. The reason? Aesthetics. Somehow, the human brain finds the symmetry pleasing. When the clock hands are at ten and two, they create a ‘smiley’ face and don’t cover any key details, like a logo, on the clock face.
22- Eleven o’clock – klockan elva
When I see this time written in words, it makes me think of the hilarious Academy Award-winning very short film, “The Eleven O’Clock”, in which the delusional patient of a psychiatrist believes that he is actually the doctor.
Then there’s the tradition of ‘elevenses’ – tea time at eleven o’clock in the morning. Strongly ingrained in British culture, elevenses is typically a serving of hot tea or coffee with scones or pastries on the side. It’s a great way to stave off hunger pangs before lunch time arrives. In fact, if you were a hobbit, ‘Elevenses’ would be your third meal of the day!
23- Twelve o’clock – klockan tolv
Twelve o’clock in the daytime is considered midday, when the sun is at its zenith and the temperature reaches its highest for that day; it’s written as 12 noon or 12 PM. In most parts of the world, though, this doesn’t happen at precisely 12 PM. ‘Solar noon’ is the time when the sun is actually at its highest point in the sky. The local or clock time of solar noon depends on the longitude and date. If it’s summertime, it’s advisable to stay in the shade during this hour – or at least wear good quality sunblock.
Midnight is the other ‘twelve o’clock’, of course. Midnight is written as 12 AM and is technically the first minute of the morning. On the 24-hour clock, midnight is written as 00:00.
2. How to Tell the Time in Swedish
Using a clock to read the time in Sweden is going to be the same as in your own country, since you’re dealing with numbers and not words. You’ll know the time in your head and be able to say it in English, but will you be able to say it out loud in Swedish?
The first step to saying the time in Swedish is knowing your numbers. How are you doing with that? If you can count to twelve in Swedish, you’re halfway there! We’ve already covered the phrases you’ll need to say the exact hour, as in “five o’clock”, as well as how to say “half past”. What remains is the more specific phrases to describe what the minute hand is doing.
In everyday speech, it’s common to say the minutes past or before the hour. Often we round the minutes off to the nearest five.
Then, there’s the 24-hour clock. Also known as ‘military time’, the 24-hour clock is used in most countries and, as such, is useful to understand. You’ll find that even in places where the 12-hour clock is standard, certain people will speak in military time or use a combination of the two. No doubt you’ve also noticed that in written time, the 24-hour clock is commonly used. One of the most prominent places you’ll have seen this is on airport flight schedules.
Knowing how to tell military time in Swedish is really not complicated if you know your numbers up to twenty-four. One advantage of using the 24-hour clock in Swedish, is there’s no chance of confusing AM and PM.
Once you know how to say the time, it will be pretty easy to also write the time in Swedish. You’re already learning what the different hours and minutes look and sound like, so give yourself some writing practice of the same.
3. Conclusion
Now that you understand the vocabulary for telling time in Swedish, the best thing you can do to really lock it down is to just practice saying Swedish time daily. Start by replacing English with Swedish whenever you need to say the time; in fact, do this whenever you look at your watch. Say the time to yourself in Swedish and it will become a habit. When learning a new language, the phrases you use habitually are the ones your brain will acquire. It feels amazing when that turning point comes!
To help yourself gain confidence, why don’t you make use of our various apps, downloadable for iPhone and iPad, as well as Android? Choose what works best for you. In addition, we have so many free resources available to supplement your learning, that you simply can’t go wrong. Some of these are:
If you prefer watching your lessons on video, check out our YouTube channel – there are hundreds of videos to browse. For those of you with Roku, we also have a TV channel you can watch.
Well, it’s time for me to say goodbye and for you to practice saying the time in Swedish. Look at the nearest clock and try to say the exact time, down to the seconds. See you again soon at SwedishPod101!
