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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: 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.

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