5 most difficult things about learning Swedish for me as a native English speaker from Texas

[@swededude1992]

Macka/ smörgås. Macka is slang för smörgås and does excists in all swedish. Macka is not only in skånska, it's in all dialects.

[@becurious2000]

Yup. I have had several correct me on that. It is confusing when you learn one type of Swedish in school and it is not everyday Swedish. I think this is the case for many languages. I had the same problem with Spanish. We did not learn colloquial terms in school and on top of that you have Chicano, Mexican Spanish, Spain Spanish, ect. Heck, we even have this problem in English 😂

[@becurious2000]

@percapita1239 love coffee ☕️

[@stoferb876]

@@becurious2000 Another thing that I know annoys my danish friend is that we frequently drop verb endings (and many other kind of word endings too). So for example hoppa, hoppade, hoppat becomes simply 'hoppa' in most cases.

[@MrHenrikAndersson]

Mackor? "Madar" heter det på Skånska.

[@bossejohansson8107]

@@MrHenrikAndersson Har man sen ister eller stekfett på den, så heter det "Fittamada" 😂😂😂

[@arudegesture]

I had a friend a couple of years back who hailed from Latvia. She came to Sweden, learned Swedish and started working in elder care here in Skåne. One day she came to me and asked me if I could help her sort out something that happened at work. It turned out an older man she was helping out got very frustrated with her because he had asked her to go to his wardrobe and bring him a pair of trousers. Now, him being an older man spoke with quite a thick Scanian accent and when she asked him which pair of trousers he wanted he said: "De vida." Now, in standard Swedish "De vida" would mean "The wide ones". So she went an looked through his wardrobe and brought back the widest ones she could find. But he just said: "Nä, ta dom vida!" She got a bit confused, went back to the wardrobe and brought back another pair of trousers, but again he told her she brought back the wrong pair. This series of events repeated a couple of times until the elderly man got angry with her, but after a while of her running back and forth to his wardrobe he resigned himself to the pair of trousers she brought back. Well, she couldn't figure out where she went wrong and so she came to me and asked if I could help her. I couldn't stop myself from laughing when she told the story, because in Swedish "vida" or "vid", means wide. But in Scanian it means "white" (which in standard Swedish would be "vita" or "vit"). Scanian has changed quite a bit over the last decades, but if you work with older people, especially in the rural communities, you can still hear some of the old Scanian. I, being in my 40's and having lived here all my life, have no trouble understanding it, but I can certainly see why someone who's not a native Scanian speaker (because even some Swedish people struggle with Scanian) would have trouble understanding it.

[@becurious2000]

What an incredible story. I can definitely identify with this. I will tell a story on myself. A colleague told me that a patient on my list had "gått bort" and I thought they meant they "went away" somewhere else. So I said "when are they coming back?" They were like gå bort means to pass away . Needless to say, I'll not forget that expression.

[@arudegesture]

@@becurious2000 Yeah, I guess euphemisms would be even harder to "de-code" for a non native speaker. Especially since we tend to use them when it pertains to matters of a delicate nature that we don't want to say outright. Still, I don't think anyone would blame you for asking that very question! I still can't figure out why, in English, you use the word "late" (as in "the late mr. or mrs. so and so") when someone's died!🙂

[@becurious2000]

@@arudegesture that’s a really good point 😆

[@boek2777]

Hasn't anyone wondered about the Swedish word 'gift'? The most misunderstood Swedish word is likely 'svamp' but the most interesting is 'gift'!

[@snaxon]

@@becurious2000 "Pass away" is not that obvious either for a non native speaker of english... These convoluted ways of saying stuff we do not really like to mention is a subject of its own, in any language... 😋

[@Saturinus]

We do use the word macka elsewhere in Sweden too (or at least in Stockholm). It's a slang word.

[@danpettersson4671]

As a native speaker I have never thought of all the different connotations of "känner", thank you.

[@MageThief]

I'm born in the north of Sweden, then grew up in Stockholm, and now live in the south, and I had a hard time learning all the words, slang, and pronunciations of Skånska, so you are smashing it way better than I did 😄

[@mikaelkarlsson635]

You are doing great progress. All ready you seem to have a more detailed and explicit knowledge of swedish than most Swedes who speak and read on a more intuitive basis. Well done!

[@becurious2000]

Thanks! 😃

[@herrbonk3635]

12:56 Macka is used for smörgås in the whole country. Fubbick and rullebör are totally local though :)

[@toinenprofessori771]

Macka is taken from Finnish. It is shortened from the word makkaravoileipä, which means sausage sandwich.

