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Lesson Transcript

Hej, Jag heter Elin. Hi everybody! I’m Elin.
Welcome to SwedishPod101.com’s “Svenska på tre minuter. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Swedish.
In the last lesson, we learned how to be grateful to people by saying Tack. In this lesson, we’ll learn some of the most common greetings used in Sweden.
Är ni redo? Are you ready? Så låt oss börja, so let’s start!
The most commonly used informal greeting is:
Hej!
[slowly] Hej.
Hej means “hi.” We use it when we meet people. We can use this greeting with anyone.
Yet it isn’t the only way to greet someone. We also have. Hallå.
[Slowly] Hallå. Which means “Hello”.
And more time specific greetings like –
Goddag!
[slowly] Goddag.
Literally, Goddag means "good day". As a rule of thumb we can use Goddag only during the daytime—from morning until evening.
During the evening we say:
God kväll!
[slowly] God kväll.
Kväll is Swedish for “evening,” so God kväll means good evening.
Finally, in the morning we say:
God Morgon
[slowly] God morgon.
This means “good morning”.
However, instead of Goddag and God kväll it’s much more common to just use Hej. God morgon on the other hand is still the most common phrase to use in the morning.
When saying “goodbye” we say:
Hej då!
[slowly] Hej då.
When parting for a long time we often add “Ha det bra” which means “Be well”.
Finally, in Swedish we have an expression meaning “see you soon” that can be considered both formal and informal. Vi ses!
[slowly] Vi ses.
Now you can greet people in many different ways in Swedish!
Let’s review them all again.
When meeting friends or someone we don’t know:
Hej! There also is Hallå or “hello”
In the morning: God Morgon
During the day: Goddag
And in the evening: God kväll
When leaving, we say: Hej då!
When leaving, but want to imply “see you soon”: Vi ses! to which we sometimes add, “v” or “be well.”
It’s easy, isn’t it?
Now it’s time for Elin’s Insights.
In formal situations, Swedish people commonly greet each other by shaking hands. On the other hand, if we meet someone we are very friendly with, we hug. Swedish people are generally shy and might not take the initiative to hug, but don’t be afraid to do it. It’s always appreciated.
During the next lesson we’ll learn the meaning of the phrase Talar du engelska? Do you already know it? We'll be waiting to talk about it with you in our next Swedish in 3 Minutes lesson.
På återseende!

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