SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: en gubbe

Our latest word of the day is a term that can describe old and young men and boys, but you'll have to be careful how you use it. The meaning changes completely depending on the tone.

Swedish word of the day: en gubbe
An affectionate term or an insult? It depends. Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

En gubbe is a Swedish noun most often used to refer to a male person, and it can be affectionate or derogatory depending on the context.

When talking to your friends about your grandfather, for example, you might refer to him as en gubbe; it’s an endearing way of saying “old man”. But it can also be used for men and boys of all ages, particularly young children, who be affectionately called a “lille gubben” (roughly “little fellow”).

However, it can also be an insult, particularly if used about a man you don’t know, or in a negative tone. If you really want to insult someone, it can be coupled with adjectives such as “grinig gubbe” (grumpy old man) or “ful gubbe” (literally “ugly man” but usually used to mean “dirty old man” or “letch”).

A good example of how the meaning can change is when Swedish-speaking women use it to refer to their husbands.

When said in an affectionate context, “min gubbe” is a colloquial way of saying “my husband”, similar to the British “my man” or “my bloke”, and usually no offence would be intended at all.

However, it can also be used to criticise men for letting themselves go: one online list titled “Signs your man has become a gubbe” lists criteria such as wearing old, worn out underwear, allowing nose and ear hair to grow, preferring to stay at home than go out, and growing grumpy.

So think twice about your tone before you call somebody a gubbe – it can come off harsher than intended and is almost never appropriate if you aren’t close with the subject. There’s also a female equivalent, en gumma, used mostly to describe older women which has the same ambiguity so can be either affectionate or insulting.

Swedish-learners might be wondering if there’s any link to the word for strawberry: en jordgubbe.

Gubbe is also a Swedish dialect word to refer to a small lump, and jord means “earth” in the sense of soil, so a strawberry is quite simply “a small lump that grows in the earth”. Most linguists believe that this dialect word was the origin of “en gubbe” meaning man, probably first used to refer to small children.

Over time, it’s likely that it started being used more widely to men of all ages, but it helps explain the sometimes negative connotations.

One final form of gubbe to watch out for: in Swedish slang, en gubbe also means “a gram” of drugs. 

Examples

Min man har blivit en tråkig gubbe

My husband has become a boring old man

Vad är det som är fel, gubben?

What’s the matter, sweetie? (probably said in a concerned tone to a child)

Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is now available to order in English or German. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it.

It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon USAmazon UKBokus or Adlibris.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: shit

Before you get offended by this potty-mouthed word of the day, we should probably tell you that this English swear word is a lot milder in Swedish.

Swedish word of the day: shit

The word shit in Swedish is, as you may have guessed, a loanword from English. It has its roots in Middle English schit and scythe, meaning “dung”, which in turn originated in a Proto-Indo-European word meaning to split, divide or separate.

There are a number of words in other European languages which have the same root, like schijt in Dutch, Scheiße in German, skidt in Danish, skit/skitt in Norwegian and the Swedish word skit.

So, why does Swedish have two words for shit? Essentially, they’re used (and pronounced) in different ways.

Shit, pronounced similarly to the English word but in a Swedish accent, is essentially only used as an exclamation, whether that’s for something good or bad, and most adults in Sweden wouldn’t bat an eyelid if they heard a small child saying it. 

  • Don’t miss any of The Local’s 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

It normally indicates some sort of surprise or shock, similar to “wow” or “oh my god” in English. You might also hear it in the phrase shit pommes frites, which literally translates as “shit, French fries!” which a Swedish speaker might use to express surprise: shit pommes frites, har du fått en ny mobil?! (“shit French fries, have you got a new phone?!”)

If you accidentally bumped into someone in a queue, for example, you could say shit, förlåt (shit, sorry), and if you came to some sort of realisation, you could say oj shit! (oh shit!). In general, saying shit would be acceptable even in professional situations with Swedes.

Skit, on the other hand, is pronounced with the sort of whooshing sj or sk-sound at the beginning, kind of like the word wheat, but with a whistle at the start.

It’s used in Swedish in broadly the same ways you’d use shit in English, both in the sense of actual faeces (as a noun and a verb) but also as a vulgar way to describe some sort of undesirable material or thing: jag har tröttnat på den här skiten (I’m tired of this shit) or ta bort din skit från bordet (take your shit off the table).

You may also have come across it in the term skit samma (the milder variant would be strunt samma), which can be translated as “never mind” or “forget it”, or skit också if something unfortunate happens (skit också, jag missade bussen – damn it, I missed the bus).

You can also describe something as being skit, use it in phrases like jag förstår inte ett skit (I don’t understand shit) and as an intensifier: han bankade skiten ur honom (he beat the shit out of him).

In contrast to shit, skit is generally considered less acceptable to use in a professional situation… although you will probably still hear children say it.

Example sentences:

Oj shit, spelar du in det här? 

Oh shit, are you recording this?

Ska vi inte åka snart? Shit, ja, klockan är redan 12!

Shouldn’t we leave soon? Shit, yeah, it’s already 12 o’clock!

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 USAmazon UKBokus or Adlibris.

SHOW COMMENTS