[@BenGreggSweden]

Thanks! I learned something new from your video. I moved to Sweden in March of last year (now aged 60) so it’s been 10 months now. Jag tar ett nationellt prov nästa vecka. Fingers crossed 🤞

[@becurious2000]

Which test is it? Is it in Swedish? Lycka till!

[@BenGreggSweden]

@@becurious2000 It's the SFI Kurs D. I'm fully expecting it to be in Swedish!

[@becurious2000]

@@BenGreggSweden ah wow! Exciting! Best wishes on that 😀

[@tobias_dahlberg]

It's great as a Swede to watch these videos because it highlights the difficulties that I as a native speaker never think about. Everything comes natural to me and a lot of swedish language can actually not be explained with rules. Some things just feel right and wrong. I can only imagine how difficult that can be. I think of Swedish as an easy language to learn the fundamentals of, but quite a hard language to master fully. Good job on your progress and it's good to see you reflecting upon these funny differences. I would like to say though that even if you don't get everything right, I think most Swedes will still understand the gist of what you are trying to say. If you have the wrong "betoning" that would make the word mean something else, I think the Swedish people are able to contextualize that with the rest of your sentence and basically understand what you mean. So I wouldn't be afraid of getting things very wrong, but it is good to learn and to be curious about learning the differences, but it will take time. My father came here from Iran in the 70s and my mom who is Swedish/Finnish told me that in around the 90s is when he started to speak the language perfectly. It took 20 years before he could speak so well that he might as well have had Swedish as a native language, even though he could definitely make himself understood WAY before that point.

[@becurious2000]

Thanks for sharing about your father. Very interesting! Something for me to look forward to!

[@hummir]

Jag känner likadant! Jag hade aldrig tänkt på alla "känner" exempel, det var liksom nåt man bara plockade upp automatiskt när man var liten.

[@FredrikFernbrant]

You are doing great Brandon! Really impressed. It would probably be beneficial for you to keep your neutral accent (keep practicing/speaking Rikssvenska) and just work on the understanding of skånska. That way you will be able to speak to everyone regardless of what part of Sweden they are from while understanding the locals.

[@becurious2000]

Thanks for the tips!

[@boek2777]

I'm also impressed. I do however believe that there is a unofficial Skånsk version of Rikssvenska that most Swedes understand. When i grew up, my family moved several times. We did however never leave Skåne. I nowadays live in Malmö but don't even know anyone that speak Malmöitiska or Rikssvenska. The first seven years of my life i lived just outside Lund. This was about 45 years ago so my cousin that lived in Malmö was really hard to understand (things change). About 25 years ago i already lived in Malmö. I spoke an Lund/Eslöv dialekt and my partner spoke the Ystad/Helsingborg version (4 different Skånska dialects in a comical mix). 20 years ago there was a huge difference between the Skånska dialects (i will never understand everything that Peps Persson sang). That difference is gone. I Still speak Skånska but it's not to far from Rikssvenska. What i have problems with is Rinkebysvenska and Rosengårdssvenska.

[@znail4675]

@@becurious2000 It will also help abroad as not only Swedes, but also most Danish, Norwegian and Finnish people understand Rikssvenska. I have even talked to people from Iceland and they understand me, they have to use English though as Icelandic is way different.

[@annikagiertz7446]

You're doing great! Just a minor correction: The example you use for "känna på" (touching the pulse) is not an example of a particle verb. In this sentence the verb känna is stressed, but it happens to need to take a preposition in this meaning. The particle verb "känna på" stresses the preposition på and means to get a first-hand experience of something, Ex: Prao-eleverna får känna på arbetslivet i ett par veckor. To confuse matters further, there is also "känna på sig" which means to have an intuitive feeling of something. Ex: Jag känner på mig att du kommer bli riktigt bra på svenska!

[@becurious2000]

thanks for the great tips !

[@nesta8273]

I have a german friend who moved here a couple of years back. Swedish and German is very cose to eachother and much easier to learn but it still took him more then 2 years to speak quite good swedish but he still can struggle and ask. Its a hard language to learn and you're doing a great job!

[@herrbonk3635]

English is in many respects closer to Scandinavian than what German is though. High German has diverged more from our common ancestor language in sounds, and also kept some grammar or syntactical constructs that Scandinavian and English lost. But sure, German (both High/standard and Low/Platt) is close to Swedish in other aspects.

[@petergustafsson1670]

5:30 - Many of those word pairs are such that if you pronounce the wrong accent, then the resulting word will be instantly obvious to a native Swedish speaker, since it does not make sense in the context. For example. "Anden lade ett ägg." Correct translation: "The duck laid an egg". Same sentence, but with the wrong accent in Swedish, and then translated to English: "The spirit laid an egg." Only one of those sentences makes any sort of sense. That type of mistakes are something that we Swedes have heard a few times, and a good source of mirth! 8;41 - There are languages that have Yoda word order - Hixkaryana is one - but they are very few. Swedish is not one of them.

