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Nine ‘normal’ chats that sound totally odd to Swedish people

If you're a foreigner who's got used to living life "the Swedish way", or a Swede who's moved abroad, common conversations with locals in other countries can end up feeling rather strange.

Published: 13 January 2016 07:30 CET
Updated: 14 December 2016 17:40 CET
Nine 'normal' chats that sound totally odd to Swedish people
The phrase "it's cold" means something very different if you've ever lived in Sweden. Photo: Steven Senne/TT

1. “It’s getting chilly, it could be 5C tomorrow”

Temperatures often drop to -10C even in Stockholm in winter (and that’s in the southern half of Sweden), so unless you’re from the Arctic or somewhere else that does snow really well, it can feel a little baffling when people living elsewhere in the world comment on the need to wrap up warm when it’s just 5C. 

5C counts as warm in Sweden. Photo: Helena Wahlman/imagebank.sweden.se

2. “Don’t worry, it’s my round”

High alcohol prices and an individualistic culture mean that a night out on the town can end up very pricey if you decide to offer all your friends a drink in Sweden. You’ll likely pay up to 75 kronor for a beer, and definitely shouldn’t expect one back. Almost everywhere else on earth it’s waaaay cheaper to go to the pub.

If you’re back in your country for a home visit, or a Swede working in another nation, embrace the experience of sharing rounds, even if it feels bizarre after so many nights queuing up besides six friends to order a single drink each. Cheers!

Whose round is it? Not Sven’s. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

3. “We don’t have a big enough garden”

Foreigners and Swedes alike living in the country’s biggest cities spend a good splice of their spare time bemoaning the acute housing crisis. In Stockholm, if you manage to score a second-hand studio apartment for more than one year for less than 8000 kronor a month, you’re basically hailed a hero. Balconies are common (but hike up your costs), however having a garden in the city centre is the holy grail.

So, you might be forced to bite your tongue when people living elsewhere start making noises about needing a “spare bedroom” or “a bigger garden, in case we have kids”. But that said, there are few places with such beautiful nature as Sweden, so who needs outside space when you can spend your weekends roaming around in the outdoors?

READ ALSO: How to navigate Sweden’s crazy rental market

Swedes in big cities often have to share gardens, if there is one. Photo: Simon Paulin/imagebank.sweden.se

4. “I might have to give up work to look after the kids”

The idea that someone — usually a woman — might be forced to quit her career to look after her children can be a bemusing one if you’ve been living in Sweden. Swedish residents — including immigrants — get 480 days of shared parental leave followed by heavily subsidised day care, all nestled into a culture of flexible working. Although the Scandinavian country isn’t completely equal, it is streets ahead of the rest of the world. You’ll hear far more conversations about expensive childcare, rigid working hours and gender salary gaps in other European nations than in Sweden.

Plenty of Swedish fathers share childcare responsibilities. Photo: Kristin Lidell/imagebank.sweden.se

5. “You’re working out again?”

Most Swedes make exercise a regular part of their weekly routine and while obesity levels are rising, they remain among the lowest in Europe. Keeping fit is viewed as good for the body and the soul and is something, well, completely normal. This is not always the case in other countries, where anyone spotted simply carrying a sports bag around can be quickly labelled a ‘fitness freak’ or a ‘gym addict’.

Leaving the pub early to go to a spinning class might be greeted with a smile and a ‘lycka till’ (good luck) in Sweden, but prepare to be greeted with shock or bemusement elsewhere. Especially if it’s your round.

READ ALSO: Five Swedish habits you pick up without trying

Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT

6. “I’m running late, the bus didn’t turn up”

In efficient Sweden, buses somehow manage to run more or less on time, even in -20C temperatures (at least outside the busy capital region and after the initial shock settles after the first snowfall). This isn’t the case in most places on the planet. If someone outside Sweden tells you they’re late because of a public transport malfunction, they are either actually telling the truth or using a very plausible lie that you’ll be unable to check up on.

But if you’re used to Swedish services running to the second and friends being just as punctual whether they’ve walked, biked or cycled to meet you (we did tell you Swedes love to keep fit), be prepared to get frustrated by this kind of tardiness.

Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

7. “I just spoke to a fascinating woman on the bus”

Imagine you’re on a bus that does break down (outside of Sweden, obviously). How would it feel to chat to the other passengers about the delay, swap stories about where you’re going or boast about your last (even worse) transport drama? If you’re used to living in the Nordics, where people are notoriously quiet on buses and trains, this could make you a bit uncomfortable. Alternatively, if you’ve spent months or years either suffering in silence or feeling like a weirdo whenever you make small talk in Sweden, you’ll likely be relishing this experience (as long as the bus gets fixed quickly, because you’re not used to being late!).

READ ALSO: How to fake being a local on Stockholm’s subway

Photo: Jack Mikrut/TT

8. “I’ll just put a quick wash on!”

You know when you’re rushing around doing your chores and you chuck a load in the washing machine while simultaneously cooking dinner, running a bath and preparing for a work meeting? No, that doesn’t happen if you live in a Swedish city.

In most apartment blocks you have to book your laundry slot a week before and turn up on time to make sure nobody else steals it. Realised your favourite outfit is dirty 24 hours before an important date? You’re screwed. Even if you’ve got a balcony, it probably won’t dry in time and might actually freeze. If you’re staying with friends or family in other countries and they mention they’re putting a wash on, you could find yourself getting rather excited and handing over your dirty laundry.

