{"id":6569,"date":"2014-01-27T18:56:26","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T18:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/?p=6569"},"modified":"2014-01-28T15:05:12","modified_gmt":"2014-01-28T15:05:12","slug":"thats-just-the-worst-in-swedish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/thats-just-the-worst-in-swedish\/","title":{"rendered":"That\u2019s just the worst. In Swedish."},"content":{"rendered":"

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.”\u00a0V\u00e4rre<\/em> and s\u00e4mre<\/em> both, technically, mean “worse.” But there are some nuances that will help you learn exactly when to use them.<\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s start with the word bad. D\u00e5lig<\/em>. Bad.
\nJag s\u00e5g en d\u00e5lig film<\/em>. I saw a bad movie.
\nJag l\u00e4ste en d\u00e5lig bok<\/em>. I read a bad book.
\nDet blir d\u00e5ligt v\u00e4der<\/em>. The weather will be bad.<\/p>\n

Pretty easy. The ending of the adjective will change depending on the noun. En film<\/em>. En d\u00e5lig film<\/em>. Ett hus<\/em>. Ett d\u00e5ligt hus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But what if we want to start comparing things? And complaining about them?
\nD\u00e5lig<\/em> can take a couple of different comparative and superlative forms. They are:
\nD\u00e5lig<\/em> \u2013 s\u00e4mre<\/em> \u2013 s\u00e4mst<\/em>
\nD\u00e5lig<\/em> \u2013 v\u00e4rre<\/em> \u2013 v\u00e4rst<\/em><\/p>\n

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 d\u00e5lig<\/em> \u2013 v\u00e4rre<\/em> \u2013 v\u00e4rst<\/em> form. Things that sometimes could be bad take the d\u00e5lig<\/em> \u2013 s\u00e4mre<\/em> \u2013 s\u00e4mst<\/em> form.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s look at some examples*:
\nD\u00e5lig<\/strong> <\/em>\u2013 s\u00e4mre<\/strong> <\/em>\u2013 s\u00e4mst
\n<\/em><\/strong>The weather (in general) is not inherently bad.
\nV\u00e4dret \u00e4r s\u00e4mre idag \u00e4n det var ig\u00e5r<\/em>. The weather is worse today than it was yesterday.<\/p>\n

I am not inherently bad.
\nJag \u00e4r s\u00e4mst p\u00e5 matte<\/em>. I am the worst at math.<\/p>\n

Movies are not inherently bad.
\nSharknado \u00e4r \u00e5rets s\u00e4msta film<\/em>.\u00a0Sharknado<\/em>\u00a0is the worst movie of the year.<\/p>\n

D\u00e5lig<\/em> <\/strong>\u2013 v\u00e4rre<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 v\u00e4rst<\/em><\/strong>
\nHeadaches are inherently bad.
\nHuvudv\u00e4rken blir v\u00e4rre om jag l\u00e4gger mig ner<\/em>. My headache gets worse if I lie down.<\/p>\n

Hurricanes are inherently bad.
\nSandy var den v\u00e4rsta orkanen jag n\u00e5gonsin har\u00a0<\/em>sett<\/em>. Sandy was the worst hurricane I have ever seen.<\/p>\n

Death is inherently bad.
\nEtt \u00f6de v\u00e4rre \u00e4n d\u00f6den<\/em>. A fate worse than death.<\/p>\n

Now you can complain to your heart\u2019s content. Good luck!<\/span><\/p>\n

*A quick disclaimer on things that are inherently bad, there are always exceptions and judgment calls to be made. That\u2019s why some people will use d\u00e5lig<\/em>\/ond<\/em>–v\u00e4rre<\/em>–v\u00e4rst<\/em> to point out the inherent badness with the word ond<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.”\u00a0V\u00e4rre and s\u00e4mre both, technically, mean “worse.” But there are some nuances that will help you learn exactly…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6,3079],"tags":[364864,364872],"class_list":["post-6569","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","category-swedish-language","tag-grammar","tag-swedish-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6569","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\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6569"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6573,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6569\/revisions\/6573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}