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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

​​Swedish word of the day: mallgroda

Today's word of the day is a cocky frog.

Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Mallgroda literally means ‘cocky frog’, but it is simply another way of saying that someone is cocky. 

Mallig means cocky, but this word has been attested as far back as 1912. It comes from the expression to malla sig which in turn comes from a dialectal baking term, malle, which means ‘core; marrow; inside of bread (which lifts and ferments)’. 

So it describes the bit that is fermenting and puffing itself up, much like a cocky person. It’s little surprise then that before 1912 the word that Swedes used instead of mallig was jäsig, which means ‘yeasty’. 

But why frog? Well, that is to be found in the second meaning of groda in Swedish, a meaning which supposedly is drawn from a folktale about the frogs that jumped out of the wicked daughter’s mouth when she laughed. In this sense a groda means a ‘blunder’, as in someone accidentally saying something inaccurate, often something embarrassing. 

So a mallgroda is literally a yeasty frog, but really a cocky, blundering embarrassment or, perhaps more succinctly, a person who is boisterous, yet full of nonsense. 

Being by now, as many of you are, experts of Sweden, you know that no Swede likes a boisterous person – it violates the Law of Jante. Yet calling someone a mallgroda doesn’t really count as harsh invective. In fact, if you tried to use it on someone seriously, they would probably laugh in your face.

Mallgroda is most often used jokingly when someone is being a bit boisterous, which obviously is also most often only done tongue-in-cheek, because how many Swede would actually brag about themselves? (Except for Zlatan, of course, but that is ok, because there is only one Zlatan, as he so often says.)

Mallgroda is also frequently used in Astrid Lindgren’s famous work Madicken, which you can watch right now on SVT Play, but hurry up, there is only one day left of Season 1, although these series tend to return.

Practice using mallgroda when a colleague or friend is feeling just a little bit too good about what they have achieved, and mentions it once too often. As a good Swede, you cannot have that.

Best of luck!

Example sentences:

Nä, nu får du va tyst, din lilla mallgroda!

Ok, quiet down now, you little show-off!

Nu ska du inte komma här och tro, din mallgroda!

Don’t come here thinking you’re all that, you show-off!

Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is now 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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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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