<\/p>\n
Like many other languages, the Swedish language has a large variety of different expressions. Some of these expressions are similar to expressions in other languages – and some are more-or-less unique to Swedish. These expressions vary from being several words long to being only one word.<\/p>\n
One useful piece of interesting vocabulary in Swedish is the word svartm\u00e5la<\/em><\/strong>, a verb which, very literally interpreted, means “to black-paint”.<\/p>\n Like in many cases with languages, what you see is not what you get. Svartm\u00e5la<\/em> in no way actually means to paint something black.<\/strong> It has a much more figurative meaning than that. So what does it really mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n I’ll give you some clues. The subject you use with svartm\u00e5la<\/em> is almost always a person or group<\/strong>, and often, the verb is also used with a personal or group object<\/strong>, such as statsministern<\/em> “the prime minister” or V\u00e4rldsh\u00e4lsoorganisationen<\/em> “The World Health Organization” (WHO). The word has a negative meaning<\/strong>. It doesn’t imply direct action, but rather indirect action<\/strong>. And it doesn’t mean “to kill” or “to hurt” in a direct way<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Still can’t guess what it means?<\/p>\n Svartm\u00e5la<\/em> means “to make [someone] look bad\/evil” or “to defame”.<\/strong> So, if someone doesn’t like someone else, they will svartm\u00e5la<\/em> them in the media. Let’s give you an example<\/strong> of how we use svartm\u00e5la<\/em>:<\/p>\n Oppositionen svartm\u00e5lade<\/strong> statsministern<\/span> genom att publicera arga bilder p\u00e5 sociala medier.<\/em> Getterna gillade inte korna, s\u00e5 de f\u00f6rs\u00f6kte svartm\u00e5la<\/strong> dem<\/span> [genom att sl\u00e4nga stenar p\u00e5 varandra och skylla p\u00e5 korna].<\/em> Ah, there’s nothing quite like barnyard politics. In both examples.<\/p>\n Svartm\u00e5la<\/em> is conjugated like this:<\/strong> svartm\u00e5la<\/em>, svartm\u00e5lar<\/em>, svartm\u00e5lade<\/em>, svartm\u00e5lat<\/em>, svarm\u00e5la!<\/em><\/p>\n The basic formula is: [person A or group A] svartm\u00e5lar<\/em> [person B or group B]. L\u00e4tt som en pl\u00e4tt<\/em> – easy as pie!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let’s practice using\u00a0svartm\u00e5la<\/em>! Make us a sentence using it in the comments!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Like many other languages, the Swedish language has a large variety of different expressions. Some of these expressions are similar to expressions in other languages – and some are more-or-less unique to Swedish. These expressions vary from being several words long to being only one word. One useful piece of interesting vocabulary in Swedish…<\/p>\n
\nThe opposition made<\/strong> the Prime Minister look bad<\/strong><\/span> by publishing angry images on social media.<\/p>\n
\nThe goats didn’t like the cows, so they tried to make<\/strong> them look bad<\/strong><\/span> by tossing stones at each other and blaming the cows.<\/p>\n