Are you struggling to complain about things in Swedish? Not sure how to say something is worse than something else? Or the worst even? It may be because there are actually two words for the English word, “worse.” Värre and sämre both, technically, mean “worse.” But there are some nuances that will help you learn exactly when to use them.

First, let’s start with the word bad. Dålig. Bad.
Jag såg en dålig film. I saw a bad movie.
Jag läste en dålig bok. I read a bad book.
Det blir dåligt väder. The weather will be bad.

Pretty easy. The ending of the adjective will change depending on the noun. En film. En dålig film. Ett hus. Ett dåligt hus.

But what if we want to start comparing things? And complaining about them?
Dålig can take a couple of different comparative and superlative forms. They are:
Dålig – sämre – sämst
Dålig – värre – värst

The Swedish language differentiates between things that are inherently bad and those that could sometimes be bad (some people also like to think of it as the difference between less good and more bad. Both mean worse, but there is some nuance there.). Inherently bad takes the dålig – värre – värst form. Things that sometimes could be bad take the dålig – sämre – sämst form.

So let’s look at some examples*:
Dålig – sämre – sämst
The weather (in general) is not inherently bad.
Vädret är sämre idag än det var igår. The weather is worse today than it was yesterday.

I am not inherently bad.
Jag är sämst på matte. I am the worst at math.

Movies are not inherently bad.
Sharknado är årets sämsta film. Sharknado is the worst movie of the year.

Dålig – värre – värst
Headaches are inherently bad.
Huvudvärken blir värre om jag lägger mig ner. My headache gets worse if I lie down.

Hurricanes are inherently bad.
Sandy var den värsta orkanen jag någonsin har sett. Sandy was the worst hurricane I have ever seen.

Death is inherently bad.
Ett öde värre än döden. A fate worse than death.

Now you can complain to your heart’s content. Good luck!

*A quick disclaimer on things that are inherently bad, there are always exceptions and judgment calls to be made. That’s why some people will use dålig/ond–värre–värst to point out the inherent badness with the word ond, evil. Some people see death as an inherently bad thing for example, others do not. Some people might take a cynical view of relationships and refer to them as inherently bad, others might not.