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Tag Archives: idioms

Swedish Idioms Round Two, Go to Hekla and Fox Sleep Posted by on Oct 29, 2020

Last week, I wrote about some common idioms that you’re bound to hear in every day Swedish. In doing research for that post, I discovered some rather obscure ones too. I’ll share some of those in this post as well as share the origin stories behind a couple of classic idioms. Nu kör vi! Let’s…

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10 Common Swedish Idioms – “Shrimp Sandwiches” and “Cows on the Ice” Posted by on Oct 22, 2020

Idioms are the best. They are playful phrases we use to describe a situation by metaphor or figure of speech. The literal translations don’t make sense and often leave non-native speakers scratching their heads – “Huh, what do they mean by saying it’s raining cats and dogs?” There are several of these sayings that sound…

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Expressing Yourself with Swedish Prepositions Posted by on Feb 25, 2020

Prepositions are those pesky little words that often trip us up when we translate word-for-word from our native tongue into our foreign language. I wrote this i eller på post a couple weeks ago and the reader comments reminded me of some other challenging prepositions. This post will cover prepositions specifically related to känslor…

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Swedish Sayings on Twitter! Posted by on Mar 12, 2012

A little over a week ago, a trending hashtag on Twitter was #swedishsayings. It was an entertaining look at some of the different sayings in Swedish and their literal English translations. Since then, there has been a steady stream of different idioms that have been translated to English. And it entertains me to no end…

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There is a dog buried here somewhere Posted by on May 26, 2011

As said many times before; direct translations of idioms can cause major confusion and most definitely a few laughs. Do you remember the dog’s head?  Well, I tried another dog the other day.  The buried dog, this time. Det ligger en hund begraven här  = There is a dog buried here – is used when something isn’t…

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Today’s expression: Att bära hundhuvudet Posted by on Apr 5, 2011

Sometimes it works absolutely fine to directly translate Swedish expressions and idioms into English. But other times… well, let’s just say it doesn’t work at all. Att bära hundhuvet – to carry the dog’s head – is one who didn’t work, I tried it the other day and got a few raised eyebrows in response… Anyway…

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Swedish odd expressions part III Posted by on May 5, 2010

The more you start digging into the endless world of idioms and expressions, the more confusing many of them seem. Or what do you make of today’s collection og shelves, eyes, apples and churchbells? Make perfect sense or totally confusing? Any similar expressions in your language? Bita i det sura äpplet Meaning: When you have…

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