Advertisement

New list reveals common Swedish and English spelling mistakes

David Landes
David Landes - [email protected]
New list reveals common Swedish and English spelling mistakes

People struggling to straddle what can sometimes seem like a cavernous divide between the Swedish and English languages will likely appreciate a new list of common misspellings in both languages.

Advertisement

Norstedts, Sweden’s oldest publishing house, together with the Language Council of Sweden (Språkrådet), has put together a list of words in Swedish and English thought to be most often misspelled by Swedes.

“It’s impossible to say exactly which misspellings are the most common, but we know which words are often spelled incorrectly,” said the Language Council’s Anna Antonsson to Sveriges Television (SVT).

Among Swedish words which often end up spelled incorrectly are aborre (‘perch’; correct spelling: abborre); cyckel (‘bicycle’; correct spelling: cykel); fotölj (lounge chair; correct spelling: fåtölj); and tillfredställande (‘satisfying’; correct spelling: tillfredsställande).

As for English words which Swedes often fail to spell correctly, Norstedt’s list includes ‘allways’ (always); ‘fabolous’ (fabulous); ‘mutch’ (much); and ‘verry’ (very).

Some words are associated with several possible misspellings.

For example, Norstedts lists three common faulty constructions for the Swedish word diskussion (‘discussion’: diskution, diskusion, disskution) and for ‘because’ in English (becouse, becuse, beacuse).

According to Språkrådet, the increased occurrence of pronunciation-based spelling mistakes indicates that young people are writing words less often than before, causing them to come up with spellings based more on how words sound.

One advantage to the phenomenon, however, is that young people find it easier to give English words more Swedish-style spellings, with mejl (mail) and dejt (date) cited as examples.

Below is the complete list of commonly misspelled Swedish words. Double click on any word in the 'Correct Spelling' column to launch The Local’s translation tool, provided by Tyda, and find out the meaning of the word in English.

Incorrect SpellingsCorrect Spellings
abbonemangabonnemang
aborreabborre
abonemangabonnemang
altidalltid
anorlundaannorlunda
annuleraannullera
agustiaugusti
avunsjukavundsjuk
bestämmdebestämde
bestämabestämma
bestämmtbestämt
blabl.a.
cyckelcykel
defineradefiniera
defenitivtdefinitivt
defenetivtdefinitivt
diskutiondiskussion
diskusiondiskussion
disskutiondiskussion
disskuteradiskutera
dublettdubblett
igentligenegentligen
imotemot
faktistfaktiskt
fläskfilefläskfilé
fotöljfåtölj
följdaktligenföljaktligen
förestenförresten
föränförrän
gammlagamla
gamalgammal
giftemålgiftermål
hejdåhej då
hälsthelst
hittilshittills
hämdhämnd
iallafalli alla fall
isåfalli så fall
iaktaiaktta
innominom
interjuvintervju
intreseradintresserad
kariärkarriär
kompleterakomplettera
konsentrerakoncentrera
konferanskonferens
konkurenskonkurrens
konkurentkonkurrent
korektkorrekt
kunndekunde
kvalitekvalitet, kvalité
lungtlugnt
matrialmaterial
medecinmedicin
mästmest
mustachmustasch
mäniskormänniskor
nogrannnoggrann
noggrannoggrann
nogrannoggrann
nograntnoggrant
någongångnågon gång
nämdenämnde
ochsåockså
orginaloriginal
pgap.g.a.
paralellparallell
parantesparentes
recentionrecension
rekomenderarekommendera
rekomenderarrekommenderar
religösreligiös
resturangrestaurang
sevärdighetsevärdhet
skilnadskillnad
speciel speciell
specieltspeciellt
spännadespännande
stämmningstämning
succesivasuccessiva
succesivtsuccessivt
särskilltsärskilt
terassterrass
tillfredställatillfredsställa
tillfredställatillfredsställa
tillfredställandetillfredsställande
tillfredställdtillfredsställd
tillsamanstillsammans
tvugnatvungna
tyvärtyvärr
ungdommarungdomar
värkligenverkligen
vilkorvillkor
ytterliggareytterligare
överrensöverens
överaskadöverraskad
överaskningöverraskning

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also