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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: trotsåldern

Anyone bringing up small children in Sweden will know this word, but it will probably be a mystery to other foreigners.

Swedish word of the day: trotsåldern
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Trotsåldern is the age of toddler tantrums; what in English-speaking countries is known as ‘the terrible twos’, but which often extends to three and four-year-olds too. 

You’ll usually see it in the definite form, trotsåldern, where the final ‘n’ is the equivalent of English ‘the’. It is a compound word combining trots, meaning ‘defiance’ (note: trots is also a preposition meaning ‘despite’) and åldern meaning ‘the age of’, and therefore literally means ‘the age of defiance’. 

  • 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

It is used most often in Sweden as a one-word excuse from embarrassed Mums and Dads as their child lies shrieking on a supermarket floor, red-faced, hammering the ground, and refusing to be moved. 

For example: [sighs]…Det är ju trotsåldern. This could be translated as “It’s just the terrible twos, you know”.

Trotsåldern is also the subject of innumerable articles in newspapers, magazines and parenting blogs with titles like: Hur man hanterar barn i trotsåldern (How to handle children in the terrible twos), Myten om trotsåldern (The myth of the terrible twos), and Så överlever ni trotsåldern (How you survive the terrible twos). 

You will sometimes hear the word trotsig (defiant) applied to toddlers in the trotsåldern, although it can equally describe a rebellious teenager, a stubborn animal, or a stubborn adult. 

And you can also talk about trotsålder (ages of defiance), tvåårstrots (two-year-old defiance), treårstrots (three-year-old defiance), and even tonårstrots (teenage defiance). 

Example sentences

Med ett barn i trotsåldern ställs stora krav på dig.

When you have a child in the terrible twos, it demands a lot of you 

Ordet trotsålder syftar på perioder i ett barns utveckling när det testar gränser.

The word ages of defiance describes periods in a child’s development when they test boundaries. 

Den klassiska trotsåldern börjar omkring 2½ år .

The classic terrible twos starts at around two and a half years old. 

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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For members

SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: shit

Before you get offended by this potty-mouthed word of the day, we should probably tell you that this English swear word is a lot milder in Swedish.

Swedish word of the day: shit

The word shit in Swedish is, as you may have guessed, a loanword from English. It has its roots in Middle English schit and scythe, meaning “dung”, which in turn originated in a Proto-Indo-European word meaning to split, divide or separate.

There are a number of words in other European languages which have the same root, like schijt in Dutch, Scheiße in German, skidt in Danish, skit/skitt in Norwegian and the Swedish word skit.

So, why does Swedish have two words for shit? Essentially, they’re used (and pronounced) in different ways.

Shit, pronounced similarly to the English word but in a Swedish accent, is essentially only used as an exclamation, whether that’s for something good or bad, and most adults in Sweden wouldn’t bat an eyelid if they heard a small child saying it. 

  • 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

It normally indicates some sort of surprise or shock, similar to “wow” or “oh my god” in English. You might also hear it in the phrase shit pommes frites, which literally translates as “shit, French fries!” which a Swedish speaker might use to express surprise: shit pommes frites, har du fått en ny mobil?! (“shit French fries, have you got a new phone?!”)

If you accidentally bumped into someone in a queue, for example, you could say shit, förlåt (shit, sorry), and if you came to some sort of realisation, you could say oj shit! (oh shit!). In general, saying shit would be acceptable even in professional situations with Swedes.

Skit, on the other hand, is pronounced with the sort of whooshing sj or sk-sound at the beginning, kind of like the word wheat, but with a whistle at the start.

It’s used in Swedish in broadly the same ways you’d use shit in English, both in the sense of actual faeces (as a noun and a verb) but also as a vulgar way to describe some sort of undesirable material or thing: jag har tröttnat på den här skiten (I’m tired of this shit) or ta bort din skit från bordet (take your shit off the table).

You may also have come across it in the term skit samma (the milder variant would be strunt samma), which can be translated as “never mind” or “forget it”, or skit också if something unfortunate happens (skit också, jag missade bussen – damn it, I missed the bus).

You can also describe something as being skit, use it in phrases like jag förstår inte ett skit (I don’t understand shit) and as an intensifier: han bankade skiten ur honom (he beat the shit out of him).

In contrast to shit, skit is generally considered less acceptable to use in a professional situation… although you will probably still hear children say it.

Example sentences:

Oj shit, spelar du in det här? 

Oh shit, are you recording this?

Ska vi inte åka snart? Shit, ja, klockan är redan 12!

Shouldn’t we leave soon? Shit, yeah, it’s already 12 o’clock!

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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