 

Swedes rarely get to choose their own washing machine. Photo: Jacques Brinon/TT

9. “Sure, I’ll meet you tonight!”

So you’ve managed to avoid arguments about whether it’s actually cold (it isn’t) or your friend turning up 30 minutes late and you’d quite like to fit in another trip to the pub. But that’s never going to happen is it, because you have to plan social engagements at least a week in advance? Well, that may be what you’re used to in Sweden, but not everyone is quite so organised. That means if you’re spending time away from the Nordics, you can marvel at the chance to be a bit more spontaneous.

Don’t get too carried away though. If you want to see your Swedish friends when you get back, you’d better find time to text them too, to check their availability for the next month.

This list was written by Maddy Savage in January 2016 and was updated in May 2023.

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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Le Havre rules: How to talk about French towns beginning with Le, La or Les

If you're into car racing, French politics or visits to seaside resorts you are likely at some point to need to talk about French towns with a 'Le' in the title. But how you talk about these places involves a slightly unexpected French grammar rule. Here's how it works.

Published: 30 November 2021 13:04 CET
Updated: 4 December 2021 17:47 CET
An old WW2 photo taken in the French port town of Le Havre.
An old WW2 photo taken in the French port town of Le Havre. It can be difficult to know what prepositions to use for places like this - so we have explained it for you. (Photo by AFP)

If you’re listening to French chat about any of those topics, at some point you’re likely to hear the names of Mans, Havre and Touquet bandied about.

And this is because French towns that have a ‘Le’ ‘La’ or ‘Les’ in the title lose them when you begin constructing sentences. 

As a general rule, French town, commune and city names do not carry a gender. 

So if you wanted to describe Paris as beautiful, you could write: Paris est belle or Paris est beau. It doesn’t matter what adjectival agreement you use. 

For most towns and cities, you would use à to evoke movement to the place or explain that you are already there, and de to explain that you come from/are coming from that location:

Je vais à Marseille – I am going to Marseille

Je suis à Marseille – I am in Marseille 

Je viens de Marseille – I come from Marseille 

But a select few settlements in France do carry a ‘Le’, a ‘La’ or a ‘Les’ as part of their name. 

In this case the preposition disappears when you begin formulating most sentences, and you structure the sentence as you would any other phrase with a ‘le’, ‘la’ or ‘les’ in it.

Masculine

Le is the most common preposition for two names (probably something to do with the patriarchy) with Le Havre, La Mans, Le Touquet and the town of Le Tampon on the French overseas territory of La Réunion (more on that later)

A good example of this is Le Havre, a city in northern France where former Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, who is tipped to one day run for the French presidency, serves as mayor. 

Edouard Philippe’s twitter profile describes him as the ‘Maire du Havre’, using a masculine preposition

Here we can see that his location is Le Havre, and his Twitter handle is Philippe_LH (for Le Havre) but when he comes to describe his job the Le disappears.

Because Le Havre is masculine, he describes himself as the Maire du Havre rather than the Maire de Havre (Anne Hidalgo, for example would describe herself as the Maire de Paris). 

For place names with ‘Le’ in front of them, you should use prepositions like this:

Ja vais au Touquet – I am going to Le Touquet

Je suis au Touquet – I am in Le Touquet 

Je viens du Touquet – I am from Le Touquet 

Je parle du Touquet – I am talking about Le Touquet

Le Traité du Touquet – the Le Touquet Treaty

Feminine

Some towns carry ‘La’ as part of their name. La Rochelle, the scenic town on the west coast of France known for its great seafood and rugby team, is one such example.

In French ‘à la‘ or ‘de la‘ is allowed, while ‘à le‘ becomes au and ‘de le’ becomes du. So for ‘feminine’ towns such as this, you should use the following prepositions:

Je vais à La Rochelle – I am going to La Rochelle

Je viens de La Rochelle – I am coming from La Rochelle 

Plural

And some places have ‘Les’ in front of their name, like Les Lilas, a commune in the suburbs of Paris. The name of this commune literally translates as ‘The Lilacs’ and was made famous by Serge Gainsbourg’s song Le Poinçonneur des Lilas, about a ticket puncher at the Metro station there. 

When talking about a place with ‘Les’ as part of the name, you must use a plural preposition like so:

Je suis le poinçonneur des Lilas – I am the ticket puncher of Lilas 

Je vais aux Lilas – I am going to Les Lilas

Il est né aux Lilas – He was born in Les Lilas  

Islands 

Islands follow more complicated rules. 

If you are talking about going to one island in particular, you would use à or en. This has nothing to do with gender and is entirely randomised. For example:

Je vais à La Réunion – I am going to La Réunion 

Je vais en Corse – I am going to Corsica 

Generally speaking, when talking about one of the en islands, you would use the following structure to suggest movement from the place: 

Je viens de Corse – I am coming from Corsica 

For the à Islands, you would say:

Je viens de La Réunion – I am coming from La Réunion 

When talking about territories composed of multiple islands, you should use aux.

Je vais aux Maldives – I am going to the Maldives. 

No preposition needed 

There are some phrases in French which don’t require any a preposition at all. This doesn’t change when dealing with ‘Le’ places, such as Le Mans – which is famous for its car-racing track and Motorcycle Grand Prix. Phrases that don’t need a preposition include: 

Je visite Le Mans – I am visiting Le Mans

J’aime Le Mans – I like Le Mans

But for a preposition phrase, the town becomes simply Mans, as in Je vais au Mans.

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