Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Swedish word of the day: läslov

If you have children in your life, today's Swedish word of the day is for you. It's a recent addition to the dictionary, only coined in 2016.

Published: 30 October 2018 14:49 CET

Swedish word of the day: läslov

Do you love läslov? Image: nito103/Depositphotos

Läslov is the new-ish name for Sweden's autumn break, formerly known as höstlov (literally 'autumn break').

It literally means 'reading break' and the idea was introduced by the government back in 2016. The goal of the rebrand was to draw attention to the importance of reading and literacy, and encourage Swedish children to spend at least some of the week off reading, in a similar way to the February break which is known as sportlov (sport break).

The government invested five million kronor ($562,000) in initiatives aimed at promoting reading, following declining scores in international literacy tests.

INTERVIEW: 'In Sweden no kid should ever be left behind'

Lov is related to the English noun 'leave', and the link to vacation is clear if you think about 'leaving a place' or the noun 'a leave of absence', In Swedish, lov has two main other meanings: praise and permission.

In the video below, one Swede explains why lov is one of her very favourite words in the language.

Examples

Läslovet kan vara ett tillfälle för elever att hitta sin läslust

The reading break can be an opportunity for students to find their love of reading

Vi har läslov nästa vecka

We have reading break next week

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Swedish word of the day: själv

The word själv means “self”, as in han gjorde det själv (he did it himself), jag tycker själv bäst om våren (I personally prefer spring), vad tycker du själv (what do you yourself think?) or as parents of Swedish-speaking two-year-olds will know too well, kan själv (“can self!” or “I can do it myself!”).

Själv can also mean “alone” – not necessarily implying that the speaker is feeling lonely – such as jag var hemma själv (“I was home alone”) or jag gick på bio själv (“I went to the cinema on my own”). If you’re feeling lonely, you should instead say jag känner mig ensam.

It appears in several compound words, such as självisk (selfish) or osjälvisk (unselfish/selfless), självbehärskad (restrained, or more literally in control of oneself) or självförtroende (confidence).

Don’t miss any of our Swedish words and expressions of the day by downloading our app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Swedish Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button

A trickier word to explain is självaste.

Självaste can also mean him or herself, but think of it as a more extreme version, implying that the speaker has some sort of reaction to the person in question, perhaps they’re impressed or shocked. Other translations can be “in the flesh” or “none other than”.

For example: jag vände mig om och då stod självaste drottningen där (“I turned around and the Queen herself was standing there”) or de vann mot självaste Barcelona (“They won against none other than Barcelona”).

You also often hear it when Swedes swear. Det var då självaste fan (“It was the devil… in the flesh”) may be said by someone who is annoyed that something went wrong or isn’t working, although more often than not they’ll leave the last word unspoken: det var då självaste… (similarly to how an English-speaker may say “what the…” leaving out the cruder word “hell”).

Examples:

Själv är bästa dräng

If you want to get something done you’d best do it yourself

I själva verket

In actual fact (in fact, actually)

Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it. It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.

Url copied to clipboard!