Swedish Language Blog

Adrienne asked a question about partikelverb, and because I’m such a good sport, I decided to blog about it today. Now say, I know it’s an impossible task to make partikelverb interesting, but hey, we can give it a shot, right?

So, what’s a partikelverb anyway? As the name suggests, it’s a verb and a particle put together. Those nasty little things are known as phrasal verbs in English.

The problem in Swedish is that you can have a genuine verb with a particle, and then you can have a verb followed by a preposition. And wouldn’t you know it? There’s a difference! Now, isn’t that special?

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Earlier this week I was sitting in my bedroom, reading a book and trying very hard to ignore the party going on outside. My apartment building is surrounded by student housing (or “corridors” as they’re called here), and if you want to keep your sanity, you learn very quickly to ignore whatever is going on outside during the university year, or you move elsewhere.

And I was doing just fine with this ignoring bit that night until someone outside started screaming as if he was being skinned alive. And kept screaming. THAT I had to check out. I stuck my head outside and saw a butt naked man running in circles in front of my building shrieking like a banshee. Sadly, it was too dark to take a photo. Other banshees were doing a mosh pit dance some distance away.

My neighbor also stuck her head out. She nodded at me, mumbled “nollning” and retreated to her apartment.

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Arsh asked a while back about the traditional Swedish crayfish party and wanted to know if I participated in one this year. And I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t eat crayfish. No particular reason, I just don’t like the buggers. And I’m not fond of paper hats, either. Most of my friends know about it and so the invitations to the seasonal debauchery sessions known as “kräftskiva” normally pass me by. Except last year. My new friend caught me unaware with an invite to her backyard crayfish munching fest. She caught me so unaware in fact, that I said “yes”.

But first things first. What’s a crayfish party? As the name indicates, it’s a party where you eat mostly crayfish and drink copious amounts of alcohol. Some people even skip the crayfish altogether and get straight to drinking. The month of August, during which back in the olden days crayfish were traditionally harvested, is the customary time for this extravaganza.

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