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LEARNING SWEDISH

17 dialect words you’ll need to know to survive in southern Sweden

Struggling to understand Sweden's southern 'skånska' (or Scanian) accent? Here's our guide to some of the regional words.

Published: 1 March 2017 11:27 CET
Updated: 5 March 2023 13:17 CET
17 dialect words you'll need to know to survive in southern Sweden
Southern Swedish 'vindmöllor'. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

You know the feeling. Just when you think you’ve mastered Swedish, you run into someone from the south and all your language skills go out the window. The Local Sweden’s editor, who grew up in Skåne, lists 17 dialect words to at least help you fake being a local. When it comes to diphthongs, you’re on your own.

Påg

In Swedish: Pojke

In English: Boy

Tös

In Swedish: Flicka

In English: Girl

Rullebör

In Swedish: Skottkärra

In English: Wheelbarrow

Mölla

In Swedish: Kvarn, usually väderkvarn

In English: Mill, usually windmill

Mölla, or vindmölla, is also used to describe a modern electricity-generating wind turbine (‘vindkraftverk’ in Swedish).

A photo from Simrishamn in southern Sweden. Photo: Conny Fridh/imagebank.sweden.se

Födelsedagsgris

In Swedish: Födelsedagsbarn

In English: Birthday boy/girl

The literal meaning of födelsedagsgris is ‘birthday pig’.

‘Coca’

In Swedish: Cola (i.e. Coca-Cola)

In English: Coke

Most Swedes will ask for a ‘cola’ when they want a glass of the fizzy beverage. To southerners it is known as a ‘coca’, which as you probably guessed the average Swede associates more with cocaine.

Malmö is the biggest city in Skåne. Photo: Aline Lessner/imagebank.sweden.se

Uppåt landet

In Swedish: No real equivalent. What southerners call everything north of Helsingborg.

In English: Up north, literally up in the country.

Mög

In Swedish: Smuts/skit

In English: Dirt/shit

Asa

In Swedish: Släpa

In English: Drag

Balle

In Swedish: Balle (but not really, see explanation below)

In English: Buttock/Penis

The tricky thing about this one is that in most of Sweden ‘balle’ refers to a man’s genitals, whereas in southern Sweden it is fairly child-friendly slang for buttock. Sometimes this gets very awkward.

READ ALSO: Twelve Swedish words with awesome literal translations

Skåne even has its own flag. Photo: Håkan Dahlström/Flickr

Grina

In Swedish: Grina (but again, not really, see explanation below)

In English: Laugh/Cry

Here’s another confusing one. In standard Swedish “jag grinade på min farmors begravning” means “I cried at my grandmother’s funeral”. In southern Sweden it means “I laughed”. So be careful there.

Hialös

In Swedish: Otålig

In English: Impatient

Rälig

In Swedish: Äcklig

In English: Disgusting

THE LOCAL ITALY: Twelve dialect words to help you survive in Rome

Think Scanian is too easy? Take the Öresund Bridge to Denmark. Photo: Silvia Man/imagebank.sweden.se

Fubbick

In Swedish: Idiot

In English: Idiot

Ålahue

In Swedish: Idiot

In English: Idiot (literally: eel head)

Klyddig

In Swedish: Krånglig

In English: Awkward, Difficult

Spissflabbad/spisstrutad

Long explanation: Literally, this means that someone’s got a “pointy mouth”. Southerners tend to speak quite far back in the mouth, while those speaking standard Swedish keep their tongue closer to the lips. So someone who is ‘spissflabbad’ is someone southerners feel speaks in a posh and slightly affected way.

Short explanation: Stockholmer

What’s your favourite Swedish word? E-mail [email protected]!

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TRAVEL NEWS

Where Malmö plans to place its first three Copenhagen Metro stops

Politicians in the Swedish city of Malmö have decided where the first three stops will be if a new Öresund Metro is built, linking the city to the Danish capital - and they are planning on using the earth excavated to build a whole new city district.

Published: 24 April 2024 15:56 CEST
Where Malmö plans to place its first three Copenhagen Metro stops

Malmö and Copenhagen have been pushing for an Öresund Metro linking the two cities since at least 2011, but so far neither the Swedish government nor the Danish one have committed to stumping up their share of the roughly 30 billion Danish kroner (47 billion Swedish kronor, €4 billion) required.

Malmö hopes the Swedish government will take a decision on the project this autumn, and in preparation, the city’s planning board last Thursday took a decision on where the first three stops of the Öresund Metro should be placed.

They have selected Fullriggaren (currently a bus stop at the outermost tip of the city’s Västra Hamnen district), Stora Varvsgatan, in the centre of Västra Hamnen, and Malmö’s Central Station, as the locations of the first three stops, after which the idea is to extend the metro into the city. 

Stefana Hoti, the Green Party councillor who chairs the planning committee, said that the new Fehmarn Belt connection between the Danish island of Lolland and Germany, which is expected to come into use in 2029, will increase the number of freight trains travelling through Copenhagen into Sweden making it necessary to build a new route for passengers.

Part of the cost, she said, could come from tolls levied on car and rail traffic over the existing Öresund Bridge, which will soon no longer need to be used to pay off loans taken to build the bridge more than 20 years ago.  

“The bridge will be paid off in the near future. Then the tolls can be used to finance infrastructure that strengthens the entire country and creates space for more freight trains on the bridge,” Hoti told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

According to planning documents given out by the city planning authorities, the stop at Fullrigagaren would be called Galeonen and would be roughly, the one at Stora Varvsgatan will be called Masttorget, and the third stop would be called Malmö Central.  

Source: Malmö Kommun

After Fullriggaren the next stop would be at Lergravsparken in the Amagerbro neighbourhood, which connects with the current M2 line, after which the there will be four new stops on the way to Copenhagen Central, including DR Byen on the current M1 line. 

The hope is that the Öresund Metro will reduce the journey time between Copenhagen Central and Malmö Central from 40 minutes to 25 minutes. 

Source: Oresunds Metro

But that’s not all. Excavating a tunnel between Malmö and Copenhagen will produce large amounts of earth, which the architect firm Arkitema has proposed should be used to extend Malmö’s Västra Hamnen district out into the sea, creating a new coastal district called Galeonen, meaning “The Galleon”, centred on the Fullriggaren Metro stop. 

This project is similar to the Lynetteholm project in Copenhagen, which will use earth excavated for the Copenhagen Metro extension to build a peninsular in front of Copenhagen Harbour, providing housing and protecting the city from rising sea levels. 

Rather than producing a sea wall to protect the new area from rising sea levels, Arkitema and its partner, the Danish engineering firm COWI, have proposed a new coastal wetland area. 

“Instead of building a wall, we extended the land out into the sea. Then a green area is formed which is allowed to flood, and over time it will become a valuable environment, partly as a green area for Malmö residents, partly because of the rich biodiversity that will be created there,” Johanna Wadhstorp, an architect for Arkitema based in Stockholm, told the Sydsvenskan newspaper. 
 
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