#lagom

30/11/25 | Finding Calm and Connection in Winter Course |

I think I just learned how to say lagom, "just the right amount" in Mandarin Chinese:

正好 zhèng hǎo just (in time) / just right / just enough / to happen to / to chance to / by chance / it just so happens that

The importance of the word lagom in the Swedish imagination cannot be overstated, which is why the word even has its own entry in English language Wikipedia:

And there are persistent language myths on how the word is untranslateable and exists only in Swedish due to it being (falesly assumed) a uniquely Swedish concept.

But it is a word you as a Swedish speaker often struggle to find a nifty translation for into eg English because it's frequently used and the meaning is context and speaker dependent:

1. A: How much food do you want? B: Lagom! (ie not too much, not too little, somewhere in the middle)

2. A: What's the weather like, is it hot today? B: Lagom warm. (It's not so hot it's uncomfortable and inconvenient, but it's not too cold either)

Lagom lives!