Do you know your left from your right in Swedish? Asking for directions can mean the difference between a heavenly day on the beach and a horrible day on your feet, hot and bothered and wondering how to even get back to the hotel. Believe me – I know! On my earlier travels, I didn’t even know simple terms like ‘go straight ahead’ or ‘go west,’ and I was always too shy to ask locals for directions. It wasn’t my ego, but rather the language barrier that held me back. I’ve ended up in some pretty dodgy situations for my lack of directional word skills.
This never needs to happen! When traveling in Sweden, you should step out in confidence, ready to work your Swedish magic and have a full day of exploring. It’s about knowing a few basic phrases and then tailoring them with the right directional words for each situation. Do you need to be pointed south in Swedish? Just ask! Believe me, people are more willing to help than you might think. It’s when you ask in English that locals might feel too uncertain to answer you. After all, they don’t want to get you lost. For this reason, it also makes sense that you learn how to understand people’s responses.
Asking directions in Sweden is inevitable. So, learn to love it! Our job here at SwedishPod101 is to give you the confidence you need to fully immerse and be the intrepid adventurer you are.
1. Talking about position and direction in Swedish
Have you ever tried saying the compass directions of north, south, east and west in Swedish? These words are good to know, being the most natural and ancient method of finding direction. In the days before GPS – before the invention of the compass, even – knowing the cardinal directions was critical to finding the way. Certainly, if you were lost somewhere in the mountain regions now and using a map to navigate, you’d find them useful. Even more so if you and a Swedish friend were adrift at sea, following the stars!
In most situations, though, we rely on body relative directions – your basic up, down, left and right, forward and backwards. Most cultures use relative directions for reference and Swedish is no exception. Interestingly, in a few old languages there are no words for left and right and people still rely on cardinal directions every day. Can you imagine having such a compass brain?
Well, scientists say that all mammals have an innate sense of direction, so getting good at finding your way is just a matter of practice. It’s pretty cool to think that we were born already pre-wired to grasp directions; the descriptive words we invented are mere labels to communicate these directions to others! Thus, the need to learn some Swedish positional vocabulary. So, without further ado… let’s dive in.
1- Top – topp
If planting a flag at the top of the highest mountain in Sweden is a goal you’d rather leave for adrenaline junkies, how about making it to the top of the highest building? Your view of the city will be one you’ll never forget, and you can take a selfie for Twitter with your head in the clouds.
2- Bottom – nedersta
The ‘bottom’ can refer to the lower end of a road, the foot of a mountain, or the ground floor of a building. It’s the place you head for after you’ve been to the top!
What are your favorite ‘bottoms’? I love the first rung of a ladder, the base of a huge tree or the bottom of a jungle-covered hill. What can I say? I’m a climber. Divers like the bottom of the ocean and foxes like the bottom of a hole. Since you’re learning Swedish, hopefully you’ll travel from the top to the bottom of Sweden.
3- Up – upp
This is a very common and useful word to know when seeking directions. You can go up the street, up an elevator, up a cableway, up a mountain… even up into the sky in a hot air balloon. It all depends on how far up you like to be!
4- Down – ner
What goes up, must surely come down. This is true of airplanes, flaming arrows and grasshoppers – either aeronautics or gravity will take care of that. In the case of traveling humans who don’t wish to go down at terminal velocity, it’s useful to know phrases such as, “Excuse me, where is the path leading back down this mountain?”
5- Middle – mitt
In Lord of the Rings, Tolkien’s characters live in Middle-earth, which is just an ancient word for the inhabited world of men; it referred to the physical world, as opposed to the unseen worlds above and below it. The ancients also thought of the human world as vaguely in the middle of the encircling seas.
When we talk about the ‘middle’, we’re referring to a point that’s roughly between two horizontal lines – like the middle of the road or the middle of a river. While you’re unlikely to ask for directions to the ‘middle’ of anything, you might hear it as a response. For example, “You’re looking for the castle ruins? But they’re in the middle of the forest!”
6- Center – mitt
In Swedish, “middle” and “center” use the same word. Technically, “center” means the exact central point of a circular area, equally distant from every point on the circumference. When asking for directions to the center of town, though, we don’t mean to find a mathematically-accurate pinpoint!
