Leap Year in Sweden Posted by Marcus Cederström on Feb 29, 2016
February of 2016 has twenty-nine days instead of twenty-eight. In Swedish, that’s called a skottår and February 29 is called skottdag. Nothing too exciting about that. Skott, according to Institutet för språk och folkminnen [the Institute for Language and Folklore], essentially means “to add” in this case. So skottdag is just a day that is…
Swedish Vocabulary List for the Refugee Crisis Posted by Marcus Cederström on Feb 26, 2016
If you’ve been paying attention to the news in Europe and in Sweden anytime over the last couple of years, and especially recently, you’ve probably heard about the refugee crisis. There’s been a lot going on in Sweden with regards to migration policies. Borders are being tightened, residence permits are tough to come by, and…
Learn tenses with time adverbs in a fun way Posted by Tibor on Feb 24, 2016
Do you recognize yourself being a tired student is class sometimes and your thoughts might go somewhere else than actually focusing on the subject. Well, I have noticed this with many of students so I started making my own board games. My inspirations was based on some old language books from the 80s. If you…
Inverted sentences in Swedish Posted by Stephen Maconi on Feb 19, 2016
I’m sure you’ve heard it. I’m sure it’s confused you. Some pesky Swedish speaker saying things like Idag ska jag träffa honom and Det tror jag inte. Sentences where the subject comes after the verb. “Blasphemy!”, you might be thinking. Truth be told, inverted sentences are, in fact, used in abundance in Swedish. But…
Basic “maybe” sentences in Swedish: “kanske” Posted by Stephen Maconi on Feb 17, 2016
Maybe it’s a bird. Maybe it’s a plane. Or maybe it’s Superman! Knowing how to use “maybe” is very important in English. Likewise, knowing how to use kanske is very important in Swedish. Swedes use their kanske all over the place, so make sure you know it! Kanske is an easy concept, but the…
Looking good in Swedish: “att se ut” Posted by Stephen Maconi on Feb 11, 2016
Hejhej, Swedish learners! One of many things that we generally need to know how to talk about in a language is how something or someone looks. In English, there are two common patterns with “look” which are very much alike: Pattern 1: That cloud looks like a dog. Pattern 2: That cloud looks dark…
Going places without a “go” verb in Swedish Posted by Stephen Maconi on Feb 5, 2016
Swedish loves to cause lots of confusion when it comes to talking about going to places. There are lots of verbs which correspond to the English “to go”; to name a few: gå, åka, fara, sticka, ge sig iväg, and even dra (“to pull”) in some cases. But since there apparently aren’t enough verbs to talk…