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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: pytteliten

Certain words are just fun to say, and our Swedish word of the day is certainly one of them. 'Pytteliten' is a way of describing something that's smaller than small.

Swedish word of the day: pytteliten
It's about as tiny as anything can get. Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

It means something like tiny, miniscule, or teeny-weeny, and can be used to describe animals, buildings, or just about anything that’s much smaller than average. You wouldn’t usually use it to talk about people though, other than perhaps a particularly tiny baby.

If we take a closer look at the origin of the word, its second half – liten – is the Swedish word for small.

Liten is often a confusing word for language-learners as its endings change depending on the (grammatical) gender and number of what it’s referring to.

There’s liten/litet, used with “en” and “ett” words respectively in the indefinite form, and lilla for both genders in the definite form, as well as små which is used in the plural.

If you already know English, you can probably guess that små and liten share their origins with the words “small” and “little”, but while in English the variants are used interchangeably, in Swedish there are specific rules to follow. Pytteliten follows the same rules, so you’ll see different forms such as pyttelilla and pyttesmå

As for the origins of the first half of the word, pytt used to be used in other contexts to mean “small” in Swedish, both as an adjective and as a noun meaning “little person”. So in pytteliten it’s an intensifier, strengthening the meaning in the same way as jätteliten or mycket liten – translated literally it means “small-small”.

But wait, is there any connection to the popular Swedish dish pyttipanna, we hear you cry.

This is actually a disputed subject among Swedish linguists. Some argue that yes, the pytt here refers to the “small things” (diced potatoes, onions, and meat) that make up the meal, but others claim it comes from the verb putta, which today means “to push” or “to putt” in the golfing sense, but used to mean the same thing as English “to put”. According to that explanation, pyttipanna literally describes “putting [ingredients] in the pan”.

Examples:

Det finns en pytteliten stuga i skogen

There is a teeny tiny cabin in the wood

Pratar du svenska? Åh, pyttelite…

Do you speak Swedish? Well, a tiny bit…

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.

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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: kondis

Today’s word has two meanings: one is healthy, the other less so.

Swedish word of the day: kondis

Kondis is a great example of a Swedish slang word ending in -is, which essentially is the shortened version of a longer word.

Somewhat confusingly, in the case of kondis, there are actually two similar words which have both been shortened in this way, resulting in one word with two different meanings.

The first meaning comes from konditori, the Swedish version of a patisserie or bakery, which you might recognise from the German word Konditor (a confectioner or pastry chef), originally from the Latin word condītor, which referred to a person who preserved, pickled or seasoned food.

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The word kondis can either refer to a konditori itself, or to the type of baked goods and pastries they offer. A kondis differs somewhat from a bageri (bakery), which is more likely to focus on savoury or rustic baked goods, like bread (although many kondis also sell bread, and many bagerier will serve some sort of cake or sweet treat too). 

A kondis is also more likely to have some area where you can sit and enjoy your food on-site, perhaps with a cup of tea or coffee, while bakeries are more likely to be take-away only.

The second meaning of kondis is a shortened version of the word kondition, which translates roughly as your endurance or fitness. If you’re good at running, you might be described as having bra kondition or bra kondis, roughly equal to being fit. 

Another similar slang word for this in Swedish would be flås, which technically translates to “panting”, but can be used in the same way as kondis to describe physical endurance or fitness.

Example sentences:

Om man äter för mycket kondis kan man få dålig kondis.

If you eat too many pastries you could end up less fit.

Sprang du hela vägen hit? Du måste ha bra kondis!

Did you run the whole way here? You must be in good shape.

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.

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