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LEARNING SWEDISH

26 unique Swedish words that we dare say are simply untranslatable

Our attempt to translate some of our favourite untranslatable Swedish words.

Published: 20 July 2017 06:59 CEST
Updated: 8 January 2024 09:21 CET
26 unique Swedish words that we dare say are simply untranslatable
This may look like any old cat to you, but in Sweden it's a lens louse. Photo: Anders Wiklund/Scanpix

1. Vobba

This word means “Working, even though you’ve taken a (paid) day off because your child is sick”. An increasing problem in Sweden, in fact. If anyone can put one word to this we’d love to hear it. It’s actually a play on words, mixing the word jobba (to work) with vabba (to stay home with a sick child – and comes from Vård Av Barn). Only in Sweden, huh?

2. Planka

This word describes another worsening problem, especially in Stockholm. It means to sneak behind the turnstiles onto a train by shuffling through the turnstiles behind someone else. For example: “Haha, Sven, you planked that lady so well that she didn’t even notice.” 

3. Vaska

This means “to buy two bottles of champagne at a bar, and then to have one poured down the sink to show how wealthy you are”. Of course, words like “waste” and “spoilt” and “moronic” also spring to mind, but they don’t cover it.

So who does it? Rich kids in Stockholm’s fancy Stureplan area are said to be experts at it.

“Pontus, look at those girls, shall we vaska to get their attention?”

“I don’t know Stefan, we could always just talk to them…”

“No, let’s vaska.”

4. Fika

Swedes pride themselves on the word fika. It means to have a cup of tea or coffee, maybe some cake, and to have a good old chat. Some might say it’s “Elevenses” or even just “coffee”, but if you tell that to a Swede they’ll never invite you to one again.

But it’s not the holy grail of untranslatable Swedish words… that would be….

5. Lagom

If you haven’t tired of the international lagom hype yet, here’s your chance. This word, which means “not too little, not too much… but just right” is the be-all and end-all of Swedish unique words. Think Goldilocks and her final bowl of porridge.

Swedes are so proud of this word that it could be the country slogan. You might suggest “optimal”, “adequate”, or “sufficient” are fair translations, but then you’d have to deal with the wrath of the Swedes (the only reason we added it to this list). And they’ll be lagom angry about it, you can bet.

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6. Löpsedel

This is “the enlarged front page of the newspaper that hangs outside news agents”. Some call them “billboards” but that’s not a lagom translation. If you search on Wikipedia for “billboard” you get all sorts of things including the name of an episode of Malcolm in the Middle – but nothing on the newspaper signs. Search for löpsedel and you get a whole essay on them. The point is, if you walk up to an English speaker and say “billboard” they’ll be confused, while a Swede simply won’t.

7. Festsnusa

This means “to only use moist snuff while at parties”. It’s kind of like being a casual smoker, but with moist snuff, which is incidentally very popular among Swedes. It’s a brilliant verb, but can be made into a noun too – festsnusare.

“Can I have one of your snus, Linda? I’m a party snuffer, you know.”

8. Panta

To panta something is “to recycle any bottles with the word pant on them”. This is a very common habit in Sweden. Many beer and soft drink bottles have the word pant on them, meaning you can score one or two kronor when returning them to the magic machine at the supermarket. Collect enough and you’ll save a heap on your shopping. And no, it’s not just “Recycle”. It’s recycling bottles… and not just any old bottles… pant bottles. Only in Sweden.

9. Blåsväder

This is a favourite word of Swedes in the media industry. It literally means “stormy weather” and is used in any kind of context that can mean trouble. It may be one of the most common headline words in Sweden. “The king in stormy weather” etc. Speaking of storm, you’re in the calm before the storm now. Scroll down and you’ll be in the storm. Warning, the next word is unsuitable for children.

10. Olla

This verb means to dab the end of a penis onto something, a bit like this. And it’s something of a popular word here. In fact, a plumber once making an appearance on Sweden’s Got Talent raised a smile when he sang about how he likes to “olla” everything in the home of his customers. And this is a family show. The song was called “I’ve olla-ed everything you own.” Untranslatable.

11. Orka

This verb is a tremendously common word in the Swedish language meaning “to have the energy”, and has nothing to do with Orcs.

For example: “Do you orka to watch The Lord of The Rings trilogy this weekend?” 

