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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: strul

The word "strul" has two very different meanings in Swedish, let's dive into them.

Published: 22 March 2022 16:09 CET
Swedish word of the day: strul
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

The basic meaning of the noun strul is “trouble” or “tangle”, and can be used in a number of different ways depending on the context.

One of these is as a suffix, used to describe some sort of issue you’re having.

You can simply attach it to the end of a word, depending on the issue. If you’re in the office and your laptop shuts down, or the internet doesn’t work, you’re experiencing teknikstrul. And if you’re planning on taking the bus at 1pm sharp on your way to work, but the bus is running late, you might be suffering from some buss-strul, or tågstrul, if you’re taking the train.

But if you’re talking about ett strul or the verb att strula, you’re talking about something completely different.

Att strula med någon means to temporarily hook up with someone in a casual way, for example if you make out with a random person on the dance floor, or have a one-night stand. The verb strula is mostly used by so-called fjortisar, a negative word for “immature teenagers”.

But watch out for the tricky part. When talking about teknikstrul, while your laptop shuts down, you could say min dator strular. That doesn’t mean that your laptop is having a casual fling with another laptop, it means that you laptop is not working correctly.

If you watch your friend making out with a random person at the dancefloor however, you could say min kompis strular med någon, which in this case, does refer to a casual hook-up.

Examples 

Jag strulade med någon på festen igårkväll

I casually hooked up with someone at the party last night

Min dator strulade hela dagen igår på jobbet 

My computer didn’t work correctly the entire day at work yesterday 

Det var lite tågstrul på vägen hem idag

There were some problems with the trains on the way home today

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 – or join The Local as a member and get your copy for free.

It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.

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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.

Published: 11 June 2024 15:25 CEST
Updated: 12 June 2024 15:11 CEST
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 US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.

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