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Swedish2go celebrates with more study material for members and non-members. Swedish listening comprehensions are intensively being produced right now. And what is already done, is up and running for you to work on. As a trial member you can have a peak at it all! The listening comprehension material for members will be offered our premium members.

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What else is new?

Swedish learning through literature is on it's way. For our more advanced Swedish premium members, this will be a fun and stimulating way to study Swedish. Keep your eyes open!

Basic difference in pronunciation between the Swedish and English language

When it comes to pronunciation, you probably know, no matter if you are a beginner Swedish learner or an advanced, that the the way the Swedes pronounce their words are very different from the English language.

Here are som basic differences between Swedish and English:

W

Swedes don't really have the letter w. You may see it in last names and names of places, but really no. When we sing our alphabet song in Swedish we skipp it. Therefore, if we do happen to find the letter that has snuck in to our language, it is always pronounced as v. So if a Swede, while speaking Swedish, want to say Washington, for example, it will sound like: Vashington.

Å Ä Ö

No need to say, the extra three vowels are of course a major difference between our languages.

Å is pronounced ... similar to the sound in Awesome (if you are speak the Brittish English)

Ä is pronounced... kind of like the long a-sound in glad. Close, but not really...

Ö... do you know French? More similar to the French long u-sound in un, for example. I have a tough time finding an English equivalence.

G

The English word gym has a g-sound that the Swedes don't have. Whenever a G shows up in the Swedish language, it's always pronounsed y (a Swede would describe it as a j, but that doesn't help an English speaker) or the hard G (sometimes it's a sj-sound, but not that often). What am I trying to say? That the "dj"-sound that the English speakers do, Swedes never do.

Of course there's more differences between Swedish and English pronunciation. But not for now.

Blog about Melodifestivalen in Sweden | Swedish phrases and words to know for the Eurovision song contest

Swedes are coming in to a favourite season. No, they don't love slushy winter/spring, but inside by the TV, every Saturday night, it's their highlight of the year: Melodifestivalen 2013!

Also called Mello, Swedes love to hate this contest. What is it? In English it’s the Swedish song contest to elect the best song the Swedes can come up with for the Eurovision song contest. Normally Swedes have bad music taste, according to the rest of Europe, but last year we found the right hit with the help of Loreen, and won Europe’s hearts with the song Euphoria. Sweden finished number one (!) and the Eurovision contest will therefore this year be held in Malmö, Sweden.

But, what are the Swedes doing during the 6 weeks long season of Mello?

Other than watching song contests on tv 6 weekends in a row, complaining about the songs, the artist’s hair and clothes, eating snacks and drinking beer?

Well… we do other things… we... uhm… discuss the songs and artists every weekday on facebook, twitter or blogs, we find out more about the artists personal life in newspaper, on the radio and on every tv channel, we bet on the songs...

See! We have a life.

But for you who learn Swedish and want to be able to have a conversation with a Swede between February and May and to understand the media, here are some important words and phrases to know in Swedish:

Fel låt vann! = Wrong song won

Den var kass = It was terrible.

Den var kanon. = It was awesome.

Rösta på Carola! = Vote for Carola!

No, just kidding… she is actually not competing this year, nor Danny – another Mello-artist. But we could say:

Rösta på Army of Lovers/Ulrik, David Lindgren...

Jag älskar schlager! = I love ... well, this is the Swedish word for hit song and a type of Music that almost only configure in the Melodifestivalen.

Storfavoriten höll/föll. = The mega favourite artist won/failed.

And the headlines will likely include the word Eufori, just to be witty, like:

 

EUFORI I MALMÖ I MAJ

 

Read more about it (but in Swedish) here.

 

Another good blog about this phenomenon.

The king's name day!

Kungens namnsdag!

The king of Sweden has his name day today! Today's name is Karl, and therefore we celebrate everyone called by that name, and one of them is the king of Sweden.

This blog is maybe not so much about our king, but about the name day celebration in Sweden.

What's wrong about celebrating? And celebrating one's birthday once a year isn't really enough for us Swedes, so celebrating our name days is a really good complement. (Which also is another great reason why many Swedes not only have one middle name, but often at least two.)

How do we celebrate name days?

Well... some totally forget about their name day. Some gets a small card or a phone call from someone saying "Grattis på namnsdagen". In some families they make this a bigger occasion, by inviting friends or family over for a name day fika, or actually kalas (which is the same as fika, but the word we use when celebrating birthdays - or name days). For people concerned about their age, celebrating the name day could be an awesome alternative to the birthday.

Back to the king of Sweden and his name day. Do we acknowledge that in any way? Yes, of course! It is an official flag day, meaning that everyone owning a flagpole (which is quite a few) must hoist the Swedish flag that day. In a Swedish calendar (svensk almanacka) you can see which days are official flag days, which is a good thing for flagpole owners. And of course, in the same almanacka, you can see what date you have your name day. (The chance of finding your name in the almanacka strongly increases if you have a Swedish name though.)

Is your name not in the almanacka? Do like many others: make one day Your name day! And celebrate!

 

Grattis på namnsdagen, Karl!

By the way: The name of the Swedish king is Carl XVI Gustav Bernadotte.

And if you want to know more about the reasons and rules around our Swedish name days, svenska namnsdagar, then follow this link.

Swedes love talking about the weather!

And that's why the Intermediate lesson today, lesson number 5, is about the weather. We practice phrases, words, pronunciation and everything we need to know about this popular topic. Yes, we even learn how to complain about the weather:

Fy, ett sånt väder! (Not correctly spelled, but that's how we say it.)

We can see that weather is important to us Swedes by looking at popular sayings, some of them very often used:

• Det som göms i snö kommer fram i tö.
• Det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder.
• Efter regn kommer solsken.
• Kläder efter väder
• Spotta inte i motvind.
• Solen lyser även på liten stuga.
• Även solen har sina fläckar.

Your assignment: Understand these sayings, not only word by word, but also the meaning behind it. A translation and interpreting help will come on this blog next week!