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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: slump

It's no accident that we're looking at this word today.

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

En slump is 'a chance', 'a coincidence', or 'an accident'. Hear how it sounds below:

There are several ways to say “it happened by chance” or “it happened by accident” using slump. The two most common are to say: det var en slump (att) or to say something happened av en slump

Don't forget the article (en), which is easily done if you're used to the English phrases 'by chance', 'by accident' or 'at random'. Let's take a look.

Det var en slump – It was an accident/it happened by chance

Det är en slump att (det här händer nu) – It is by chance that (this is happening now)

Ön upptäcktes av en slump – The island was discovered by chance

Jag blev rik nästan av en slump – I got rich almost by accident

You can reinforce it by using words like ren (pure): det var en ren slump! or show how you feel about it by adding an adjective like lycklig (happy) or olycklig (unhappy): Jag träffade henne av en lycklig slump (I met her by happy coincidence). 

And as a one-word alternative, you can use the adjective slumpmässig or the adverb slumpmässigt.

For example:

Denna utveckling är inte slumpmässig – This development is not random

Personerna har valts slumpmässigt – The people were chosen randomly

If you want to stress that something was intentional, there are two ways to use slump:

Det är ingen slump att (alla har sagt samma sak) – It's no coincidence that (everyone said the same thing)

Det är inte en slump att (du föddes) – It's not by chance that (you were born)

The second example using inte places a strong emphasis on the negation, perhaps if you're challenging a widely held view. 

We're looking at this word today after the director of Sweden's Public Health Agency said that Sweden was worse hit by the coronavirus outbreak than its Nordic neighbours av en slump (at random).

The assertion in an interview with Svenska Dagbladet has ignited debate over Sweden's strategy focused on voluntary measures compared to the stricter lockdowns in Denmark and Norway, and the perceived lack of accountability at the agency that has led the national coronavirus response.

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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. 

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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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