[@daw7563]

I'm impressed with your Swedish, and in only 16 months! There are a lot of expats that struggle several years to get to your level. Probably because it is so easy to fall back to English here. But I guess in some professions you are forced to speak Swedish (working with elderly or kids).

[@becurious2000]

Yea I really agree that working in the health care field has lit a fire under me forcing me to pick up the pace with the language acquisition.

[@dannestrom]

@daw7563 I agree! While there are many similarities between English and Swedish, I agree with everything he says in the video. There are many false friends, and a lot of Swedish grammar differs a lot from English grammar. It's much easier for Swedish people to learn English, than it is for English speakers to learn Swedish.

[@Niinsa62]

At 6:50 you totally nailed "anden" (the duck) vs "anden" (the spirit)! Still with an American accent, but totally spot on, no problem understanding you at all! That one is impressive, usually this is impossible for learners of Swedish to pick up on. Oh, and one way to listen for these two different accents in Swedish, that makes those two words sound different, is to think about the base words. Without the ending, -en, which is the Swedish "the". So if you just say "and" (duck), or "ande" (spirit), they are stressed differently. One is stressed as a one-syllable word, the other as a two-syllable word. And they keep that stress even when the ending is added to them, making them look identical. So the accent when you say "anden" (the duck) signals that this really is a one-syllable word, with an ending added. Another pair of sentences that sound identical to learners is "Vår svenska flagga" vs "Vår Sven ska flagga". The first one meaning "Our Swedish flag", and the other one "Our (son) Sven is going to hoist the flag". But there is a clear difference in accent, or melody.

[@becurious2000]

Excellent tips! Thanks 🙏🏻

[@TitaniusAnglesmith]

Honestly as a swede I don't even hear the difference between anden och anden lol.

[@VastyVastyVoid]

Well I've listened to your accent, and so far, gotta say I'm bloody impressed by the work you've put in and the results. Not the least while holding down a job. I remember going to Germany as a teen, and falling asleep constantly from sheer exhaustion. If anyone had suggested I simultaneously work full time on top of that, I'd have laughed in their face. I am a native Scanian, though, so this is my hour. And I honestly think you could ease into the accent by the very simple expedient of learning the Lundensian accent. It's like training wheels, but it sounds nice. But you're well on your way as it is. Stick with working on the Hörförståelse, and you will eventually reach the elusive goal of Höör-förståelse. **drumroll**

[@becurious2000]

haha. thanks so much. Yea I got the joke :) You make me feel better to know it is not just me that is so exhausted with the language learning process. By the time I get home from speaking Swedish all day at work, I barely have any energy left to go to the gym or study haha. I appreciate the encouragement.

[@CptAwesomedude]

I'm swedish and im in the spectrum aswell(adhd). I have been able to understand spoken english fluently since 13-14 years of age(currently 30). I can usually understand (feel) the meaning of all the difficult words swedish/english, but i have problem contextualize it. Im utterly bad speaking english now even though ive lived abroad and spoke it daily for years. First few days i have english speakers visiting me i communicate like a potato, luckily it all comes back in a few day tho. I admire your dedication to learn the language and your pronunciation. Much better then most americans that ive met here on youtube and irl who have spent alot more time surrounded by sweeds. I wish you all the best and that you want to stay in the country, your a great asset for sweden

[@becurious2000]

I have a similar problem with learning Swedish. Lately I been learning a lot at work but I don't feel super confident on words and their specific definitions or usage and some times use them wrong because I just pick them up from hearing them. I do best if I can see the word written and then have it explained in English and then use it. However, that would take me forever to learn that way.

[@CptAwesomedude]

@@becurious2000 I think try and error is the fastest and natural way to learn. Also being open and tell people to correct you, i think some people especially sweeds are afraid you will take it the wrong way. You might be annoyed some monday shifts but im sure it will speed up the progress.

[@becurious2000]

absolutely

[@pellejutterstrom]

love this, so many things you don't think about. I have dyslexia myself, so I'm often stuck on illogical things in language.

[@becurious2000]

Fascinating. I do the same with English.

[@birgittae9046]

Intersting reflection! Clever thoughts. Thanks for sharing. 🙋‍♀️

[@becurious2000]

Thanks for watching!

