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Bye Bye Bye. In Swedish. Posted by on Oct 16, 2015 in Swedish Language, Vocabulary

NSYNC made “Bye Bye Bye” popular back in 2000 with a little help from some Swedish writers and producers. But Justin Timberlake has yet to master the Swedish language, so “Bye Bye Bye” stayed English. But what if you wanted to say bye, bye, bye, in Swedish? Or at least goodbye? There are plenty of ways to say goodbye to someone in Swedish. Some nice and polite, others less so. We’ll stick to the more polite ones in this post.

One of the most common ways to say goodbye in Swedish is hej då. Sometimes spelled hejdå. Simple, right?

But maybe you’re feeling kind of proper. Classy even. Tell someone goodbye with one of these:
Adjö = Adieu. (Or just plain old goodbye.)
Farväl. = Farewell.

Want to be a bit more casual? Swedes can do casual. Here are just a few ways of casually saying goodbye to someone:
Hej! = Goodbye. (Yup. It means hello also.)
Vi ses. = See you later.
Vi syns. = See you later.
Ses imorgon. = See you tomorrow.
Trevlig helg. = Have a good weekend.

Of course, sometimes you want to draw that goodbye out. There are a few different ways of telling someone goodbye with a longer phrase:
Ha en trevlig kväll. = Have a good night. (You’ll notice that this one looks pretty similar to trevlig helg above. It shouldn’t be a surprise then that you can do the exact same thing to both phrases: Ha en trevlig helg = Have a good weekend or Trevlig kväll = Have a good night.)
Ha det så bra. = Have a good one. Or Take care.
Hej så länge. = So long. Or See you later. Or even Goodbye for now.

A quick note, when you’ve just met someone, it’s always good to immediately tell them it was nice to meet them:
Trevligt att träffas. = Nice to meet you.

It can also be nice, as you’re leaving that first introduction, to repeat yourself. Maybe switch it up and say:
Det var trevligt att träffas. = It was nice to meet you.

Sometimes you’ll hear variations of these phrases, like adjö så länge instead of hej så länge, for example. It’s yet another way of telling someone goodbye. Use these different terms and words as you feel comfortable. While it may seem silly to learn so many different ways to say goodbye, it will make your vocabulary and conversational skills more fluid and fluent.

So what do you think? How would you translate NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye?” Let us know in the comments and feel free to add any other ways you might say goodbye. In the meantime, enjoy a #TBT video. You can blame a Swede for this:

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About the Author: Marcus Cederström

Marcus Cederström has been writing for the Transparent Swedish Blog since 2009. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Oregon, a Master's Degree in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and a PhD in Scandinavian Studies and Folklore from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has taught Swedish for several years and still spells things wrong. So, if you see something, say something.