Nine untranslatable Swedish words - caught on film
Published: 9 May 12 14.14 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/40714/20120509/
The Local put together a list of nine unusual Swedish words that simply don’t exist in English. We even asked a bunch of Swedes to make sure - and filmed their responses…
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Here at The Local, we’ve already covered ten common Swedish words that are sorely missing from English, but what about the less common words, and the downright obscure words?
Click here for a gallery of the top 9 unusual Swedish words you won’t find in English
For example, what do we call someone who simply will not enter the water, regardless of its temperature?
We’ve gathered nine off-the-wall Swedish words here in a gallery with a description of what they mean. Not one exists as a single word English - they are...untranslatable.
Armed with this knowledge, we (rather cheekily) sent The Local’s Oliver Gee out on the streets of Uppsala, eastern Sweden, to challenge regular Swedes into doing the impossible – translating the untranslatable.
And yes, Swedes are brilliant at English, but clearly no one is perfect…
We suggest familiarizing yourself with the words first before watching the video.
Enjoy.
Oh and one more thing: “lagom” and “fika” do not get a mention. This was intentional.
Oliver Gee
Follow Oliver on Twitter here
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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A person who won't go into the water no matter if it is warm or cold is called a "chicken" or "scaredy cat"!!
If someone is picking fruit from someone else's fruit trees we call that "stealing"!! I could on and on but I think I am done now.
so a zero from 10 marks from me!
good try but no cigar!
I think there are shorter and better words for all those in English (well in my neck of the woods anyhow) maybe not the sour herring premier however as we don't have that smelly delicacy ..... i could suggest smellyfishday (that is much more succinct and rolls off the tongue nicely LOL) hmmm.. can one translate succinct into Swedish I wonder? absolut precis?
Apparently you don't get the concept of "dygn" opposed to "day" at all.
In German it's called Nychtemeron or Tagnacht (which means daynight).
If not, then there is no translation for dygn. But if magically a word can mean more than one thing depending on context, then dygn = day.
Linslus = ham
Badkruka = why not aquaphob?
@ dizzymoe33 #11"camera hogs" is 2 words, so is "scaredy cat" which like "chicken" has other meanings, not just for water, "stealing" also is general.
So no, they aren't untranslatable.
"Pronunciation: /skrʌmp/
verb
[with object] British informal
steal (fruit) from an orchard or garden:"
I understand what dygn means. Apparently you don't understand that day is the direct translation. Apparently Webster's is wrong too. Bow before the intelligence of all knowing, all man educated (equivalent to public high school educated) Swedes.