[Course Forum] 8,000 Most Common Swedish Words - part 2

Nobody’s holding a gun to my head :smiley: I am doing this of my own free will, don’t worry!

This is what I do to relax in the evening :heart_eyes:

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A bit off-topic but just found this blog when I was looking to buy a book. I don’t know how interested you are in the Nobel for Literature, but if you are, here’s some more reading practice!

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REQUEST TO ANYONE DOING THIS COURSE

If you are reviewing the words you learnt and you notice that the word you typed in doesn’t match what you hear on the audio, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me know!

I had an instance of this happening just now:

I got the prompt “qualified” and wrote “kvalificerad” and it was accepted as right. But the audio then said, "behörig".

The two words do indeed both have the meaning of “qualified” (check out “spraakbanken.gu.se/korp” and put in “behörig” and you will see what I mean), but “behörig” also has other meanings.

The trouble with these false synonyms is that there is the danger that you don’t learn words like “behörig” at all, because “kvalificerad” will be accepted every time, and if you are reviewing very fast or don’t hear the audio for whatever reason, you will have no idea that your answer was wrong.

I sometimes review words with headphones, other times with the audio coming out of headphones lying beside me, other times I forget to switch the audio on. I don’t know how other people do this, but I imagine that I am not alone in not always using my headphones.

So, to cut a long story short, please make a new post here if you notice that the word you write is accepted, but the audio doesn’t match.

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Funny, I always write behörig because kvalificerad is such an easy cognate! But yes, I shall be on the lookout for these.

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@TheFour-GatedDanzig

Just FYI: I am doing some intense reviewing :smiley: of this course and making changes as I come across them. Just updated the definition for “en inverkan” and added an example sentence.

I hope you like the changes you find!

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“en skrivelse” has been improved, as has “ärligt”.

I added the phrase “ärligt talat” to the latter, as this is a very common collocation and is used a lot in Swedish.

The definition for “usel” has been improved.

Update: I am currently trying to get some Swedish people to explain the difference between “usel” and “eländig:smiley:

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Den är en eländig, usel rättsakt och kommer att skaka EU-medborgarnas förtroende under lång tid!

It is a lousy, rotten piece of legislation that will permanently shake our citizens’ confidence in the European Union!

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Next update:

Here’s what a Swedish lady wrote about “eländig” and “usel”:

“Tricky! I give it a first try. Jag känner mig jätteeländig för jag är så förkyld. (usel funkar inte…) Det var uselt gjort av honom att kasta bollen i huvudet. (kanske eländigt funkar men lite konstigt) Vilket elände! Tåget har slutat gå så nu kommer vi inte hem ikväll. (usel går inte…) Vilken usel apparat det här är som inte vill fungera. (eventuellt eländig…men lite konstigt)”

Cool, hey?

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Do you ever avoid words when speaking because you forget some rule? I remember when I first started Spanish I wasn’t comfortable with expressing “to laugh” “reír” because I kept forgetting the conjugation rules. What a depressing person I must have been, no humor!

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I avoid the word “arbeta” in Swedish because my Germanized brain just can’t get its head round pronouncing it properly.

I was very happy to hear - from the Swedish lady that works for the memrise team - that it is perfectly OK to say “jobba” instead of “arbeta” :smiley:

You cannot imagine my relief!!! She even said that “jobba” was actually preferable when speaking because “arbeta” was a bit on the formal side (if I remember rightly).

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Yeah, that’s how it is in Norwegian. I see å jobbe more than å arbeide. In Swedish att plugga and att hugga still make me chortle… and der After in German.

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@Olivia.717:

And this is the forum for the second part of the sehiralti course! All suggestions for improvements are welcome!

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My confusion list for this part

[(improvement suggestion)]

  • loose (not “lös”) - loss
  • [v] an evening (not “ett evenemang”, not “en kväll”) - en afton -> actual fix “jul~ / nyårs~”
  • above (not “ovan”) - ovanför
  • terribly (not “hemskt”) - fruktansvärt
  • obehaglig (not “otrevlig”)
  • en kännedom
  • en uppbyggnad, ett bygge, en byggnad, en utbyggnad
  • att snurra (not a loan word)
  • ett avslag (not “en vägran”)
  • följaktligen
  • en bemärkelse
  • en redogörelse (en berättelse)
  • fortsättningsvis
  • reell (verklig)
  • rimligen
  • glädjande
  • ett beaktande
  • ett föredrag (en föreläsning, ett anförande)
  • att förflytta (att flytta)
  • att härska (att styra)
  • att godta (att godkänna)
  • efterföljande (följande, påföljande)
  • att behärska (sig) - (please remove parentheses around “sig”)
  • en problematik (en frågeställning)
  • ett mynt (en slant)
  • itu (isär?)
  • ett lagförslag (en proposition)

By the way I have recently started actively using Synonymer.se which has really good database with Swedish synonyms / antonyms / example usages + translations to English / French etc. Highly recommended :wink: (though it can be a bit slow sometimes…).

Should mention that I also quite liked a number of existing entries on the “synonyms” regard:

  • immediately (not “genast”, not “omedelbar”) - omgående :+1:
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I like “exempelmeningar” which shows you how the words work in action.

I shall add “jul~” to “en afton” :slight_smile:

PS

The new entry for “afton” includes the prompts, “julafton” and “nyårsafton” :smiley: Neither of these can be combined with “en kväll”, so it should be clear now.

I much prefer adding prompts like this because I think it is “better value for money”: you get a useful prompt AND you learn a couple of new words (well, for some people, maybe) at the same time. Seems like a win-win solution to me!

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That works for me as well :slight_smile:

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Glad to hear it!!!

But there are some words where this solution doesn’t work, so be prepared to see some instances of “NOT x”.

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Not a bad way to create a reading list :slight_smile:
[Even more off-topic] I recently stumbled upon the concept of “Great Books” (rather promising list as well, however haven’t started with them yet)

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I didn’t realise that your list had gotten so long!

  1. “en kännedom” has a prompt, to show that it is used in a similar way to the English phrase “it has come to our attention that …”, which should make it clear that it doesn’t mean “knowledge” in the same sense as “en kunskap”.

  2. added “not fruktansvärt” to “hemskt” and vice versa

These words are a huge pain in the bum :frowning:

I have added a new explanation to “utbyggnad”, but not yet to “uppbyggnad”.

I have added the phrase “att ta i beaktande” to this one, as in “to take (sth.) into consideration”.

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What loan word did you have in mind as an alternative to “att snurra”?

att spinna (but not sure that it is present somewhere in the courses :slight_smile: )

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