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The Weather Outside is Frightful. And Swedish. Posted by on Dec 26, 2013 in Vocabulary

One of the many stereotypes about Swedes is that they aren’t always the most talkative. But one subject they’re more than willing to talk about is the weather In fact, Katja did a great job of putting together a couple of posts about starting conversations in Sweden, one is titled How to small talk in Swedish and the other is titled An all time favorite conversation starter 🙂. You should check out both of them.

With winter upon us though and Christmas just behind us, the weather has been an important topic of conversation for many. Mostly because people have been traveling and trying to get to wherever you need to be during a snow storm is not fun. Trust me. I once drove from Stockholm to Helsingborg in December during a snow storm with no heat in my car.  I ended up lighting small tea lights and keeping them on my dashboard to keep warm. I don’t recommend it. Fun tip one of those tea lights (known in Swedish as a värmeljus) will keep your car warm for several hours. Hence the värme part. Värme = warm.

But as anyone who has had to drive with tea lights in their car will tell you, when you get to where you’re going, you really need the vocabulary to complain about the weather you just traveled through. So with that in mind, here are a handful of nouns and verbs (and even an adjective) to help you talk about the winter weather you’re dealing with.

(en) snö snow
att snöa to snow
(ett) regn rain
att regna to rain
att duggregna to drizzle
(ett) hagel hail
att hagla to hail
en storm a storm
att storma to storm
en halka a slippery condition (often in reference to roads)
att halka to slip
ett jordskred a landslide
en översvämning a flood
en vind wind
att blåsa to blow (or in terms of weather, to be windy)
kall cold
att frysa to freeze
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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.


Comments:

  1. Hans:

    Jaha, stammer val pa det hela taget, men ordlistan border ni se om. En/ett. Va?

    • Marcus Cederström:

      @Hans Hoppsan! Jag hade kopierat “(en) snö” och ändrat “snö” till “regn” men sedan glömde jag ändra “en” till “ett”. Tack för det!