Swedish Language Blog

There are some phrases in foreign languages that are just good to know. Hello (hej), good bye (hej då) thanks (tack), where is the bathroom (var är toaletten), every other hippo is Swedish (varannan flodhäst är svensk), you know, the usual.

But within those useful terms are some things that can be tricky, like frequency terms and the word for every other, varannan. Depending on what we are talking about, that word will change. Let’s say that you call your mom every other day, so:
I call my mom every other day = Jag ringer min mamma varannan dag.

Let’s say though that you have poor cell phone service and only call your mom every other year.
I call my mom every other year = Jag ringer min mamma vartannat år.

So what happened? Varannan became vartannat. Just like so many other things in Swedish, en and ett dictate what form various words will take. So if we are using an ett word, ett år for example, we use vartannat. If we are using an en word, en dag for example, we use varannan.

The same thing happens if we want to describe something happening less frequently, maybe every seventh time for example. Maybe you eat candy every seventh day, on Saturday for example (lördagsgodis!).
I eat candy every seventh day. = Jag äter godis var sjunde dag.

Maybe you’re a stickler for good dental hygiene though and you only allow yourself to eat candy every seventh year.
I eat candy every seventh year. = Jag äter godis vart sjunde år.

Just like with varannan and vartannat, we get var and vart depending on whether the word is an en word (en dag) or an ett word (ett år).

You can do the same if you want to describe that every other car is black (varannan bil är svart). Or that every third house is red (vart tredje hus är rött). Pretty simple, right? The only slight exception to this is that if you want to say every day or every year or every car or every house, you use the word varje: varje dag, varje år, varje bil, varje hus. Below you’ll find a short list of some of the words you’ll need, a few examples, and a quick practice prompt. Good luck!

T.ex.:
Jag äter frukost varje dag.
Jag ser mina föräldrar varannan månad.
Jag åker till Sverige vart tredje år.

Now it’s your turn in the comments section: Skriv två saker du gör. Använd varje (eller var tredje eller var femte eller…).

**Some feedback from our readers reminded me that I forgot to include the word(s) var(t)enda, which means “every single.”**

Some of our readers have requested a post about the Swedish preposition av, so here it is! The word has many uses, among them what is expressed by English “of”. This is, however, far from always the case, and “of” can also be expressed by other Swedish prepositions, depending on what the speaker means to convey.

1) describing what something is made of

Bordet är gjort av trä. – The table is made of wood.
Kniven var gjord av rostfritt stål. – The knife was made of stainless steel.

2) inclusion in a group

Igår var jag hemma hos en av mina klasskamrater. – Yesterday I was at the home of one of my classmates.
Där stod två av de tre ekorrar vi hade sett dagen innan. – There stood two of the three squirrels we had seen the day before.

3) marking the agent in a passive clause

Jag blev precis anfallen av en bläckfisk. – I was just attacked by a squid.

4) marking the cause or source of something

Hon dansade av ren glädje. – She danced out of pure happiness.
Jag fick pennan av Sigvard. – I got the pen from Sigvard. (Here, you can also use the preposition från.)

Av as a preposition is never emphasized when pronounced. When it is used as a verb particle or adjective, though, it is emphasized:

Barnen sparkade av stövlarna när de kom hem. – The children kicked off their boots when they got home.
Stäng av kranen! – Turn off the tap/faucet!
Är tv:n av nu? – Is the TV off now?

Av can also appear as a lexical (and therefore emphasized) prefix:

Jag har fått avslag på min ansökan. – My application was denied. (Lit: “I have received denial (noun) on my application.”)
Annika ska avinstallera programmet åt mig. – Annika is going to uninstall the program for me.

Hope this guide was helpful. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment!

Source for some of the information in this post: Wiktionary (all borrowed examples proofread).

You walk into your office one morning and one of your colleagues says, “Hey, look! We are wearing the same shirt at the same time!”. Daily office life is just remarkable, isn’t it?

In English, wearing the “same” shirt and wearing it at the “same” time as someone else are both expressed by the same word “same”. The Swedish cognate to “same” is samma. Observe:

Vi har samma tröja [på oss] i dag! – We have the same shirt [on] today!

However, when you say this sentence in Swedish, you’re actually claiming that there is a single shirt on both of you, as if you’re sharing it because you don’t have a separate one for each person. That’s the tricky thing about the word samma, so close to English but in many cases so incorrect!

In such cases as these, the Swedes use the word likadan, conjugated as likadant in neuter form and likadana in plural/definite form. Since there are actually two shirts involved (even though they look the same), you use the plural form of both likadan (likadana) and tröja (tröjor) as such:

Vi har likadana tröjor [på oss] idag! – We have the same shirt [on] today! (meaning two separate shirts that are alike)

(Note: It is becoming increasingly common in Sweden to use samma instead of likadan, despite its traditionally incorrect usage, so be prepared to hear it expressed so in speech.)

If you have the same shirt on at the “same” time, naturally you would use the word samma, since you are wearing them at one and only one time, not two times that are alike:

Vi har likadana tröjor på oss på samma gång! – We have the same shirt on at the same time!

A shorter and just-as-common way of saying “at the same time” is the word samtidigt. You may choose whichever you prefer.

There are also instances of another word meaning “the same”, which is really just the words det “the” and samma “same” shoved together, forming detsamma. This word is used most often as so:

Ha det så bra! – Have a good one!
Detsamma! – You, too! (The same to you!)

Detsamma also appears in certain expressions, most commonly in med detsamma, meaning “immediately”:

Kom hit med detsamma! – Come here immediately!

Questions about how to express “the same” in specific contexts? Feel free to comment, and I will try to answer everyone’s questions med detsamma!