[@robinbackrud89]

You explain everything so eloquently! As a beginner learner of Japanese I'm very aware of the pitch accent concept and the patterns and that it plays a huge role in the language. However, as Swedish native, it's just in recent years that I've come to understand that pitch accent is actually a thing in Swedish as well. I never knew about that before and I doubt the vast majority of Swedes do either. We probably just know it intuitively and point out when a word sounds wrong. It's through foreign learner of Swedish, such as yourself, that I've come to realize this. So thanks for providing with some good examples.

[@becurious2000]

Thanks for the feed back :) So Japanese has pitch as well? I don't really know much about Japanese... just that it sounds awesome.

[@robinbackrud89]

@@becurious2000 indeed it does! Four different pitch accent patterns. The drop of the pitch (or lack there of) can determine the meaning of a word. And yeah, it does sound awesome.

[@becurious2000]

@@robinbackrud89 nice 👍🏻 you thought me something

[@robinbackrud89]

@@becurious2000 Likewise!

[@citroen143]

You are a role model for all those who can't boast being utterly healthy. Your Swedish is much better than you think not to mention your beautiful American English. Texas is a great State with very nice people. As a translator I echo your feelings concerning the tricks a student stumbles on, while learning the language. With your humble, insightful and amiable attitude, you could even learn Martian. Thank you so much for inspiring and encouraging so many other people all over the world. With gratitude and friendship, ha det bra! 🙂

[@becurious2000]

You are so kind and encouraging. You made my day. Tusan tack 🙏🏻 och har en fortsatt trevlig dag.

[@citroen143]

Thanks for making my day as well. I am studying Swedish and Norwegian and thanks to you I feel more motivated! Ha en fantastisk kvall! Giorgio@@becurious2000

[@hansstromberg5330]

PLS, keep up the good work. I really enjoy you describing your efforts, as well as the friendly take-on. Even I, born and bred Swedish, sometimes have difficulties with skånska. One word i saw at a cemetry was "hejderidare". Having looked it up in a "skånsk-svensk ordbok, I realised it ment "skogvaktare", an adequate English word being i.e. game-keeper. Hans Strömberg, Stockholm

[@becurious2000]

Whoa! 🤯 new word to remember! Thanks! 🙏🏻

[@LeahIrby]

My false friend that messes me up when I go back to the US is hej/hey They are both greetings, but the Swedish one is more official/formal And the English one can be considered rude in some contexts with strangers. I had a friend come visit from the US and he thought everyone was just being super casual and chill with him because he was American. I had to explain that they are actually saying “hello”. And one time I used “hey” teaching at the international school in Sweden - to tell kids to stop something. And they just looked at me. I then said - “that’s an American hey - not a Swedish hej” stop what you’re doing!

[@becurious2000]

Hilarious. Yea I had the same problem. I felt uncomfortable saying hey in the beginning because of how I was raised… can be viewed as impolite in many instances especially with the elderly

[@marcusdavidsson5726]

You are doing so great. Perfekt Rullebör just put in a longer ö. Ö got to be one of the most difficult things to learned and you just aced that one

[@becurious2000]

Thanks for the tips!😀

[@gonnaga9302]

This was a super interesting point of view for me as a swede. Cheers mate.

[@becurious2000]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@anders630]

Grymt duktigt. Du har lärt dig svenska på en nivå som många inte kommer upp i på 10år. Tänk också på att många skåningar inte lär sig säga R på en hel livstid.

[@becurious2000]

Tack! :)

[@pialindh8716]

Vi lärde oss säga R redan när vi var en självständig nation, långt före både danskan och Svenskan. Vi har fått våra R från franskan, och Tyskan. Även i andra delar av Sverige pratar man med tungrots R t,ex delar av Halland och Småland. Varför skulle vi ens vilja prata som Stockholmare?

[@user-lb7rq1lu1n]

@@pialindh8716 Jösses! Jag som Stockholmare läser inlägg om Stockholmare från både Göteborgare och Skåningar, varför hör jag eller märker jag ett slags ogillande av just Stockholmare. Jag tror inte jag känner någon Stockjholmare som har något emot vare sig Skåningar eller Göteborgare. Visst drar man ett och annat skämt ibland men inget allvarligt. Men när man lyssnar på Göteborgare och Skåningar verkar "hatet" vara på riktigt. Tycker ni inte själva att det är lite barnsligt? Vi är alla från Sverige. Jag menar varför ens kommentera, varför skulle vi vilja prata som Stockholmare som att det vore något dåligt. Flytta till Stockholm och prata hardcore skånska,. Du skulle snart bli tvungen att prata mer som i Stockholm för att folk ska förstå dig. Samma sak gäller om jag flyttade till Skåne. Jag skulle nog ganska snart börja prata mer som en från Skåne och vad är det som är så dåligt eller konstigt med det?