7- Front – framsida
The front is the place or position that is seen first; it’s the most forward part of something. In the case of a hotel, the front is going to be easy to recognize, so if you call a taxi and are told to wait “in front of the hotel”, you won’t have a problem. It’s pretty cool how just knowing the main Swedish directional words can help you locate something if there’s a good landmark nearby.
8- Back – baksida
I once rented a house in a charming little street that was tucked away at the back of a popular mall. It was so easy to find, but my boss took three hours to locate it from 300 meters away. Why? Well, because she spoke no English and I had no clue what the word for ‘back’ was. All she heard, no matter which way I said it, was “mall, mall, mall”. As a result, she hunted in front of and next to the mall until she was frazzled.
Knowing how to describe the location of your own residence is probably the first Swedish ‘directions’ you should practice. This skill will certainly come in handy if you’re lost and looking for your way home.
9- Side – sida
If the place you’re looking for is at the ‘side’ of something, it will be located to the left or the right of that landmark. That could mean you’re looking for an alleyway beside a building, or a second entrance (as opposed to the main entrance).
As an example, you might be told that your tour bus will be waiting at the right side of the building, not in front. Of course, then you’ll also need to understand “It’s on the right” in Swedish.
10- East – öst
If you’re facing north, then east is the direction of your right hand. It’s the direction toward which the Earth rotates about its axis, and therefore the general direction from which the sun appears to rise. If you want to go east using a compass for navigation, you should set a bearing of 90°.
We think of Asia as the ‘East’. Geographically, this part of the world lies in the eastern hemisphere, but there’s so much more that we’ve come to associate with this word. The East signifies ancient knowledge and is symbolic of enlightenment in many cultures.
11- West – väst
West is the opposite to east and it’s the direction in which the sun sets. To go west using a compass, you’ll set a bearing of 270 degrees.
If you were on the planet Venus, which rotates in the opposite direction from the Earth (retrograde rotation), the Sun would rise in the west and set in the east… not that you’d be able to see the sun through Venus’s opaque clouds.
Culturally, the West refers mainly to the Americas and Europe, but also to Australia and New Zealand, which are geographically in the East. The Western way of thinking is very different to that of the East. One of the most striking differences is individualism versus collectivism. In the West, we grew up with philosophies of freedom and independence, whereas in the East concepts of unity are more important.
Food for thought: as a traveler who’s invested in learning the languages and cultures of places you visit, you have an opportunity to become a wonderfully balanced thinker – something the world needs more of.
12- North – norr
North is the top point of a map and when navigating, you’d set a compass bearing of 360 degrees if you want to go that way. Globes of the earth have the north pole at the top, and we use north as the direction by which we define all other directions.
If you look into the night sky, the North Star (Polaris) marks the way due north. It’s an amazing star, in that it holds nearly still in our sky while the entire northern sky moves around it. That’s because it’s located nearly at the north celestial pole – the point around which the entire northern sky turns. Definitely a boon for lost travelers!
13- South – söder
South is the opposite of north, and it’s perpendicular to the east and west. You can find it with a compass if you set your bearings to 180 degrees.
The south celestial pole is the point around which the entire southern sky appears to turn. In the night sky of the southern hemisphere, the Southern Cross is a very easy to find constellation with four points in the shape of a diamond. If you come from the southern hemisphere, chances are your dad or mum pointed it out to you when you were a kid. You can use the Southern Cross to find south if traveling by night, so it’s well worth figuring it out!
14- Outside – utanför
This word refers to any place that is not under a roof. Perhaps you’ve heard talk about some amazing local bands that will be playing in a nearby town on the weekend. If it’s all happening outside, you’ll be looking for a venue in a park, a stadium or some other big open space. Come rain or shine, outside definitely works for me!
15- Inside – inne
I can tolerate being inside if all the windows are open, or if I’m watching the latest Homeland episode. How about you? I suppose going shopping for Swedish-style accessories would be pretty fun, too, and that will (mostly) be an inside affair.
