Modern Swedish words

Learning a new language is perhaps not as daunting as you might think.

This week I 'blogga' about Swedish words.

The thought of learning a new language can be intimidating, especially to English speakers, as we're traditionally not very good at learning new languages. However, if you want to learn a foreign language such as Swedish, then although it may seem daunting at first, you can take encouragement from the fact that a lot of modern words are shared between languages.

Technology in particular is one field where Swedish words are very similar to English, as you can see from the following list of Swedish words and their English equivalents...

1) googla ... to google
2) twittra ... to tweet
3) printa ut ... to print out
4) skypa ... to skype
5) facebooka ... to facebook
6) skanna ... to scan
7) blogga ... to blog
8) spotifiera ... to use spotify
9) websajt ... website 
10) logga in ... to log in

And if you want to test how your Swedish skills are progressing, see if you can work out this next one for yourself...

11) logga ut ...

(Clue: It's very similar to 'logga in'.)


However, not all Swedish words translate as you would expect, as demonstrated by the following examples...

1) kiss

Be careful with this translation, as in Swedish the word 'kiss' refers to 'pee' (urine).

2) bra

'Fart' means speed, not flatulence.

This is another Swedish word which requires careful translation, as in Swedish the word 'bra' doesn't refer to an item's of women's clothing. Instead, 'bra' is the Swedish word for good.

3) barn

You might expect the word 'barn' to refer to a large wooden hut, but in Swedish a 'barn' is a child.

4) fart

Pretty much everyone will be familiar with the English word 'fart', but in Swedish the word 'fart' refers not to flatulence. Rather, it means 'speed'.

5) gift

In Swedish the word 'gift' has two meanings, and neither of them refers to a present. The Swedish word 'gift' translates as either 'poison' or 'married'.

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And here are a couple of other Swedish themed posts:
10 cool Swedish words and expressions (part 3)
10 cool Swedish words and expressions (part 4)