Swedish word of the day: medlem
As Sweden officially became a member of Nato on March 7th, one question was on nobody’s mind but ours: how do you say member in Swedish anyway?
The answer is: medlem.
It probably made it to Sweden by way of the German mitglied and consists of two words: med, meaning co- or with, and lem, meaning limb.
We blush, but on the off-chance that anyone reading this is thinking of writing erotic fiction in Swedish, when you would use the word member in English to talk about… er, you know what… don’t use the word medlem in Swedish, just write lem. Or better yet, neither.
- Don’t miss any of our Swedish words and expressions of the day by downloading our new app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Swedish Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button
Let’s move on.
You can, as in English, not just be a member of something but also have a membership, or in Swedish ett medlemskap. This can be used for all sorts of groups, from Nato to a sports club.
Because Swedes enjoy compound words, you can be a fackföreningsmedlem (trade union member), körmedlem (choir member), familjemedlem (family member), besättningsmedlem (crew member), hedersmedlem (honorary member) and so on.
A member of parliament is more often referred to as a riksdagsledamot, although riksdagsmedlem would work in theory.
Interestingly, ledamot also means member, body part or limb, but instead comes from the Old Swedish word lidhamot. You can usually think of ledamot as something that describes a more formal role, whereas medlem is more informal and doesn’t come with officially defined duties.
You can be a member of The Local, too. We tend to call our paying readers members (medlemmar) rather than subscribers in honour of our close relationship with our audience, but in other contexts you'd usually talk about subscribers as prenumeranter rather than medlemmar.
What preposition should you use together with medlem? Either i (in) or av (of) is grammatically correct, although i tends to be favoured in Swedish.
Examples:
Sverige är på väg att bli medlem i/av Nato
Sweden is about to become a member of Nato
Jag funderar på att säga upp mitt Facebookmedlemskap
I’m thinking of cancelling my Facebook membership
Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it. It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.
Comments
See Also
The answer is: medlem.
It probably made it to Sweden by way of the German mitglied and consists of two words: med, meaning co- or with, and lem, meaning limb.
We blush, but on the off-chance that anyone reading this is thinking of writing erotic fiction in Swedish, when you would use the word member in English to talk about… er, you know what… don’t use the word medlem in Swedish, just write lem. Or better yet, neither.
- Don’t miss any of our Swedish words and expressions of the day by downloading our new app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Swedish Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button
Let’s move on.
You can, as in English, not just be a member of something but also have a membership, or in Swedish ett medlemskap. This can be used for all sorts of groups, from Nato to a sports club.
Because Swedes enjoy compound words, you can be a fackföreningsmedlem (trade union member), körmedlem (choir member), familjemedlem (family member), besättningsmedlem (crew member), hedersmedlem (honorary member) and so on.
A member of parliament is more often referred to as a riksdagsledamot, although riksdagsmedlem would work in theory.
Interestingly, ledamot also means member, body part or limb, but instead comes from the Old Swedish word lidhamot. You can usually think of ledamot as something that describes a more formal role, whereas medlem is more informal and doesn’t come with officially defined duties.
You can be a member of The Local, too. We tend to call our paying readers members (medlemmar) rather than subscribers in honour of our close relationship with our audience, but in other contexts you'd usually talk about subscribers as prenumeranter rather than medlemmar.
What preposition should you use together with medlem? Either i (in) or av (of) is grammatically correct, although i tends to be favoured in Swedish.
Examples:
Sverige är på väg att bli medlem i/av Nato
Sweden is about to become a member of Nato
Jag funderar på att säga upp mitt Facebookmedlemskap
I’m thinking of cancelling my Facebook membership
Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it. It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.
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 here to leave a comment.