Moln is the Swedish word for cloud. Pretty straightforward, you might think, but moln also features in a number of compound words.

One of these is molntäcke which translates literally as “cloud duvet”. This is used to describe overcast weather – an entirely grey sky, covered with cloud with no visible contours or holes in the cloud.

Molntäcke or overcast weather is caused by dimmoln (dim-moln), translating literally as “fog cloud”. This type of cloud is known as stratus in English, producing overcast weather if clouds are high in the sky, or dimma – fog – if clouds are closer to the ground.

The word moln can also be seen in molntjänst – cloud services – referring to internet-based services such as data storage services like iCloud. These are referred to as cloud storage services or molnlagring in Swedish.

A great moln-related Swedish song is Tralala lilla molntuss, kom hit ska du få en puss by bob hund, a band from the southern Swedish city of Helsingborg whose name translates as “bob dog”.

Molntuss is a word they have created out of moln and tuss – a small tuft or ball of something soft. This is also seen in bomullstuss – a cotton wool ball or pad – and dammtuss, a dustball. So one translation of this song title could be “Tralala little cloud tuft, come here and I’ll give you a kiss”.

Admittedly, it’s a bit more catchy in Swedish.

Examples:

Kolla på det där molnet! Det liknar en elefant!

Look at that cloud! It looks like an elephant!

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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.