Let's Talk About...Svenska

Europe is a continent with many languages...and I was lucky to learn some of them during school and due to living abroad and since October I am learning Swedish. It started as a joke because I have to do some extracurricular courses at uni, but since my boyfriend is Swedish it even makes sense now to learn this language. I have to say that I profit from being a native speaker of German since both languages have the same linguistic root and sometimes even sound alike. Soemthing I had to learn very quickly though was that words are not pronounced as they are written. Swedish people tend to swallow consonants at the end of the words like the word "jag" which means "I"...the 'g' is silent plus the 'a' is pronounced more like an open 'o'.

Jag heter Anni. - My name is Anni. (the 'r' is silent, too)

Furthermore Swedes have vowels that only exist in some Germanic related languages: 'ö' and 'å'.The 'a' with the circle is prounounced like a rounded 'o'. So as you can see the pronounciation it is a bit complicated for beginners. (BTW: the 'u' is pronounced like the German 'ü')

There are two more sounds - and I don't know how to describe them - that are super tough to pronounce. First of all the sound for (some) words written with 'sk' and 'sj'..it might sound like an English 'sh' but Swedes actually just breathe out while using it. It always reminds me of whistling without making a real sound. And then there is 'tj' which is almost the same - but different...you see, it gets a bit complicated here. 😁

Okay, that's enough theory...if you always wanted to be able to say something in Swedish I'm gonna give you some usefull phrases now:

Hej! - Hello!

Jag är...- I am..

Vad heter du? - What's your name?

Varifrån kommer du? - Where are you from?

Jag kommer från...- I am from...

Hur är läget? - How is it going?

Det är lugnt! Själv? - I am good! What about you?

Jag förstår inte. - I don't understand. (most important phrase to know, if you ask me XD )

Tyskland - Germany

Sverige - Sweden

Trevligt att träffas! - Nice to meet you!

Tack - Thanks

Hey då! - Bye

I really enjoy learning Swedish because I think it is always cool to know a lot of languages and I think it's a language that especially German native speakers can learn quite easily (except for the pronounciation though).


So that's it for now and lycka till (good luck) when you talk with someone from Sweden. 😎

Love, Anni