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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: vårstädning

Vårstädning has a simple English translation, but also refers to a very Swedish concept.

Published: 14 April 2021 17:19 CEST
Updated: 14 April 2023 14:09 CEST
Swedish word of the day: vårstädning
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Vårstädning (vår + städning) means ‘spring clean’ and refers to a big tidy-up at the start of the warmer season. You can do this on your own at home, but in Sweden many housing associations and apartment blocks also organise a vårstädning day as a group activity.

Usually the association will invite residents to take part in the day, which might involve weeding, planting flowers, and bringing out any outdoor furniture. It’s a chance to get to know the neighbours and coffee and snacks like biscuits or hotdogs are often provided for helpers.

There’s also an autumn counterpart, höststädning, when the outdoor furniture gets taken in and the garden cleared up ready for winter.

Sweden is generally considered a tough place to make friends, and even to get to know neighbours — it’s not that common, for example, to knock on neighbours’ doors to introduce yourself as a new arrival, especially in big cities where apartment blocks have a relatively higher turnover of residents.

But participating in these organised chores, as well as getting involved with the association’s board itself, is a way to show you’re a good neighbour, willing to do your part.

You can also use vårstäda as a verb, for example vårstäda trädgården (to give the garden a spring clean).

And like in English, the term can be used figuratively. In 2021 ministers discussed a vårstädning of Sweden’s population register, involving removing outdated coordination numbers from the register, and you might also use it to talk about another kind of re-organisation. 

Example sentences:

Har ni några planer för helgen? Nä, inte riktigt, vi ska mest vårstäda.

Do you guys have any plans for the weekend? Nah, not really, we’re mainly going to be spring cleaning.

Oj vad det känns bra att vårstäda! Hela lägenheten har fått ett lyft.

Ah, it feels so nice to spring clean! The whole apartment has been refreshed.

Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is now 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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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: annandag

Today is annandag pingst, but what does annandag actually mean?

Published: 20 May 2024 11:16 CEST
Swedish word of the day: annandag

Many Swedish religious holidays last three days, starting with the afton celebrated the day before the holiday, then the dag, which is the actual day of the holiday, then annandag, the day after the holiday.

Some examples of these are Christmas (jul), Easter (påsk) and Pentecost (pingst), where annandag refers to Boxing Day, Easter Monday and Whit Monday, respectively.

Annandag itself is a compound word consisting of two words: annan and dag. Let’s look at annan first.

Annan comes from the Old Swedish word annar, meaning “second”, “other” or “one of two”. In the accusative case, this became annan, which has hung on in modern Swedish. (For the purposes of this article I’ll be skipping the explanation of Old Swedish grammar, but the grammatically-inclined can read more on the accusative case here.)

It can be complicated to translate into English, and the fact that the word can appear as annat, andre or andra, too, depending on the object it refers to, doesn’t make this easier. 

Here are a few ways it can be translated: 

Vill du ha någonting annat? (Would you like something else?)

Jag vill ha en annan tröja (I want a different top)

Har du några andra leksaker? (Do you have any other toys?)

Den andre prinsen heter André (The second prince is called André [you could use andra here, too])

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Dag, meanwhile, comes from the Old Norse dagr via Old Swedish dagher, with the same Proto-West Germanic root as the English word “day”. 

It differs from the word dygn, which refers specifically to a 24-hour period (as an aside, there is a rarely used word for this in English, too, nychthemeron, from an Ancient Greek term meaning “lasting a day and a night”). 

As far as annandag is concerned, the annan here means “second”, so it literally translates to the second day of whatever holiday it’s referring to.

Usually, an annandag will be written alongside the name of its respective holiday, like annandag påsk or annandag pingst. If you see it written alone, it’s probably referring to annandag jul, which is December 26th or Boxing Day.

Although most holidays in Sweden have an afton and a dag, not all of them have annandagar, so you’ll probably raise a few eyebrows if you ask your colleagues about their plans for annandag midsommar. 

We won’t stop you trying to get your friends and family to celebrate you for an extra day on annandag födelse (second birthday), annandag mor (second mothers’ day) or annandag far (second father’s day), though.

Example sentences:

Annandag pingst var allmän helgdag i Sverige fram till 2004

Whit Monday was a public holiday in Sweden until 2004

Vi brukar fira med min pappas familj på annandagen

We usually celebrate with my dad’s family on December 26th

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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