Afterwork, flipper and pocket – not quite English, perfectly Swedish

Swedish is full of words that sound English. Sometimes they really are fairly ordinary English words that have simply been given Swedish spelling or Swedish grammar, such as chatta, sajt and fejka.

But sometimes it gets even more entertaining.

Sometimes Swedish uses words that look English, sound English and perhaps even feel English, but do not quite work that way in English. They have English-looking parts, but a Swedish meaning. They stroll around sounding international, but if you use them in London, New York or Sydney, you may get a look that says: “I recognise the words, but not the expression.”

This is not “bad Swedish”. Quite the opposite. These words work perfectly well in Swedish. But they can become little language traps when you switch to English. You think you have brought along an English word, but at passport control it turns out to have Swedish residency.

Such words are sometimes called pseudo-anglicisms: words that look English, but have developed their own meaning or use in another language.

In this post, we will look at five of them: afterwork, freestyle, flipper, zappa and pocket. They sound English, but in Swedish they have wandered off along their own little paths.

Afterwork – when work ends but the colleagues continue

In Swedish, afterwork, often shortened to AW, means meeting up after work, usually to eat, have a drink and discuss everything from budget meetings to holiday plans and why the coffee machine sounds angry.

You can say:

Ska du med på afterwork på fredag? “Are you coming to afterwork on Friday?”

Vi har AW med jobbet ikväll. “We’re having AW with work tonight.”

Det blev en ganska lugn afterwork. “It turned out to be quite a quiet afterwork.”

It sounds very English. But in English, people do not usually say “an afterwork” in this way. They are more likely to say:

after-work drinks

drinks after work

a work social

happy hour, sometimes, depending on the context

If you say “I’m going to an afterwork” in English, people may understand what you mean, but it will not sound natural. A bit as if you have built an English sentence using a Swedish toolbox.

In Swedish, however, afterwork is completely at home. So much so that it has acquired the nickname AW. And when a word has received a Swedish abbreviation, it has practically started paying municipal tax.

Freestyle – when music got a belt clip and headphones

For many Swedes of a certain age, freestyle does not primarily mean “free style”. It means a portable cassette player, the kind you could clip to your belt while walking around in headphones and feeling extremely modern.

You could say:

Jag lyssnade på musik i min freestyle. “I listened to music on my freestyle.”

Har du nya batterier till freestylen? “Do you have new batteries for the freestyle?”

Han hade sin freestyle i väskan. “He had his freestyle in his bag.”

In English, the device is usually called a Walkman, if you mean Sony’s brand, or more generally a portable cassette player. The word freestyle does exist in English, of course, but then it is about free style in sport, dance or rap. Not a little music machine that ate batteries for breakfast.

This is a lovely example of how a word can develop a life of its own in another language. Swedish looked at the portable cassette player and said: “You look like a freestyle.” And that was that.

Flipper – not a fin, but a game

In Swedish, flipper is the game where a metal ball shoots around inside a machine while you press two little paddles and try to look relaxed, even though your entire nervous system has moved into your fingertips.

You say:

Ska vi spela flipper? “Shall we play pinball?”

Det står ett gammalt flipperspel i hörnet. “There’s an old pinball machine in the corner.”

Jag var ganska bra på flipper när jag var ung. “I was quite good at pinball when I was young.”

In English, flippers are fins or swimming fins. A dolphin has flippers. A seal has flippers. A person can wear flippers on their feet when swimming. But the machine with the ball? That is called pinball.

So if you say “I played flipper yesterday” in English, someone may imagine that you had an unusually active day at an aquarium.

In Swedish, however, flipper works perfectly. We have even made a compound word: flipperspel. It sounds so natural that you almost forget English is not quite on board.

Zappa – the art of not choosing a channel

Zappa means to change TV channels quickly, often without any clear aim. You sit there with the remote, hopping from the news to a cooking programme to a film whose ending you have already half seen.

Examples:

Sluta zappa, jag blir yr. “Stop channel-hopping, I’m getting dizzy.”

Jag zappade runt lite och hittade en dokumentär. “I flicked through the channels and found a documentary.”

Han zappade mellan matcherna. “He switched between the matches.”

The word comes from English zap, but in English people are more likely to say:

channel-hop

channel-surf

switch channels

flick through the channels, especially in British English

The English zap exists, but it often means to shoot, destroy, knock out, heat something quickly in the microwave, or do something very quickly. Swedish zappa has become more specific: remote control, TV sofa, restless thumb.

It is also a perfect Swedish verb. It conjugates as if it had always lived here:

Jag zappar. “I’m channel-hopping.”

Jag zappade. “I channel-hopped.”

Jag har zappat. “I have channel-hopped.”

An English word came in, received a Swedish -a, lay down on the sofa and started changing channels.

Pocket – the book that is not a pocket

In Swedish, pocket means a paperback: a smaller, soft-cover book, usually cheaper and easier to carry around. It fits in your bag, and sometimes in your jacket pocket if your outerwear is feeling ambitious.

You say:

Jag köpte boken som pocket. “I bought the book in paperback.”

Finns den i pocket? “Is it available in paperback?”

Jag läser mest pocket på semestern. “I mostly read paperbacks on holiday.”

In English, however, pocket means ficka.

The book is called a paperback.

If you say “I bought a pocket” in English, it sounds as if you have bought a pocket. Perhaps a loose pocket. Perhaps a very small pocket. In any case: not a novel.

Swedish pocket probably comes from expressions such as pocket book, but in Swedish we chopped off book and let pocket stand on its own. Efficient. Swedish. Slightly brutal, but practical.

Why does this happen?

It may seem strange that Swedish uses English-looking words in ways English itself does not. But it is actually quite common.

When a word is borrowed into another language, it does not always bring its full original meaning with it. Sometimes only part of the word is borrowed. Sometimes there is a small misunderstanding. Sometimes the word fits so well in a new setting that it gets a new job.

A bit like someone who comes to a party “just to say hello” and three hours later is in the kitchen in charge of the playlist.

Words change when people use them.

English in origin? Yes, in a way.

English in ordinary English use? Not quite.

Swedish today? Absolutely.

Should you avoid them?

No, not in Swedish. In Swedish, these words work perfectly well.

You can say:

Vi ska på AW. “We’re going for afterwork/AW.”

Jag hittade en gammal freestyle i en låda. “I found an old portable cassette player in a drawer.”

De har flipper på baren. “They have pinball at the bar.”

Sluta zappa! “Stop channel-hopping!”

Jag köpte den i pocket. “I bought it in paperback.”

That sounds natural in Swedish.

But if you are speaking English, it is wise to be careful. You may need to switch words:

afterwork/AW → after-work drinks, drinks after work

freestyle → Walkman, portable cassette player

flipper → pinball

zappa → channel-hop, channel-surf, flick through the channels

pocket → paperback

Otherwise, small language collisions may occur. Nothing catastrophic, but perhaps a moment of confusion in the bookshop, the bar or beside the pinball machine.

When English becomes a little Swedish

These words show something fun about language: loanwords are not always copies. They are more like guests who move in, rearrange the furniture and start using the cheese slicer in their own way.

Swedish borrows from English, but it also reshapes English. It shortens, bends, adapts and invents. Sometimes the result is a word that sounds English but works in Swedish.

So the next time someone says: Vi tar en AW, spelar flipper och snackar om boken som finns i pocket.

“We’ll go for afterwork drinks, play pinball and talk about the book that’s available in paperback.”

You are not hearing bad English.

You are hearing Swedish.

With English shoes, Swedish grammar and a small linguistic wink.