[@Fury_BlackWolf]

Tänk så många stockholmare som blandar ihop E och Ä under sin livstid.

[@velenjak4ever]

Svenska har tre R-ljud var av två i Skåne. Det ena av dessa två är extremt snobbigt uttal av bokstaven R. Det är ett gurglande R-ljud.

[@F1rstWorldNomaD]

Dont worry about your tone, youre doing great for a year and a half. English/American accent is pretty hard to get rid of so most Swedes are rather used to an underlying American accent from native English speakers who learned Swedish. I had a Scottsman as a teacher in italian, he is a language savant, speaking 11(!) languages fluently and he is completely self thought in 9 of them. He has lived in Sweden for over 40 years, he still has a subtle but still noticable accent. Dont sweat it, we wont :P

[@becurious2000]

Thanks 🙏🏻😊

[@bojnebojnebojne]

that is some really good progress for not studying or living longer in Sweden. Swedish is considered a very hard language to learn if you are not a Scandinavian already. As a Swedish born, your grammar knowledge is already way better than my own lol. I don't even know a fraction of the grammar of my own language coz the language just comes naturally for me, like English probably do for you. I'm the type to look/listen to a sentence and if there is some word i'm not fully familiar with or unsure of, i can extrapolate the broader context of the sentence and assume pretty accurately what that word actually means and how it can be used in various situations. Also the Swedish language is full of "slang, just like the American language especially in the suburbs XD

[@becurious2000]

Thanks 😊. Hopefully I keep getting better

[@swedishmetalbear]

Very Good!!! You got the pitch accent down!!! I am impressed!!

[@becurious2000]

Thanks

[@blueeyedbaer]

Macka is a very common colloquial word for a sandwith everywhere in Sweden I think. I definitely hear it a lot in Västra Götaland. Pitch accent may depend a lot on a place where you live because where I live I don't find it that much noticeable, I think people speak quite monotonous in my surroundings. For me the most difficult part of Swedish is noun genders. Because there are no clear rules how to tell if it's an ett or an en word. My native language has genders too but it's very simple to tell if a word is masculine or feminine one. In Swedish your just need to learn every single noun with its gender.

[@jankarlsson6261]

Jag tycker att du lyckats bra hittills. Det finns också många Svenskar som har svårt att förstå skånska. Jag är själv glad att jag fick svenska språket gratis med modersmjölken 🙂

[@becurious2000]

Jag älskar detta ... "gratis med modersmjölken" :)

[@eliasnjetski1146]

​@@becurious2000Literally, 'free with the mothers milk." I do not know, but do you use it in English? I have not heard nor read that expression.

[@becurious2000]

@@eliasnjetski1146 good question. I am not sure but when you say it, it makes sense.

[@Skepsissw]

Jut found your channel, very interesting points on swedish that as a native you don't really think about. I'm from the middle part of Sweden, Östra Värmland, but have lived in Skåne for 20 years, and I hate to break it to you but I think you have been misinformed about the smörgås/macka thing. I don't think it's a skånsk thing to say, we use the word macka all over Sweden. But that's the thing right, you don't always know what is standard swedish and what is a regional thing, untill some one points it out. Good luck with your swedish, your doing great so far!

[@user-hq8cp3pv9v]

You're doing great! The V2 rule (the verb in the second place of a declarative statement), particle verbs and the pitch accent (and maybe the noun gender system which at least to me as a native speaker seem totes random) willl be the hardest things. But keep speaking and also watch Swedish movies and other stuff with English subs!

[@becurious2000]

Thanks. I was watching Star Wars mandalorian with Swedish subtitles yesterday 😀

[@viktoriabackeus7610]

I wouldn't count on starting to speak skånska, I grew up in other parts of Sweden and moved down when I was 15, and still no skånska in sight. Well except for the long a in "ja". But it's good to be able to understand it, that's something even native swedish speakers struggles with (subtitles on people speaking skånska on the telly is not too uncommon, well depending on how rough the skånska is).

[@johndewey6358]

Thank you, this is very helpful. In which cities they speak Standard Swedish?

[@becurious2000]

Great question. Maybe someone who is more qualified than I can answer this question for us :)

[@oyuyuy]

I really don't envy anyone learning Swedish, it seems many are able reach 80-90% proficiency quite quickly but perfecting it seems almost impossible. It's soooo common to hear people who've lived in Sweden for several decades still speak with a heavy accent and to mess up the word order.

