Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: medlem

As Sweden officially became a member of Nato on March 7th, one question was on nobody’s mind but ours: how do you say member in Swedish anyway?

Published: 7 March 2024 10:41 CET
the word medlem written on a blackboard next to the swedish flag
This article is available to medlemmar of The Local. Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

The answer is: medlem.

It probably made it to Sweden by way of the German mitglied and consists of two words: med, meaning co- or with, and lem, meaning limb.

We blush, but on the off-chance that anyone reading this is thinking of writing erotic fiction in Swedish, when you would use the word member in English to talk about… er, you know what… don’t use the word medlem in Swedish, just write lem. Or better yet, neither.

  • Don’t miss any of our Swedish words and expressions of the day by downloading our new app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Swedish Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button

Let’s move on.

You can, as in English, not just be a member of something but also have a membership, or in Swedish ett medlemskap. This can be used for all sorts of groups, from Nato to a sports club.

Because Swedes enjoy compound words, you can be a fackföreningsmedlem (trade union member), körmedlem (choir member), familjemedlem (family member), besättningsmedlem (crew member), hedersmedlem (honorary member) and so on.

A member of parliament is more often referred to as a riksdagsledamot, although riksdagsmedlem would work in theory.

Interestingly, ledamot also means member, body part or limb, but instead comes from the Old Swedish word lidhamot. You can usually think of ledamot as something that describes a more formal role, whereas medlem is more informal and doesn’t come with officially defined duties.

You can be a member of The Local, too. We tend to call our paying readers members (medlemmar) rather than subscribers in honour of our close relationship with our audience, but in other contexts you’d usually talk about subscribers as prenumeranter rather than medlemmar.

What preposition should you use together with medlem? Either i (in) or av (of) is grammatically correct, although i tends to be favoured in Swedish.

Examples:

Sverige är på väg att bli medlem i/av Nato

Sweden is about to become a member of Nato

Jag funderar på att säga upp mitt Facebookmedlemskap

I’m thinking of cancelling my Facebook membership

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.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: nyckelpiga

These little red and black insects are starting to pop up in gardens and fields all across Sweden. But where does their name come from?

Published: 14 May 2024 09:18 CEST
Swedish word of the day: nyckelpiga

Nyckelpiga, or nyckelpigor in the plural, is the Swedish word for the red and black spotted insects known in English as ladybirds or ladybugs.

Their name is made up of two words in Swedish, nyckel, which is the word for key, and piga, meaning a maid or other female servant, so it could be literally translated as a “keymaiden”.

In many European languages, these insects have names which relate to the Virgin Mary. 

In English, legend has it that farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary asking her to protect their crops, and when ladybirds appeared to eat aphids (a common garden pest), they called them “Our Lady’s birds”, which over time was simplified to ladybirds.

They’re known as mariquita in Spanish and marieta in Catalan, while in Danish and Norwegian they’re called mariehøner or marihøner (literally: Mary hens), and in German they’re called Marienkäfer (Mary beetles).

The Swedish term has a less obvious relationship to the Virgin Mary, and dates back to Sweden’s Catholic past.

Mary is believed in Catholicism to have seven sorrows, which are all events in her life often depicted in art by seven swords piercing her heart. The most common ladybird in Sweden has seven spots, which were seen as representing these seven sorrows.

  • Don’t miss any of our Swedish words and expressions of the day by downloading our app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Swedish Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button

Seven was also considered to be a holy number in general, and it was believed therefore that ladybirds held the keys to heaven on behalf of Mary. According to an old Swedish folk tale, anyone who releases a captured ladybird would be let through the gates of heaven, and in many countries they are believed to be able to reveal when someone will marry.

In Sweden, it was said that if one landed on your hand and walked along your fingers, it was measuring new gloves for you, which meant that you were either going to attend a wedding or a funeral, and in France, a woman could put a ladybird on her finger and count out loud until it flew away, with the number reached representing how many years would pass before she would marry.

Another word for ladybird in Swedish is gullhöna (yellow hen), which most likely refers to the less common yellow ladybirds with black spots.

These ladybirds were believed to be able to predict the weather in some parts of Sweden. In Bohuslän, ladybirds meant good weather, and if you saw one, you were supposed to say gullhöna, gullhöna, flyg, flyg, flyg, så blir det sommar och gott, gott väder (ladybird, ladybird, fly, fly, fly, then it will be summer and good, good weather). In Värmland, however, seeing a ladybird meant the opposite: bad weather and rain.

Example sentences:

Tycker du inte att det har varit ovanligt många nyckelpigor i år?

Don’t you think there has been an unusually large number of ladybirds this year?

Nyckelpigor är ett bra nyttodjur att ha i trädgården då de äter bladlöss.

Ladybirds are a good beneficial insect to have in the garden, as they eat aphids.

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.

SHOW COMMENTS