16- Opposite – motsatt
This is a great word to use as a reference point for locating a place. It’s right opposite that other place! In other words, if you stand with your back to the given landmark, your destination will be right in front of you.
17- Adjacent – närliggande
So, the adorable old man from next door, who looks about ninety-nine, explains in Swedish that the food market where he works is adjacent to the community hall on the main road. ‘Adjacent’ just means next to or adjoining something else, so… head for the hall!
While you’re marveling at the wondrous and colorful displays of Swedish food, think about how all of these delicious stalls lie adjacent to one another. Having a happy visual association with a new word is a proven way to remember it!
18- Toward – mot
To go toward something is to go in its direction and get closer to it. This word can often appear in a sentence with ‘straight ahead’, as in:
“Go straight ahead, toward the park.”
If you’ve come to Sweden to teach English, you might have to ask someone how to find your new school. Depending on what town you’re in, you could simply head toward the residential area at lunch time. You’ll see (and probably hear) the primary school soon enough – it will be the big fenced building with all the kids running around the yard!
19- Facing – vänd mot
If you look at yourself in a mirror, you’ll be facing your reflection. In other words: you and your reflection look directly at each other. Many plush hotels are ocean-facing or river-facing, meaning the main entrance is pointed directly at the water, and the beach out front faces the hotel.
20- Beside – brevid
I know of a special little place where there’s a gym right beside a river. You can watch the sun go down over the water while working out – it’s amazing. What’s more, you can park your scooter beside the building and it will still be there when you come out.
21- Corner – hörn
I love a corner when it comes to directions. A street corner is where two roads meet at an angle – often 90 degrees – making it easier to find than a location on a straight plane.
“Which building is the piano teacher in, sir?”
“Oh, that’s easy – it’s the one on the corner.”
The key to a corner is that it leads in two directions. It could form a crossroads, a huge intersection, or it could be the start of a tiny one-way cobblestone street with hidden treasures waiting in the shadow of the buildings.
22- Distant – avlägsen
When a location is distant, it’s in an outlying area. This Swedish word refers to the remoteness of the site, not to how long it takes to get there. For that reason, it’s a very good idea to write the directions down, rather than try to memorize them in Swedish. Even better, get a Swedish person to write them down for you. This may seem obvious, but always include the location of your starting point! Any directions you’re given will be relative to the exact place you’re starting from.
23- Far – långt
This word has a similar meaning to the previous one, but it speaks more about the fact that it will take some time to get there. If you’re told that your destination is “far”, you’ll no doubt want to go by public transport if you don’t have your own vehicle. Get your hands on a road map and have the directions explained to you using this map. Don’t hesitate to bring out the highlighters.
24- Close – nära
This word is always a good one to hear when you have your heart set on a very relaxing day in the sun. It means there’s only a short distance to travel, so you can get there in a heartbeat and let the tanning commence. Remember to grab your Nook Book – learning is enhanced when you’re feeling happy and unencumbered. Being close to ‘home’ also means you can safely steal maximum lazy hours and leave the short return trip for sunset!
25- By – vid
This word identifies the position of a physical object beside another object or a place. A Bed and Breakfast can be ‘by the sea’ if it’s in close proximity to the sea.
‘By’ can also be used to describe the best mode of transport for your route, as in:
“You can get there by bus.”
26- Surrounding – kringliggande
If something is surrounding you, it is on every side and you are enclosed by it – kind of like being in a boat. Of course, we’re not talking about deep water here, unless you’re planning on going fishing. Directions that include this word are more likely to refer to the surrounding countryside, or any other features that are all around the place you’re looking for.
27- All sides – alla sidor
Another useful descriptive Swedish term to know is ‘all sides’. It simply means that from a particular point, you will be able to see the same features to the front, back and sides of you. It doesn’t necessarily imply you’ll be completely surrounded, just more-or-less so. Say, for example, you’re visiting the winelands for the day. When you get there, you’ll see vineyards on all sides of you. How stunning! Don’t neglect to sample the local wines – obviously.
