Brit Reacts to 10 Untranslatable Swedish Words

Some dudes think it means sex, Its important to communicate properly!

vaska came after bars owners and bartenders became annoyed at people spraying champagne all over the bars instead of drinking it. most bars joined in that they started to allow people to buy 2 bottles of champagne so they had one to drink and one to pur into the sink (sink is called vasken in swedish) to display wealth instead.

Speaking of panta, you can call someone pantad and it means they are stupid :)

Do you want a dumb fact about Panta? Swedes gather bottles for half a year, to go to the store where the pantmaskin is, and individually insert each bottle for half an hour and always during peak traffic at the store. You can't let other people through, you can't speed up the process and you know you are a total piece of shit for doing it. Its a tradition by this point and it amazes me we can't just toss a bag into a hole and have the weight rack up the measly chump change we get for recycling.

Fika is basically what we say instead of "let´s go for a cup of tea/coffe" you go to a "coffe shop" it can be a chain like starbucks OR a local smaller café. You grab a drink hot or cold and something savory or sweet and you sit down to eat it in the seating in the shop.

I hereby extend an invitation and declaration that Dwayne is now a swede.

Most of this words have an English translation even if it's not exakt. Don't mind Google translate. It is far from correct and doesn't know all slang.

Vabba = Childcare, Childnursing
Vaska = Cleans/Wash
Fika = Coffee Break
Lagom = Average
Löpsedel = Front Page, Scoop, Promissory note
Panta = Pant/Recycle
Blåsväder = Windy/In trouble
Orka = Have strength (Swedes say it ironic)
Harkla = Harkle

I'm sure there are other words for this as well. I just don't remember them right now.

Another great video! So fun. As a swede I don’t always think about the fact that some of our words aren’t translatable.
Also, if you were a Swedish person in an earlier life I must have been a British one. Because I ❤ British English. 👍🏻😄

Goldiggers in us did that to find gold

It's only young people from Stockholm with their rich parents credit cards who "vaska". Just stupid and dorky and they think they are "cool" but they aren't.

That the poster of the original video didn't know the direct translation is because HE doesn't know the translations.
Pant=Pawn (to get/give an amount of money for an item that is returned when said item is returned (and yes that includes the amount given for bottle/can).
Fika(rast)=To take a break from work (can include getting something to eat/drink) Originally used in Labor Law.

Vaska is an old word meaning to sift through something usually while looking for metals, so you usually say vaska guld = pan for gold as an example. It's only lately that kids have started to use the word as a show off word after some people poured expensive liquids down a drain and called it vaska. It's kinda like how the word frilla is an old word meaning an official misstress/side lover but then later on it became used as frilla = hairstyle like snygg frilla = nice haircut/hairstyle. Not sure if this is true or not but according to my dad the word lagom comes all the way from the vikings that meant it had to be enough for everyone since the viking would have a pitcher of mead they would pass around and it had to be enough for everyone to get a sip.

Vabba is closely translated to payed leave to care for a sick child.
And snusa can also mean to sleep.

One thing that makes Swedish so suitable for one-word terms is that Swedish make it easy to turn nouns into verbs, even loan words from e.g. English or French can be turned from nouns to verbs. Often it's done by adding the suffix -a to the noun (and possibly some padding letters to make it conform to our pronounciation rules). For example:

"chef" - supervisor, boss
"(att) chefa" - to boss around (someone)

Snusa kan också betyda att sova.

Oh no, millenials! Don´t trust them, never :) Vaska means to do dishes, laudry or to devide. This Swedish Millenial got half of it wrong. Take it from the oldie. This guy is "pantad(fu**ed)" Swedish word for a stupid person <3 Great analysing dude in this video.

Dont try snus, you hon a be sick.

Yeah, fika is a great activity for a first date and probably pretty common, as fika is that kind of thing you do with friends, so it's a relaxed kind of dating with no stress or pressure.