It can also be used sarcastically. A parent might, for example, ask their teenager to clean their room. The teenager will reply: “Orka!” Meaning, no, they definitely do not orka.

12. Harkla

It’s used to describe that little coughing noise one makes, often before giving a speech or dislodging cinnamon bun pieces from their throat. “Clearing one’s throat,” one would say in English. 

13. Hinna

This is an enormously common verb in Swedish, meaning “to find the time” or “to be on time”. Eg: Will you hinna to the cinema? We won’t hinna catch the train if you don’t turn up the heat on those jävla meatballs.

14. Blunda

To close your eyes, or to turn a blind eye. “My ex-girlfriend walked into the room and I blundade. I don’t know if she saw me, my eyes were closed. Has she gone?”

15. Mysa

We almost have this in English with the word snuggle, but if you’re gonna be mysa-ing in Swedish, you can do it with someone, alone, or even in a café – perhaps “to cosy up” fits the bill. “After my wife left me, I did a lot of solo mysa-ing. It wasn’t the best of times. It wasn’t the worse of times either…”

16. Duktig

Anyone who has ever learned Swedish will have heard this one by encouraging Swedes, who we suspect don’t always mean it. Its meaning is a strange mix of being good at something and being hard-working. Utter one half-formed sentence in Swedish and a Swede will say “How duktig you are!” and then probably switch back to English to remind you that they have been fluent since birth.

17. Jobbig

In terms of common words, you can’t spend a day in Sweden without coming across this word. It can mean troublesome or trying, annoying or difficult, about people, things, events – almost anything. It’s a real all-encompassing word.

For example: “I thought the train system in Sweden was so jobbigt until I cycled to work, and that, my friend, was even jobbigare.”

Or even: “My parents are so jobbiga. I really don’t orka clean my room.”

18. Gubbe/Gumma

Here is a two-for-one package meaning “old man/old lady” and rather endearingly – that is, if you’re saying them in an affectionate voice. In fact, they can be coupled with “lille gubben” to mean “little guy” for a boy, or lilla gumman for a girl. However, be careful, because if you don’t know what you’re doing or don’t get your tone of voice right it can be rather rude to call an actual old man or old lady a gubbe or gumma.

19. Mormor/farmor/morfar/farfar

Speaking of gubbar and gummor. As well as being a tongue twister for the rookie Swedish learner, this combination is a brilliant selection of words we desperately need in English. These are the words for your grandparents – (mothermother, fathermother, motherfather, fatherfather). Incidentally, the word for grandchild is childchild, but let’s take this one step at a time. 

20. Badkruka

Someone who refuses to enter a body of water.

“Get in the lake you badkruka, it’s summer!”

“No, the water’s just 16C. I don’t care what the löpsedel says, that’s not a heatwave.”

21. Solkatt

You know that glimmer that reflects the sunshine off a wristwatch? That’s called a solkatt in Swedish, and has nothing to do with cats that sit in the sun. “I’m blind! That evil woman has put a solkatt in my eyeball!”

22. Mambo

You might have heard of sambo before (which means live-in partner) but did you know that mambo is the word for an adult who lives at home with their mother? It is unclear whether this is against the mother’s will or not. “I’m going mambo for a few months, don’t try to stop me, Mum.”

23. Hoppilandkalle

This means “Kalle, the guy who jumps to dry land to moor a boat”. Swedes like to use names like Kalle in words, for example bollkalle (the child who runs off to get the ball when it’s kicked off the field), snuskpelle (a filthy person) or skrytmåns (someone who brags a lot). Or indeed hoppilandkalle, jump-ashore-kalle.

24. Linslus

Someone who always wants to have their face in a photo – literally “lens louse”. 

25. Dygn

This means literally “day and night”, or 24 hours. Swedes could say “I was stuck outside for three dygns” if they were unlucky. The movie “6 days, 7 nights” is called “six-and-a-half dygns” in Sweden (OK, not really).

26. Surströmmingspremiär

The first day of the year when it is acceptable to eat rotten herring (surströmming is a foul-smelling and fermented fish considered a delicacy in Sweden).

“Where will you be for the surströmmingpremiär this year?”

“Very far away, my friend.”

This is an edited and updated version of previous lists written by Oliver Gee. Last updated in 2024.

For members

LEARNING SWEDISH

How positive are Swedes towards foreign accents?

Swedes respond most positively to people speaking Swedish with English, Finnish and German accents, according to a new study from Sweden's Institute for Language and Folklore.

