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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: jul

What better time to take a look at the Swedish word for Christmas?

Published: 10 December 2018 12:27 CET
Updated: 21 December 2023 08:44 CET
the word jul on a black background by a swedish flag
Are you looking forward to jul? Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

That word is jul, which you’ll hear in the greeting God Jul! (Merry Christmas!) and as a prefix added to just about any noun or word to give it a festive feel, such as julsång (Christmas song), julstämning (Christmas atmosphere), julshoppa (to shop for Christmas gifts and items), julmat (Christmas food), julstäda (to clean the house for Christmas)… we could go on.

And on and on: if there’s one thing Swedes enjoy more than holiday preparations, it’s creating compound words. Another option is to turn jul into an adjective: julig means “Christmassy”.

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

English speakers might spy a resemblance to the outdated term “yule”, and there are related words in most Nordic languages: Norwegian and Danish jul, Icelandic jól, and Finnish joulua. All these words do indeed share an origin in Old Norse jól and can be traced further back to similar words in proto-Germanic languages.

In both English and Swedish today, jul and yule are specific references to Christmas: the Christian holiday and the surrounding season.

But that wasn’t always so.

The meaning of older forms of the word jul were used to define different parts of the winter season depending on where in Sweden or Scandinavia the speaker was located.

In fact, language historians aren’t sure exactly where it originally came from or what it meant in the earliest times, whether it was always linked to a specific festival or feast, or started out as a more general term for the winter season. The only thing that’s known for certain is that it predates the Christian celebration of Christmas, and that you’ll hear it a lot throughout December in Sweden.

Example sentences:

Jul, jul, strålande jul, glans över vita skogar

Christmas, Christmas, brilliant Christmas, shine over white forests (lyrics to a beloved wintery tune)

Snart är det jul!

It’s nearly Christmas!

Need a last-minute Christmas gift idea?

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.

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For members

SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: själv

Today's Swedish word can help you talk about independence, solitude... and swearwords.

Published: 11 April 2024 09:31 CEST
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.

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