You should look up POSI FÖR FISKAR - Vaskduellen by Crazy People
They do a very funny video about vaska

Hey love you'r viideos!💕 But please don't try snus it's not good for your boddy.

Another untranslatable word is the very small and unassuming "ju", really hard to explain, cause well: "-Det är ju bara så det är, ju!" :)

You did good tries to pronounce the words, apriciate your channel!👍

In Danish, "löpsedel" translates to "spiseseddel", but we also have "løbeseddel", which is a flyer of sorts.

Doesn't Fika come from Fik, which is slang for a place that sells coffee, and maybe breakfast/lunch? A diner mixed with a coffeehouse type of store.

Usually people are talking while having a fika. So why you can fika and having a date is by just ordering something to drink, tea/coffee (and all sub-categories) with something easily to eat like a cinnamonbun or a chocolateball, also there is more choices like pie, cheesecake or cake aswell.

It's something casual here to go for such a date and get to know each other better. Why people do it as a first date is so you don't invite them home directly and usually the atmosphere is very inviting

i come from älvdalen i sweden, the local "language" has some really old roots and is said to be close to what the vikings talked like. one good example for you is the word "annars" wich is otherwise in english, but in elfdalian(älvdalska) its "oderwise" so when the vikings where in england did the englsih rub off on the vikings and they carried that word home or did the elfdalian word spread into the english language, there are other woords like this that are found in both english and elfdalian

Some of them were very translatable in Finnish.

Vaska actually from the beginning means to wash. And to snusa is to have real tobacco not the white shit stuff they use nowadays. Harkla you did well btw!

i live in sweden lol

Have to say your pronunciation is very good. Nailed the ö-sound like a real swede!

in sweden we also have a word for closing your eyes (blunda)

I am Sweden

i swedish and these are deffenetly untranslateble

Orka is definitely one of the Swedish words I missed the most when I started speaking English more. Instead of the one word "orka" I'd have to say a whole sentence like "I just can't be bothered" and to be frank I just can't be bothered with that!

It's very common for the first date to be a fika 😊 It's like when you guys ask each other "would you like to have coffee with me some time?"

Vaska has also just become the saying now for being overly luxurious for luxury sake. Like, just basically wasting things. It can even be if you're playing a card game and you put a really strong card over a weak one your friend might say "why did you vaska that card? Would have been better to save".
So basically just illogical and overindulgent behavior.

We also have the word turbulent though 😊 spelled the same way

Dwane, if i must say. Not to be mean ( it’s not ) but you kinda look like you have snus in your lip ( kinda looks like you “snusar” ). Love your videos

do not try snus its like cigaretts and can be highly addictive

"Fika" comes from the Fig fruit and along the way the noun changed to "fikon" and the original word came to mean the adjective of "taking a break" (to presumably eat a fig/drink coffee/eat pastries/etc).

If anyone wants to know what “att” means, it means at or to

Blåsväder is like when someone is caught doing something they shouldn't have done and can now expect public criticism for it.
For example if a celebrity is caught doing cocaine at a night club, the newspapers might scold them for that and the celebrity is more or less forced to publicly apologize in order to not be cancelled.

POSI för fiskar vaska loock that 1 upp man =)

You can allways vaska tasken i slasken

There is so many more word that you can't translate than 10 :)
I know about 80 words, and I know there is much more than that.
One example: Mormor/farmor/morfar/farfar (Would be mother's mother/father and father's father/mother)

Vaska also mean to wash something. You put the stuff you need to clean in the sink (vasken) like small clothes that need a fast clean up or a longsoak .. Våtläggning över natt av tex handmade carpets / trasmattor. sportwears

Many words change meaning by how you pronounce them.

If you ever want to take a more sunny weekend holiday off, but still want to interview Swedes, come to Santa Pola 🇬🇧🇪🇸🇸🇪

We can introduce you. 😉

Lagom is a word coming from the Vikings. It's meaning comes from sharing food and drink with your team (lag) and not eating or drinking too much so that everyone gets an equal share.