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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Swedish word of the day: stuga

Today we take a look at a very Swedish word, used to describe a few different things, most of them comforting and positive.

Swedish word of the day: stuga
Many foreigners are trying to buy one of these in Sweden, thanks to the weak krona. Photo: Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Stuga is most commonly used to describe a small dwelling; usually smaller than the average house, often someone’s holiday home or second home, and could be translated into English as “cabin” or “cottage”.

It’s often used in the compound noun sommarstuga to refer to the many summer cabins that dot Sweden’s coastlines, forests and islands and serve as a holiday escape for many families.

But their use isn’t limited to summer and Swedes often also host their families their for celebrations at other times of the year, including over Christmas – usually only if their stuga is heated though, which isn’t always the case. Many of these cottages don’t have electricity or running water, but you’ll also find fancier stugor with all the mod cons you could wish for.

In this sense, the word stuga also conjures up lots of evocative feelings for Swedes. These are typically places of peace, comfort, and mysig-ness or cosiness, much closer to nature than city apartments.

The word is also sometimes used to describe a room, often one with a specific purpose: a tvättstuga (laundry room/building) might be a separate building but can also be used to talk about a room in a house, a förstuga is a porch or hall, and bastu (sauna) is a shortening of badstuga literally meaning “bathing room/cottage”.

The word stuga comes from the Old Swedish word stuva from the even older word stofa.

They have descendants in other languages too: Icelandic stofa means “living room” as does Norwegian stue (which earlier meant “small house”) and English “stove” (which earlier meant “heated room” and only later came to refer to one of the devices that did the heating) is also related. While these modern words might refer to different parts of the house, they all retain the connotation of homeliness.

Examples

Vi har en liten stuga i skogen

We have a little cottage in the woods

Hennes dröm var att bygga en egen stuga

Her dream was to build a cottage of her own

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.

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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: jordgubbe

If there's one thing Swedes can't get enough of in summer, it's these.

Swedish word of the day: jordgubbe

Jordgubbe is made up of two words: jord and gubbe.

Jord means earth or soil, and it’s also used in Swedish for Planet Earth.

It’s easy to assume that jordgubbe means “earth man”, gubbe on its own being a common word for referring to a male person (usually gubbe refers to someone either very young or very old, and it can be either affectionate or derogatory, depending on the context).

But this is wrong.

  • 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

Gubbe is also a Swedish dialect word used to refer to a small lump, so jordgubbe literally means “a small lump that grows in the earth” – more accurate, but less romantic than picturing strawberries as tiny little men who live in our garden and are to be picked and eaten with whipped cream… now that we think about it, “small lump” is probably better.

Strawberries were introduced to Sweden in the second half of the 18th century and were originally called ananassmultron due to their Latin name (Fragaria x ananassa).

The word jordgubbe has existed in the Swedish language since at least 1638, but was then the main name for musk strawberries, later known as parksmultron in Swedish.

Jordgubbar are one of the staple foods on Midsummer’s Eve and Swedes are convinced that they grow the best strawberries in the world.

Example sentences:

Polisen misstänker att gängkriminella har infiltrerat jordgubbsindustrin

Police suspect that gang criminals have infiltrated the strawberry industry

Goda jordgubbar! Är de svenska eller belgiska?

Yummy strawberries! Are they Swedish or Belgian?

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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