Ligger, står eller sitter? När “vara” inte räcker

Swedish has some tiny sound differences that look fairly harmless on the page. They sit there inside a word, minding their own business, almost identical to their neighbours. Then you open your mouth and suddenly you are no longer talking about the thing on top of a house, but something you say when someone holds the door open. Take the words tak and tack. Tak means the roof of a house. Tack is what you say when someone gives you coffee, holds the door open, or kindly prete

Falska vänner (False friends) are words that look like old friends from another language. They wave cheerfully and say, “You know me!” Then it turns out they changed personality at passport control. Swedish and English have plenty of these words. They look the same, or almost the same, but mean something else. Sometimes the difference is enormous. Sometimes it is just small enough to cause a beautifully unnecessary misunderstanding. Here are a few classics.

Swedish prepositions are small words with strong opinions. Especially i and på. You can live i Göteborg (“in Gothenburg”), but go on holiday på Gotland (“on Gotland”). You can shop i affären (“in the shop”), but work på banken (“at the bank”). You can walk i parken (“in the park”), but meet someone på torget (“in/at the square”). And sometimes both i and på work, as in i skolan and på skolan, but they do not mean quite the same thing.

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