{"id":182,"date":"2009-03-14T20:31:47","date_gmt":"2009-03-15T00:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/?p=182"},"modified":"2009-03-14T20:31:47","modified_gmt":"2009-03-15T00:31:47","slug":"swenglish-eller-svengelska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/swenglish-eller-svengelska\/","title":{"rendered":"Swenglish eller svengelska?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><!--[if gte mso 9]&amp;gt;  Normal 0   21   false false false  PL X-NONE X-NONE              MicrosoftInternetExplorer4              &amp;lt;![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]&amp;gt;                                                                                                                                            &amp;lt;![endif]--> <span>One of the commenters mentioned my funny English recently and that actually was a very good thing. As any expat who\u2019s been living for a long time in a non-English speaking country can tell you, this is bound to happen. Sooner or later, your English will start deteriorating. And the funniest thing is, you might not even realize when instead of English you begin to switch to Swenglish (or svengelska). <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>Suddenly, you find yourself talking about <em>\u201cred days.\u201d<\/em> You begin to <em>\u201ceat pills\u201d<\/em> and to <em>\u201cfollow\u201d<\/em> people to the movies. And when you hear yourself saying that your husband worked <em>\u201cin the commune under five years\u201d<\/em> you know it\u2019s been a long time since you visited an English speaking country. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>So, let\u2019s take a look at some of the most common direct translation mistakes that both Swedes and long-time expats in Sweden tend to make, OK?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span><strong>Vill du f\u00f6lja med?<\/strong> \u2013 <em>literally: Do you want to follow with?<\/em> Correctly: Do you want to\/ would you like to come (along)?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>My former <strong>chef<\/strong> (who was not a chef) was a super-kind woman, who would always invite me to different activities. First time when I heard her say in English to me: <em>\u201cDo you want to follow us?\u201d<\/em> it took me a moment to figure out what she meant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span><strong>chef<\/strong> (<em>def.<\/em> <strong>chefen<\/strong>, <em>plural<\/em>: <strong>chefer<\/strong>, <em>def. plural:<\/em> <strong>cheferna<\/strong>) \u2013 correctly in English: boss. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>I don\u2019t even remember when it first happened that I started to replace <em>\u201cboss\u201d<\/em> with <em>\u201cchef\u201d<\/em> (of course when meaning <em>\u201cboss&#8221;<\/em>) while speaking English. This has to be hands down the most common false-friends mix-up in Swenglish. And it\u2019s an equal opportunity mistake, too &#8211; both native Swedes and expats make it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span><strong>r\u00f6d dag<\/strong> \u2013 <em>literally: red day<\/em>, correctly: bank\/public holiday.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>You know you\u2019re listening to two expats talking when you overhear this sort of conversation:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><em><span>\u201cAre we off tomorrow?\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><em><span>\u201cSure, it\u2019s a red day. What are your plans?\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><em><span>\u201cDunno, go to the <strong>stuga<\/strong> maybe. Do you want to follow?\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span><strong>\u00e4ta tabletter<\/strong> \u2013 <em>literally: eat pills<\/em>, correctly: take pills. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>This always confuses my husband when he goes to the pharmacy. He automatically asks to clarify: <em>\u201cYou want me to eat while taking the pills?\u201d<\/em> Because my husband doesn\u2019t speak Swedish, he and the unlucky pharmacist must communicate in English, and so further confusion ensues. Listening to them can be quite entertaining, actually.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span><strong>under<\/strong> (when talking about time periods) \u2013 correctly in English: during<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>This is also a very common mistake. In December on of my friends who\u2019s been living in Sweden for over 20 years asked me this: <em>\u201cAre you going to be home under Christmas?\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span><strong>den r\u00f6da tr\u00e5den <\/strong>\u2013 <em>literally: the red thread<\/em>, correctly: the main thread, common theme<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>We went to a lecture once where the speaker kept talking (in English) about the red threads in <strong>Bergman<\/strong>\u2019s movies. My companion whispered to me quietly: <em>\u201cI didn\u2019t know that <strong>Bergman<\/strong> was into the Kabbalah.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>There are of course many more of such words and phrases and this is just a small sample to give you an idea of how easy it is to fall into the svengelska trap. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>And now, if you excuse me, I have pills to eat. I got sick under winter break.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the commenters mentioned my funny English recently and that actually was a very good thing. As any expat who\u2019s been living for a long time in a non-English speaking country can tell you, this is bound to happen. Sooner or later, your English will start deteriorating. And the funniest thing is, you might&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/swenglish-eller-svengelska\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[264,3437,3463,3486,364865],"class_list":["post-182","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-vocabulary","tag-false-friends","tag-svengelska","tag-swenglish","tag-translation-mistakes","tag-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}