Learning a foreign language, as many of you know, is not easy and requires lots of practice and patience. Not only is it difficult to learn the vocabulary and get the accent right, but those proverbs can give anyone a headache. Swedish, like any language, has its own set of proverbs. These tend to cause confusion and misunderstandings among new language learners as their direct translation often makes very little sense. I have experienced this multiple times myself in Germany, and have looked completely dumbfounded on a number of occasions because I didn’t understand the meaning of the proverb.

On one occasion I was sitting in my office going through some emails when suddenly my boss, who just got back from a meeting, stormed into the office and blurted out: “Er bringt mich auf die Palme”. In my head I translated it as - He brings me onto the palm tree. My first thought was- hm sounds romantic, but judging from her angry face I quickly realised that wasn’t the case and later I found out that it means - he drives me insane.

With this post, I want to help you Swedish learners out there and introduce you to some of our odd proverbs:)

1) Göra en höna av en fjäder (To make a hen out of a feather)

Meaning: “To make a big deal out of something”

 2) Det är ingen ko på isen så länge rumpan är i land (There is no cow on the ice as long as the butt is on land)

Meaning: “There is no need to worry”.

3) Finns det hjärterum finns det stjärterum (If there is room for the heart there is room for the ass)

Meaning: "There is space for more" 

4) Gå som katten kring het gröt (To walk like the cat around hot porridge)

Meaning: “To beat around the bush”

5) Dra dit pepparn växer (Go to where the pepper is growing)

Meaning: A polite way of saying: “bugger off”

6) Att glida in på en räkmacka (To slide in on a shrimp sandwich)

Meaning: "To succeed without any effort"

Tip: These are just a few to get you started, but if you are interested in learning more have a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf5_Ay_g2fo

Kram Caroline,

Small City Big Dreams