{"id":8597,"date":"2020-05-13T01:41:56","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T01:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/?p=8597"},"modified":"2021-06-23T03:38:25","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T03:38:25","slug":"false-friends-how-ett-kiss-in-swedish-isnt-a-kiss-in-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/false-friends-how-ett-kiss-in-swedish-isnt-a-kiss-in-english\/","title":{"rendered":"False Friends – How “ett kiss” in Swedish isn’t “a kiss” in English"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo: Image Bank Sweden \/ Anna \u00d6hlund, “Sled Dog Kiss,” in Jokkmokk, Sweden.<\/p><\/div>\n

Faux amies<\/span><\/i> or false friends are tricky little things for language learners! <\/span>Called \u201c<\/b>bilingual homophones\u201d these are words that look or sound similar between two or more languages but differ significantly in meaning. So, you guessed it, while (ett) kiss<\/em> is pronounced relatively the same in Swedish as it is in English, it’s not a kiss, rather it’s urine<\/strong>. Sometimes these words can really get us <\/span>into trouble, and sometimes they aren’t as harmful!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Swedish and English Cognates<\/span><\/h2>\n

Indeed, there are many cognates that are exactly the same in English and Swedish. You may recall learning quite a few of these examples in my blog post featuring <\/span>around the house<\/span><\/a> nouns. In fact, one can often have a bit of luck when trying to translate words from one language to the other. Study<\/strong> and <\/span>studera<\/span><\/i> for example or discuss<\/strong>\u00a0and <\/span>diskutera, <\/span><\/i>present<\/strong>\u00a0and <\/span>presentera,<\/span><\/i> and so on. <\/span>See what I mean? But alas, one cannot be <\/span>too <\/span><\/i>confident, after all, <\/span>konkurrera<\/span><\/i> in Swedish doesn\u2019t mean \u201cto concur\/agree\u201d it means to compete<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“False Friends” from Swedish to English<\/span><\/h2>\n

False friends are words that appear to mean the say thing from one language to another. Swedish has quite a few words that resemble English words but have different meanings altogether. Let\u2019s review some false friends you may have already seen:<\/span><\/p>\n

En semester <\/span><\/i>is quite opposite of a school term, rather it’s a vacation<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ett barn<\/span><\/i> is a child<\/strong>. Somehow that one was easy for me to remember because my grandfather used to lovingly tell me that \u201cchildren were born in barns.\u201d Tack morfar<\/em>!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Glass<\/span><\/i> (en)<\/em> is not \u201ca glass\u201d at all but the Swedish word for ice cream<\/strong>.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Gillar du glass?<\/em> Do you like ice cream?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Is gift<\/em> a Gift?<\/span><\/h2>\n

A classic joke in my beginning classes always develops around the word<\/span> gift. <\/span><\/i>In Swedish, this word has a double meaning; it’s both the adjective married <\/strong>and a noun for poison<\/strong>.
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Vi har varit gifta i nio \u00e5r.<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0We have been married for nine years.
\nDet finns r\u00e5ttgift i garaget.<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 There is rat poison in the garage.
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>The word gipt<\/em> from Old Norse means gift<\/strong> or dowry<\/strong>, often the most dreaded, and all-too-expensive part of nuptials. So, perhaps this gift<\/strong> was indeed<\/em> like poison<\/strong> in the eyes of the Vikings. Come on Sigur\u00f0r, it can’t be that bad, right?<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of bad (ett)<\/em>, that means a swim <\/strong>or a dip<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

En kock<\/span><\/i>\u00a0means a chef<\/strong>.\u00a0 And on the contrary, if <\/span>chefen<\/span><\/i> pulls you into her office, it means the boss<\/strong>\u00a0wants to speak with you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wearing <\/span>en kostym, <\/span><\/i>a suit,<\/strong> to your job\u2019s summer barbecue party is too formal. Unless you work at <\/span>en fabrik, <\/span><\/i>a factory<\/strong>, that makes suits, then you’re right on!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

LNSF Farthinder\u00a0 – Speed Bump<\/p><\/div>\n

Nu k\u00f6r vi full fart<\/em>! Excuse me, what?! Full fart<\/em> means full speed<\/strong>. So speed bumps<\/strong> in Sweden are called <\/span>farthinder<\/em>. If you don’t slow down at the farthinder<\/em>, you may have a en s<\/em><\/span>m\u00e4ll<\/em>, a<\/strong> <\/span>crash.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Swedish to English False Friends Nouns<\/span><\/h2>\n

Swedish<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 English<\/strong>
\nen kind<\/em><\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 ->\u00a0 \u00a0 a cheek<\/strong><\/p>\n

dragon\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 ->\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>tarragon<\/strong><\/p>\n

(ett) kiss<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0->\u00a0 \u00a0 urine<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

en blankett<\/em>\u00a0 ->\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0a<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>form<\/strong>, as in paperwork<\/span><\/p>\n

…and the list of Swedish and English False Friends Continues<\/span><\/h2>\n

The adjective full<\/em><\/span> in Swedish means drunk.\u00a0 <\/strong>Aktuellt<\/em> doesn’t mean “actually,” it means current<\/strong>.\u00a0 Eventuellt<\/em> means possibly<\/strong>. For examples:<\/p>\n

Vi ska eventuellt flytta till Uppsala.\u00a0<\/em> We will possibly<\/strong> move to Uppsala, (not eventually).<\/p>\n

And finally, if you’d like to hug<\/strong> your new Swedish friend, don’t ask to hugga<\/em>, because that is the verb for stab.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who\u2019s confused? False friends will do that to you! Can you think of more examples of false friends between Swedish and English? Which ones trip you up the most?
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Faux amies or false friends are tricky little things for language learners! Called \u201cbilingual homophones\u201d these are words that look or sound similar between two or more languages but differ significantly in meaning. So, you guessed it, while (ett) kiss is pronounced relatively the same in Swedish as it is in English, it’s not a…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":8598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,3079,13],"tags":[364862,3269,10125,8239,3452,12985,364872,34680,364865],"class_list":["post-8597","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-swedish-language","category-vocabulary","tag-culture","tag-learn-swedish","tag-swedish-blog","tag-swedish-culture","tag-swedish-food","tag-swedish-idioms","tag-swedish-language","tag-swedish-vocabulary","tag-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8597","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\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8597"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8601,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8597\/revisions\/8601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}