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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: mojäng

​The word of the day is the medium of a French word in Swedish. 

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

A mojäng is a ‘(technical) object, often with unclear function’, sort of ‘a gadget’. This word has no Swedish root, instead it is French. Coming from the French word moyen, the spelling of mojäng funnily enough matches the Swedish pronunciation of the French word, or possibly the pronunciation of a French person from Marseille saying it. 

So what does moyen mean?

The same as ‘means’, as in ‘the means to do something’. Is it strange that ‘means’ has become an object in Swedish? Perhaps not, if you know that moyen, also means ‘average’ in French, and you know that moyen comes from ‘medium’ in Latin, which means ‘middle’, and which has as one of its meanings ‘something intermediate in nature or degree’. Perhaps this can be interpreted as meaning a thing which is experimental, average, and in between finished objects. Close to ‘a gadget’. But that is mere conjecture, and does not quite explain how this word came to have its current meaning. 

Mojäng has been around since 1861, and it seems that before that time it used to have the same meaning as its cognates in English and French, that is ‘means, resort, opportunity’. But it also had a wider application, such as ‘approach’ or ‘actions’ when used in past tense. It could even be used about a person’s talents, which kind of makes sense as they are a person’s ‘means’.

Today, mojäng is no longer used in any of its traditional uses. It is always in reference to an object, a strange object, or an object whose use you might be unsure of. Mojäng has quite a few synonyms in Swedish, for example, grunka, mackapär, pryl. It seems like Swedes like this kind of word. 

You can make use of mojäng in any situation where you want to have a look at a certain object which you are unfamiliar with. You just ask if you can have a look at the mojäng over there. Or asking what that mojäng is. Don’t forget to use the definite form mojängen

Example sentences:

Kan jag få kika på mojängen där?

Could I have a look at the gadget there?

Vad är det där för mojäng?

What sort of a gadget is that? 

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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