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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: ö

The Swedish language might be known for its lengthy complex words, but today we take a look at a word just one letter long.

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

Ö is the 29th and final letter of the Swedish alphabet – unlike German for example, it's a distinct letter and not an accented o.

Note that in Swedish, instead of saying 'A to Z' you say 'A till Ö'. And be aware that of the Scandinavian languages, Swedish and Icelandic are the only ones with the letter ö.

It's also a word in its own right, meaning 'island'. And it happens to be the third favourite Swedish word of The Local's readers.

The letter and word are pronounced the same way, and it can be a tricky sound for non-natives to master at first. Listen to the clip below:

Sweden has a long coastline and many, many lakes, so it's a word you'll hear a lot here.

You'll spot it in place names of course, like Värmdö, Djurö, Älgö, Hönö and Björkö (literally meaning 'hot spring island', 'animal island', 'elk island', 'hen island' and 'birch tree island'). These are generally Sweden's smaller islands, while big ones like Gotland have names without the ö.

This can make things a bit complicated, because you generally use the preposition på with islands. For example, you would say 'jag bor på Värmdö' instead of jag bor i Värmdö. You would usually say 'på Gotland' too, but would say 'i Gotland' if you're talking about Gotland as an administrative region rather than a place – but it's not a major faux pas to mix up and i.

The word for peninsula is halvö, literally 'half island'.

Ö also features in a Swedish dialectal poem, in a line made up of single letters. You can read the full poem here, and the sentence goes: d’ä e å, å i åa ä e ö. In standard Swedish, that's 'det är en å, och i ån är en ö' (there is a stream, and in the stream there is an island). If that confused you, don't worry – the whole point of the poem is about a city visitor failing to understand the dialect! 

Examples

Jag bor på en liten ö i skärgården

I live on a small island in the archipelago

Ingen människa är en ö

No man/person is an island

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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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