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The mysterious Swedish “sk” Posted by Stephen Maconi on Dec 5, 2016
Swedish pronunciation is known by language learners as having rather particular rules, but rules nonetheless. The idea is that once you’ve mastered the rules, you can pronounce most words naturally without having heard them pronounced by someone else. The pronunciation of the consonant combination <sk> in Swedish is one thing that often trips up…
The Swedish welfare state Posted by Stephen Maconi on Oct 24, 2016
In the world outside of Sweden and the Nordic countries, there is a common understanding that Sweden is very “left-wing” in the sense that it is very much a welfare state. The common belief is that government subsidies land in the hands of private people on a regular basis, and that high taxes are…
The currency of Sweden is “spänn”?! Posted by Stephen Maconi on Aug 3, 2016
The Swedish “crown”, as some English-speakers refer to it, is called den svenska kronan in Swedish. The international currency code for the Swedish krona is SEK. When you start spending a lot of time with Swedes, you’ll notice that they don’t always call their currency by its proper name (krona/kronor [plural]). In the Western…
Washing and rinsing in Swedish Posted by Stephen Maconi on Jul 22, 2016
When we talk about washing something in English, it can mean various things in various contexts. For example, we use the word wash when we’re talking about washing clothes or washing dishes, or when you’re in the kitchen, washing the vegetables. You wash your hair and wash the car. Well, in Swedish, there are…
Chimneys and pillowcases in Swedish: Weird Swedish compounds Posted by Stephen Maconi on Jul 13, 2016
Swedish, like a lot of languages, has many words in its vocabulary which make sense as a whole but not as parts. In many cases, this is because the original meaning has been wiped out over time. In English, we have the word “highlight”. When we use this word, we aren’t referring to a…
Swedish grammar: Conjunctions and subjunctions Posted by Stephen Maconi on Jun 15, 2016
In Swedish, there are three main conjunctions: och, eller, and men – “and”, “or”, and “but”, respectively. Conjunctions are grammatical words which are used to represent a connection between two words of the same kind. For example, en mor och en far – “a mother and a father”; glad men trött – “happy but tired”. Conjunctions…
“Myself”, “yourself”, etc. in Swedish Posted by Stephen Maconi on Jun 13, 2016
Many of you already know that Swedish employs reflexive verbs, just like in German or Spanish. For example, Albert rakar sig. – Albert is shaving. In the example, att raka sig means “to shave (oneself)”. It differs from att raka (i.e., without sig), in that it refers specifically to the subject shaving her/himself. Without…