[@smultronvisslan2357]

As a swede I think you have got a really good understanding for the language! I think you are doing a great job! If you are interested in intonations I suggest that you to listen to books (you can loan sound books for free in the library. I think there will be sound books in easy swedish too, for those who are learning swedish) where you can listen, pause and repeate the sentense by your self. But off course then you will learn standard swedish! :) An other way to practice intonation is to get an iTalk teacher from internet. I have used that when I studied arabic, and I felt I really improved my speaking skills. I wish you good luck with your swedish studies!

[@becurious2000]

I had not thought about this. What a great idea!

[@VikingAwayFromHome]

Just a tip regarding short answers: The short answer needs to be in agreement with the question as far as tense is concerned, eg: Har du tvättat? (Present perfect) Ja, det har jag _or_ Ja, det har jag gjort The second option adds emphasis. If the question had been: "Tvättade du i går?" (Past tense), your answer would have been correct.

[@ascendingreality]

Bra jobbat! Jag kommer från Helsingborg och har undervisat SFI. När det kom nybörjargrupper så tonade jag faktiskt ner min skånska för det blev för svårt för helt nya att förstå vad jag sa ibland. Vi har många diftonger som numret 3. På skånska låter det mer som ”trrrä” och på riskssvenska ”tre”. Skogen var ett annat ord som är svårt. Det uttalas mer ”skiogen” på skånska. Språk är underbart. Lycka till och kör på!

[@becurious2000]

Min lärare från Lunds universitet gjorde det samma. Han var skånsk och tonade hans dialekt ner mycket för oss.

[@snaxon]

Both Swedish and english (contrary to languages like french and spanish) have a lot of phrasal verbs/ particel verbs in the language, even though you might not have noticed that in your own. The hard part it is not the same combos, and when it is it may be "false friends" and not have the same meaning. We just have to get passed that. (Or as it translates with swedish particle verb phrase: Vi får helt enkelt "komma över" det, as in "get over" it...)

[@CandidZulu]

"Macka" is slang for Smörgås, you'll find that all over Sweden. "Ska" is the same as Shall, and as you know Sk is often a Sh-ljud, but not this time. They are related without a doubt though. Yoda is a Rabbi analogy (Hollywood is Jewish), and Rabbis often have German or Yiddish speech patterns. "Jag tycker om dig" can mean 'I like you' or, depending on intonation, 'I think (something) about you'. I'd suggest you listen to Peps Persson and WilmerX if you want to learn Scanian accent, Skåne (Scania) is the deep south of Sweden. They didn't grow cotton, but lots of beets.

[@ulfen69]

Väldigt intressant att få höra hur svenska uppfattas av en engelsktalande.

[@supersmurf4884]

Thanks for share this, as native swedish person, things like this is very good, just knowing what foringer can have problem to learn and use words correct. Makes it easier to understand their intent when say something, rather than just listen to the words. Yes Skånska is very diffrent, can almost not understand it as a northen swede. We used to tease em and say they speak Danish. =) but same problem up in north, most do speak more of standard swedish, but some older people speaks in old northen dialect, that is even more impossible to understand sometimes. (btw Macka is not specfic to south, it is a common word in whole sweden, even more common to say it than smörgås) That wheelbarrow word, never heard of it, would not be able to guess it..haha

[@becurious2000]

Super interesting. I have a new coworker who moved here from the north and said the same thing. I did not realize there is a big difference with the north until she mentioned it. Fascinating.

[@MittiMaten]

I'm from Stockholm and I can barely understand what my friend from Trelleborg is saying when we are speaking on the phone, sometimes I just have to tell him to text me 😅

[@MattiaSSify]

I can tell already, in a while you will speak Swedish fluently. You got the language gene in you. Keep up the good work✌️🤗 If you ever pass Växjö for some reason just let me know, I will put the kettle on

[@becurious2000]

Thanks! 😃

[@DIREWOLFx75]

Classical false friends Swenglish example: It's not the fart that kills, it's the smäll(pronounced as smell). (spoken in broken English for best effect) It's not the speed that kills, it's the impact...

[@becurious2000]

😂

[@kritan84]

You are doing awesome! That attitude and manner will take you wherever you want to go! I spent many years in Japan, both working and studying and now live with my japanese wife in Sweden (Malmö) and i'd hazard a guess that my built in tonal ... Thing? (Tonality?) Is what is the biggest problem language wise for me and it seems really hard to get rid off, considering I've spoken nothing but japanese at home for the last 8 years, not counting my years in Japan. And as a "Stockholmare/ 08" who lives in Skåne, I cant do the accent either...

