Published: 26 Oct, 2016 CET.Updated: Tue 9 May 2023 09:24 CET
12 Swedish words with great literal translations (Photo by OLI SCARFF / AFP)
One of our favourite things about the Swedish language is its wonderful compound words, which range from being utterly bizarre to making perfect sense.
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It may be a tricky language to master, but one of the great things about Swedish is that you don't actually need a particularly large vocabulary. That's because rather than inventing new words, the Swedes are big fans of creating compound words out of existing ones.
This means that you get words like sammansatt (meaning compound, or, even better: together-put), can create random words like korvbrödsförsäljarstånd (a stand belonging to a seller of hot dog breads: sausage-bread-salesperson-stand).
These are some of our favourite compound words, both wonderfully simple (sick house) and some real head scratchers (you dirty lobster, you!). Can you think of any other ones?
Tjuvlyssna
Word for word: Thief listen
English equivalent: Eavesdrop
Tandkött
Word for word: Tooth meat
English equivalent: Gums
Sjukhus
Word for word: Sick house
English equivalent: Hospital
Skitstövel
Word for word: Shit boot
English equivalent: Douchebag
What a shit boot. Photo: AP Photo/Eric Gay
Skrivbord
Word for word: Writing table
English equivalent: Desk
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Mormor/farmor
Word for word: Mother mother/father mother
English equivalent: Grandmother
A Swedish grandfather is either farfar (father father) or morfar (mother father). Brilliantly, it can be used for your great-grandparents too (mormorsmor – mother mother's mother) or your entire extended family (morbror – mother brother, or uncle; barnbarn – child child, or grandchild).
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].
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What a shit boot. Photo: AP Photo/Eric Gay
Look, a toad with a shield. Photo: Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News/AP
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.
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