Published: 2 May 2024 15:29 CEST
How positive are Swedes towards foreign accents?

The study asked Swedes to identify the accents of twelve different people speaking Swedish, before rating the speakers on their trustworthiness, friendliness, ambition, confidence, appeal and whether they were ordentlig, a Swedish word which describes something similar to being “proper” or an upstanding citizen. 

These qualities were then ranked from one (not at all) to six (a lot), before being combined into a total score for each speaker.

Respondents were not told if they had guessed the accent of a speaker correctly or incorrectly before ranking them.

Speakers of Swedish with an English accent had the highest score on this scale: 3.86, although this is still low considering that the highest possible score was six. The English speaker spoke British English and has lived in Sweden for 41 years.

Finns came just behind on 3.85, with Germans coming third with a score of 3.79.

These three accents were also considered to be the easiest to understand, no matter how strong or weak the accents were considered to be.

In fourth place with a score of 3.62 was a female speaker with a förortsaccent, which is not an accent at all but rather a dialect of Swedish spoken in the often immigrant-heavy suburbs (förorter) of large cities. Although some aspects of förortssvenska have been influenced by languages spoken by people who have immigrated to these parts of Sweden from abroad, many speakers of förortssvenska were born in Sweden and have lived their entire lives here.

Next up were Somali, Arabic and Turkish accents, with scores of 3.32, 3.29 and 3.24 respectively. Polish, Persian and Spanish accents followed with scores of 3.23, 3.21 and 3.15, with a Bosnian accent the lowest placing foreign accent at 3.06.

The lowest result in the study overall was for a male speaker with a förortsaccent, with a score of just 2.95.

Women ranked more highly than men

Interestingly, female speakers made up four of the top five, although the most positively rated accent (English) was a male speaker. There was also only one woman in the bottom five (the Spanish speaker) suggesting that Swedes are more positive towards women with foreign accents than men.

The respondents were also asked to guess what level of education the speakers had, where they could choose between junior high school or equivalent (grundskola), senior high school or equivalent (gymnasium), post-secondary school education that was not university-level, and university-level studies.

Accents from closer countries scored more highly

As a general rule, Swedes assumed that people from countries which are closer geographically had a higher level of education than those who were from further away. English came top again, followed by German and Finnish, while a male speaker of förortssvenska came last, with the speaker with a Bosnian accent coming second to last.

In general, speakers of the accents which scored highly in terms of positive associations were also assumed to have a higher level of education, and the same can be said for the accents which had the most negative ratings.

There is a caveat, however. The positively-rated accents – English, Finnish and German – were those which speakers were best at identifying. Almost 90 percent of Swedes in the study recognised an Finnish accent, with just under 85 percent recognising an English accent and slightly under 70 percent recognising a German one.

This means that in these cases, respondents were judging these specific accents, and may have been influenced by prior contact with speakers of Swedish from these countries such as friends, coworkers or public figures, or commonly held assumptions about them.

That was also the case for the male förortsaccent, which was the fourth-most recognised accent – just over 40 percent of listeners identified it correctly.

For the other accents, listeners were unsure of their guesses, even those who guessed correctly. Only one in twenty listeners could recognise the Turkish accent, for example.

This means that assumptions made about speakers with less easily identified accents may be due to other factors than their nationality, such as the strength of their accent and their gender.

Indeed, the most common incorrect guess when a listener could not identify an accent was Arabic, often bringing with it negative ratings in the other categories.

Political views also make a difference

The study also looked at whether certain traits or beliefs in the listening Swedes affected how they ranked each speaker.

Men rated each speaker more negatively than the average score given by all listeners, while women rated them more positively.

There were also clear differences when it comes to politics, with right-wing voters more likely to have a negative opinion of foreign accents.

Listeners who identified as Sweden Democrats or Moderates rated almost all accents significantly lower than the average (Sweden Democrats rated English and Finnish roughly the same as average listeners, and Moderates rated German accents roughly the same as the average).

Christian Democrats and Liberals rated the accents similar to the average result for all listeners, while left-bloc voters belonging to the Centre Party, Social Democrats, Green Party and Left Party rated almost all accents significantly higher than the average. 

The groups with the most positive attitude towards people speaking Swedish with an accent were women, the highly educated, voters in the left-wing bloc and, to a lesser extent, older people and people who earn less than 25,000 kronor a month.

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