[@becurious2000]

Yea betoningen is definitely a challenge for me. I can speak quite a bit of Vietnamese which has 6 tones but the difference is that there are markers on each word which indicate the tone in Vietnamese in contrast with Swedish which has no markers . Quite a challenge for me

[@marier7336]

Mycket bra! Imponerande framsteg 👏

[@mickwi83]

In swedish we often stress two syllables equally in a word. E.g. in "skottkärra" we stress both o and ä. Other examples are fika, kaffe, kanelbulle, etc.

[@MartinAhlman]

Imagine going up north, hearing the dialects... Rikssvenska is only used in TV, even in Stockholm, where it originated, it's not spoken. Fun video, I hope you have fun learning Swedish (I know this video is from a year ago, but have fun anyway). And do go up north.

[@becurious2000]

Thanks Martin! It is going well here. I moved to Limhamn now. I have been to Kiruna once. It was a cool experience. Thanks for the comments!

[@joencool1]

Fascinerande hur bra du är på att hitta det krångliga med att lära svenska! Alla små nyanser som kan vara avgörande…! Exemplet med ”anden” (the duck) och ”anden” (the spirit) är ju väldigt bra!!😊 //Sven (smålänning i Göteborg, som också bott i Malmö…)

[@becurious2000]

😊🙏🏻

[@carlkolthoff5402]

This probably doesn't help you at all, but it may be some sort of consolation. Those false friends you mention, they cause just as much trouble for Swedish people when learning english. Some of them are actually a pretty safe indicator that someone overrates his or her own english speaking abilities (and all the other swedes in the room silently cringes 😀 )

[@becurious2000]

🙂

[@christopherx7428]

Classic example: "Eventually"! 🙂

[@eliasnjetski1146]

​@@christopherx7428Exactly/Exact. I thought when I was younger that "Eventually" meant "Eventuellt" but that is not correct.

[@peterhallbus1114]

Macka is something we say in the rest of the country as well ;) Your pronunciation of the word Gjorde sounds like you are saying gjörde and that is not a word but other then that your pronuniciations sound pretty good :)

[@becurious2000]

yea it is funny I have noticed I say that a lot... bad habit lol. Its so weird when I hear my own accent

[@trollnystan]

Regarding "känner igen"... A favourite story I've heard was when someone's sister (this was back in the 70-80s) was around 12 years old and was asked by the teacher to translate "jag känner igen dig" (I recognise you) into English. The sister said, "I feel again you" and everyone laughed, poor thing. But it IS funny!

[@jonathan.palfrey]

I was in Sweden 1989-1993, and I had it much easier than you, because (a) I was working for an international company and could speak English at work, and (b) I was in Stockholm, where standard Swedish is spoken (as far as I know). I had some Swedish lessons, but never learned it well. I don’t think it’s an unusually difficult language (I’ve tried to learn various others), but I had various problems with it. 1. Many Swedes speak English well (at least in Stockholm), and when I tried to speak Swedish they would reply in English. Furthermore, they would sometimes be offended that I tried to speak to them in Swedish (Do you think I’m uneducated and can’t speak English?). 2. There are nine types of nouns with different endings in plural and with the definite article. I figured out that I could mumble the end of the word and be understood anyway. 3. There are several variations on the ‘sh’ sound that seem much the same to me, but Swedes distinguish between them. I don’t think I ever managed to pronounce ‘sju’ correctly (meaning ‘seven’). 4. I always have trouble with noun gender, which seems unnecessary to me (just as English verb endings seem unnecessary to Swedes). At least Swedish has only two genders; German has three, ouch. I don’t have a good ear for language. For example, I’m originally from the south of England, and I have difficulty in distinguishing between different American accents, so that you mostly just sound mildly American to me, and I couldn’t have identified you as Texan from the accent. I now live in Catalonia, near Barcelona. In Catalonia, Catalan is widely spoken, which is a different language from Spanish, although they’re related. I can get by in Spanish, but I haven’t got beyond simple greetings in Catalan: learning two rather similar languages at the same time is too much for me. Earlier in my life, I lived in Italy, and Italian is also confusingly related to Spanish and Catalan. I’m impressed by the effort you’re making with Swedish, even though I understand that you have to learn it for your work.

[@becurious2000]

Thanks for the kind comments and sharing your personal story. Learning a language for most of us is definitely hard work. I know what you mean with the sj sound. I pronounce it the typical way like you're whistling but I know many do it the other way like an sh sound. I find I get really confused with they do it that way and are saying numbers like their telephone number if it contains 20 something and 70 something in it.

