In my ever expanding knowledge of Swedish I learned a new word this week when I made a bit of a gaff at my sister-in-laws birthday party. My other sister-in-law had a wonderful plait in her hair that started at one ear and went over the top of her head to her other ear, it looked very classy but very difficult to do. Nonsense she said, it was, in fact, very easy to do and she proceeded to demonstrate by fixing my unruly mop in the same style. I was made up and rather embarrassingly so, thanked her very much indeed for putting a ‘lesbian’ in my hair!! To which my Swedish boy cracked up with laughter. (Swedish tip: its fläta not flata).
They say that we all learn from our mistakes!
It’s all a bit confusing with the 3 types of ‘A’ in Swedish for those coming from a language that only find necessity in the one version. Before anyone starts, I know that ä, å, and a are three separate letters of the Swedish alphabet but I just can’t seem to see the difference when I read them and automatically the English aaaahhhhh sound comes out of my mouth.
Then before you know it I’ve got lesbians in my hair, still I am sure my Swedish boy could think of worse things….