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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Swedish word of the day: tråkig

Today we're looking at yet another Swedish word which doesn't always mean what you might assume.

Swedish word of the day: tråkig
Image: nito103/Depositphotos

Tråkig usually appears in dictionaries as the Swedish equivalent of ‘boring’ or 'dull', but it’s not always easy to translate directly. Hear how it's pronounced in the audio clip below:

Tråkig is more versatile than English ‘boring’, and is often used generally to describe something bad, sad, unpleasant, or annoying.

For example, if your bike is stolen or you injure yourself, a Swede might say Oj, vad tråkigt! They’re not telling you that your bad luck is boring them; it’s a sympathetic expression, which in English we might translate as ‘oh no, how annoying/sad’ or ‘oh, what a pain’. 

This is especially true in the expression tråkigt nog, which means ‘sadly’, as in: Tråkigt nog finns det många exemplar av ojämställdhet i världen (sadly, there are many examples of inequality in the world). 

But in other situations, tråkig can be ambiguous. For example, if you share an anecdote with Swedish friends and they reply 'det var en tråkig historia' (that was a sad/boring story), you'll need to rely on other clues such as their tone and the general context to work out what they mean. If you want to be clear that you mean 'boring/tedious', you can use the word långtråkig, a more emphatic form of tråkig.

Tråkig comes from an old Swedish verb, tråka, which originally meant ‘to push together/to clamp’ and is related to the words trycka (to push) and tryck (pressure) in today’s Swedish.

Over time, the meaning of this word developed from referring to physical pushing to metaphorical pushing, in the sense of going over and over the same point. From there, it soon came to mean 'to walk/move slowly' and was also used to mean 'to work slowly'.

Today, the verb tråka is still used, but usually combined with the preposition ut to mean ‘to bore’, for example: jag ska inte tråka ut dig med alla detaljerna (I won’t bore you with all the details). 

Examples

Vi läser en mördande tråkig bok i skolan

We're reading a deathly boring book at school

Det var tråkigt att höra att din hund är forsvunnen

It was sad (note: not boring!) to hear that your dog's gone missing

Do you have a favourite Swedish word you would like to nominate for our word of the day series? Get in touch by email or if you are a Member of The Local, log in to comment below.

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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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