SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: supa

Here's a Swedish word that may or may not be useful over the weekend, but be sure to use it with caution.

the word supa written on a blackboard next to the swedish flag
This word didn't always mean what it means today. Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Att supa is a verb that means “to drink alcohol”, usually with the connotation of drinking to excess, with the goal of getting drunk.

You usually use it without a noun object, so in conjugated form you say han super and not han super alkohol, but you’ll also hear the phrase att supa sig full which literally means “to drink oneself drunk”. En supare is a (heavy) drinker.

But the word has much more innocent origins, shared with the English word “soup” and its Swedish equivalent soppa.

In Old Norse and Old Swedish, supa meant “to drink” and was often used in particular for foods that were consumed in liquid form rather than beverages. One recipe that was popular from the 16th century onwards was ölsupa (beer soup), in which the alcoholic drink was mixed with milk, flour, and sometimes eggs or sugar.

So the verb att supa was used to mean “to eat soup”, but because of the popularity of beer soup, the term gradually came to include other alcoholic drinks too: first, those which were consumed with a spoon, and later others as well.

  • Don’t miss any of our Swedish words and expressions of the day by downloading our new app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Swedish Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button

Swedish also has the noun en sup meaning “a sip” but used only with alcoholic drinks, in phrases such as att ta en sup (to take a sip, although it doesn’t have to be limited to just a sip). There are equivalent verbs in Danish and German with the same origin: zuipen and saufen.

The related word att insupa has a neutral meaning, equivalent to “to consume”, but this has become more generalised, also meaning “to breathe in” or “to absorb”, so you can insupa an atmosphere.

There’s also the term kålsupare (literally “cabbage drinker”) which isn’t used much on its own, but comes as part of the idiom lika goda kålsupare (equally good cabbage drinkers). You can use this phrase to demonstrate that two people are equally useless or otherwise alike in a negative way. In English, it could be translated as “birds of a feather” or “both as bad as each other”. 

Examples

Jag vill inte supa

I don’t want to drink (too much)

Vi ska supa oss under bordet

We’ll drink ourselves under the table (part of a typical Swedish drinking song)

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.

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: 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.

  • Don’t miss any of our Swedish words and expressions of the day by downloading The Local’s app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Swedish Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button

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.

SHOW COMMENTS