Archive by Author
‘Big’ and ‘small’ in Swedish Posted by Stephen Maconi on Apr 12, 2012
Compared to most countries, Sweden is very small, at least in terms of population. Despite that, from the greatly dominant forests of this land have come numerous inventions and developments: from dynamite and the pacemaker to ABBA and IKEA. Several famous scientists that have contributed immensely to the world of science also come from Sweden…
Religion in Sweden Posted by Stephen Maconi on Mar 28, 2012
Up until the century 1000, the people of Sweden believed in Norse paganism, but the country was then Christianized, forcing everyone to convert to Roman Catholicism. This lasted until the 1500’s, when Protestant Lutharanism took over after what is known as the Protestant Reformation. Lutheranism was then the official religion of Sweden, though foreigners visiting…
Go Fish in Swedish Posted by Stephen Maconi on Mar 14, 2012
One of the most popular card games (at least in the United States) is Go Fish. (For those of you who don’t know what it is or how to play it, read all about it on Wikipedia.) In Swedish, Go Fish is called Finns i sjön. Here’s how you play, in Swedish with color-coded English…
Computer verbs Posted by Stephen Maconi on Mar 7, 2012
Last week, I posted a list of computer-related vocabulary, centered specifically around hardware (or in Swedish, hårdvara). This time, I’m going to go through a list of software-related vocabulary, or more specifically computer-related verbs. So, for those of you who use a word processor (for example) but don’t dare to change the interface language to…
Computer Vocabulary in Swedish (Part 1) Posted by Stephen Maconi on Feb 27, 2012
Have you ever wondered how to say “motherboard” in Swedish? Well, now is your chance to find out! Here I have compiled a list of important terms you can use to help describe your computer in Swedish more specifically. en bildskärm – a monitor. skärmar, skärmen, skärmarna. en bärbar dator – a laptop. bärbara datorer…
The great Swedish vowel shift Posted by Stephen Maconi on Feb 6, 2012
Last week, I continued my series on the three special Swedish letters, å, ä and ö. Now I’m here to explain how the letter å even came to be at all. As I explained last time, the letter å in writing came to be like so: first as a double-a (aa), then as an a…
The letter å Posted by Stephen Maconi on Jan 31, 2012
Last week I clarified where the Swedish letters ä and ö come from, but to you the origin of the letter å is still a mystery. And here I am to clear it up! In 1526, a new time period known in Swedish linguistics as Nysvenska perioden began with the first ever Swedish translation of…