Personally, I love proverbs. They help me understand different ways of thinking and cultural differences. Depending on how big the cultural differences are between your country and Sweden some of these sayings you might have heard in your own language or can see the logic in them just by understanding the words. Others are however much harder to guess the meaning behind. Those times it might be easier to understand if you have heard the story behind them.<\/p>\n
Proverbs can also be confusing for beginners in a language, but even native speakers don\u2019t know all of them, so there are always new proverbs popping up for everybody \ud83d\ude42 \u00a0But I still feel that one of the most central parts to mastering a language and understanding a culture is proverbs. Logic is very different from country to country, maybe you’ll discover some differences you hadn’t noticed before.<\/p>\n
To start off, this is a pretty commonly used proverb.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlla k\u00e4nner apan, men apan k\u00e4nner ingen\u201d <\/strong>Literally translated this would be something along the lines of: \u201cEverybody knows the monkey, but the monkey knows nobody\u201d. This saying is often used to describe a situation when a person is known for something, and referred to by very many people. The individual in question doesn\u2019t know any others involved. People know of somebody but they don\u2019t have a personal relationship to them.<\/p>\n \u201cBorta bra, men hemma b\u00e4st\u201d <\/strong>Being away from home is nice but home is best. People often say this after being out and about for a slightly longer period of time.<\/p>\n \u201cB\u00e4ttre tiga \u00e4n illa tala\u201d<\/strong> Better to be silent than speak ill.<\/p>\n \u201cB\u00e4ttre fly \u00e4n illa f\u00e4kta\u201d<\/strong> Better back off (flea) than fight badly.<\/p>\n \u201cB\u00e4ttre \u00e4n f\u00e5gel i handen \u00e4n tio i skogen\u201d <\/strong>Better one bird in your hand than ten in the woods.<\/p>\n \u201cDen enes br\u00f6d \u00e4r den andres d\u00f6d\u201d.<\/strong> One mans bread is another\u2019s death.<\/p>\n \u201cDen som ger sig in i leken, f\u00e5r leken t\u00e5la\u201d <\/strong>If you play the game you accept the rules.<\/p>\n \u201cHar man sagt A f\u00e5r man s\u00e4ga B.\u201d <\/em><\/strong>This proverb basically says that if you have started saying something then you have to finish. <\/em>Eg. somebody is keeping the suspense up and<\/p>\n \u201cDen som v\u00e4ntar p\u00e5 n\u00e5got g\u00e5tt han v\u00e4ntar aldrig f\u00f6r l\u00e4nge\u201d<\/strong> One can never wait too long for something good.<\/p>\n \u201cDet finns inget d\u00e5ligt v\u00e4der, bara d\u00e5liga kl\u00e4der\u201d<\/strong>, \u201cthere is no bad weather, there are only bad clothes\u201d. This saying is time and again used when it is raining and school children do not want to go outside. It also indicates how \u201cnature-loving\u201d many Swedes are.<\/p>\n \u201cDra inte alla \u00f6ver en kam\u201d <\/strong>Literally translated \u201cDon\u2019t pull everybody over the same comb\u201d the bottom-line being \u201cDon\u2019t generalize people\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cGenv\u00e4gar \u00e4r ofta senv\u00e4gar\u201d<\/strong> Shortcuts often turn into very time-consuming routes.<\/p>\n There are almost literal translations, many which probably came from English proverbs, for example:<\/p>\n \u201cGr\u00e4set \u00e4r inte alltid gr\u00f6nare p\u00e5 andra sidan\u201d \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThe grass is always greener on the other side\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGr\u00e5t inte \u00f6ver spilld mj\u00f6lk\u201d \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cDon\u2019t cry over spilled milk\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDen som spar han har\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cSavers, keepers\u201d<\/p>\n Have you heard or come across a swedish proverb you don\u2019t understand the logic of? Post it and we\u2019ll all try to see if we can explain anything! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Personally, I love proverbs. They help me understand different ways of thinking and cultural differences. Depending on how big the cultural differences are between your country and Sweden some of these sayings you might have heard in your own language or can see the logic in them just by understanding the words. Others are however…<\/p>\n