28- Next to – bredvid
The person giving you directions is probably standing next to you. The place being described as ‘next to’ something is in a position immediately to one side of it. It could refer to adjoining buildings, neighbouring stores, or the one-legged beggar who sits next to the beautiful flower vendor on weekdays. ‘Next to’ is a great positional term, as everything is next to something!
“Excuse me, Ma’am. Where is the train station?”
“It’s that way – next to the tourist market.”
29- Above – ovanför
This is the direction you’ll be looking at if you turn your head upwards. Relative to where your body is, it’s a point higher than your head. If you’re looking for the location of a place that’s ‘above’ something, it’s likely to be on at least the first floor of a building; in other words, above another floor.
‘Above’ could also refer to something that will be visible overhead when you get to the right place. For example, the road you’re looking for might have holiday decorations strung up from pole to pole above it. In the cities, this is very likely if there’s any kind of festival going on.
30- Under – under
Under is the opposite of above, and refers to a place that lies beneath something else. In the case of directions in Swedish, it could refer to going under a bridge – always a great landmark – or perhaps through a subway. In some parts of the world, you can even travel through a tunnel that’s under the sea!
Of course, you might just be missing your home brew and looking for an awesome coffee shop that happens to be under the very cool local gym you were also looking for. Nice find!
2. Getting directions in Swedish
The quickest and easiest way to find out how to get where you’re going is simply to ask someone. Most people on the streets of Sweden won’t mind being asked at all and will actually appreciate your attempt to ask directions in Swedish. After all, most tourists are more inclined to ask in their own language and hope for the best. How pedestrian is that, though?
I know, I know – you normally prefer to find your own way without asking. Well, think of it like this: you obviously need to practice asking questions in Swedish as much as you need to practice small talk, counting, or ordering a beer. Since you can’t very well ask a complete stranger if they would please help you count to five hundred, you’ll have to stick with asking directions!
We spoke earlier about body relative directions and these tend to be the ones we use most. For example:
“Turn left.”
“Go straight.”
“Turn right.”
Remember, too, that your approach is important. Many people are wary of strangers and you don’t want to scare them off. It’s best to be friendly, direct and get to the point quickly. A simple ‘Hi, can you help me?” or “Excuse me, I’m a bit lost,” will suffice. If you have a map in your hand, even better, as your intentions will be clear.
The bottom line is that if you want to find your way around Sweden with ease, it’s a good idea to master these basic phrases. With a little practice, you can also learn how to say directions in Swedish. Before you know it, you’ll be the one explaining the way!
3. Conclusion
Now that you have over thirty new directional phrases you can learn in Swedish, there’s no need to fear losing your way when you hit the streets of Sweden. All you need is a polite approach and your own amazing smile, and the locals will be excited to help you. It’s a chance for them to get better at explaining things to a foreigner, too. Most will enjoy that!
I advise keeping a few things handy in your day pack: a street map, a highlighter, a small notebook and pen, and your Swedish phrasebook. It would be useful to also have the Swedish WordPower app installed on your phone – available for both iPhone and Android.
Here’s a quick challenge to get you using the new terms right away. Can you translate these directions into Swedish?
“It’s close. Go straight ahead to the top of the hill and turn left at the corner. The building is on the right, opposite a small bus stop.”
You’re doing amazingly well to have come this far! Well done on tackling the essential topic of ‘directions’ – it’s a brave challenge that will be immensely rewarding. Trust me, when you’re standing at a beautiful location that you found just by knowing what to ask in Swedish, you’re going to feel pretty darn good.
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Start listening to Swedish music. I’m serious – it really works to make the resistant parts of the brain relax and accept the new language. Read about it here for some tips.
If you enjoy reading, we have some great iBooks for your daily commute.
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That’s it for today! Join SwedishPod101 to discover many more ways that we can offer you a truly fun and enriching language learning experience. Happy travels!
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