[@veraekberg]

I think the problem with pronouncing, for example, the word seven in Swedish for English speakers is that you place the word "too far forward in the mouth". don't really know how to explain but the feeling is that it almost starts like a cat hissing with the sound placed far back in the mouth/palate. Not like a whistle at all, but more like you pronounce chocolate in Swedish. I hope I'm not confusing you now, I'm not very good at conveying what I mean, a sense of where to pronounce a word!😂

[@veraekberg]

Maby if you try to say chuklad instead of choklad you can find the placement?😂

[@MTimWeaver]

Nice video. I'm teaching myself Swedish (or trying to) as a native English speaker who has studied a couple of languages to varying degrees of success. I studied German many years ago, so between the English and German, the word order thing hasn't been "bothersome" much. Phrasal verbs are the term in English for things like "get up", "hand in", and "takes after"...I forgot what you call them. They're some of the trickiest things, I think. Consider all the phrasal verbs we have just with "get" - get in, get on, get up, get out, get over, get over it. So far, pronunciation is sort of a challenge. I've been concentrating more on listening (since my local Swedish friend has been unavailable lately...she's from Malmö and has tried to explain some of the local dialect...I said, let's wait until I can actually hold a basic conversation first...lol). Spanish, Japanese, and German (to a high degree) are much more phonetic than Swedish. But I look at it from the other angle...someone trying to learn English and having to learn all the ways just "ough" can sound: Thought, Tough, Plough, Though, etc. Thanks for the videos, and looking forward to seeing your next update.

[@becurious2000]

Yea English is crazy too. We often joke in Texas that us Texas can't even speak English. I still find spelling hard sometimes in English. Thanks for the feedback and for watching!

[@snaxon]

@@becurious2000 English is actually super hard to both spell and pronounce, due to how completely irregular it is. Contrary to what many people think French is actually easier, once you get the rule, Any given lettercombo always sounds the same (counting the "liason rules" of connecting the end of a word that ends with a consonant to the next,word, if that word start with a vowel sound. Easy peasy! 😂😅

[@becurious2000]

@@snaxon I studied French in high school but no one spoke it where I lived so I forgot much. I have as a goal once I master Swedish to restudy French, Spanish and Vietnamese

[@snaxon]

@@becurious2000 Great idea, do it! Now when uou live in Europe it will be easy to get some practice. Hop on a cheap flight to France or Spain and practice during your five weeks of holidays…😀

[@farrier1234]

Den dialekt som talas i Skåne är väldigt svår att lära sig om man talar en annan dialekt. Det går säkert men det tar tid och din gamla dialekt kommer förmodligen alltid att lysa igenom. Tycker att du är fantastisk duktig och har fått mig att tänka på mitt språk på ett annat sätt.

[@skogsbosse]

That little Swedish that you spoke here, where much better than our neighbor, who is from Chicago. she moved here 35 years ago

[@helga8439]

I think your pronunciation is very good, especially when you have only studied 16 months. You have even managed to get your r quite right, many americans have longlasting problems with that.

[@becurious2000]

thanks :)

[@sylvassasalladsbestick1342]

As someone using the same regional pitch accents as the ones you're going for, I'm impressed! You're very close to sounding like a native. Keep up the good work ☺️ Also, have you noticed that the name Linda is pronounced with different pitch accents depending on where the person is from? Not that it's important to adhere to this, but it's still funny how inconsistent the use of pitch accents can be.

[@becurious2000]

Thanks for the encouragement. Yea I am learning a lot about the various betoning from city to city… what a challenge 😆

[@Touchpadse]

I just found your channel and found this quite interesting. I imagine words like "gift" must be really confusing since it's a word in English but means either "poison" or "married" with the same pronunciation in Swedish also I imagine pronouncing "sjuksköterska" or "sjukskötare" (nurse) must be really hard for someone not use to the "skj"/"sk" sound

[@jackarootoro]

Here’s an interesting difference between different parts of Sweden: in the southern half of the country, ’find’ is ’hitta’ . But in the northern half, this for some reason becomes a particle verb, ’hitta igen’.

[@becurious2000]

😯

[@MrHenrikAndersson]

I follow one streamer who is from the south of the US, her accent is so calming and soothing, it's perfect to fall asleep to. And yes, it is charming to. But what I heard from my Jugoslav friends, is that Swedish people very quickly switch to English when they hear that someone is struggling. They felt it hampered their ability to learn pronunciations. Have you've had a similar expirience?

[@becurious2000]

Surprisingly I do not get that experience very often… only with elderly who speak English that don’t get to use it often anymore because they want to practice their English.

[@christopherx7428]

A few surprises there. As a Swede, I thought your two most difficult things would be: 1) Getting people to speak Swedish at all, once they hear that English is your native tongue and 2) Getting to know when to use the proper form for "one": "en/ett", which then propagates to adjectives in the same sentence. I can relate to the Texas rural experience though: When I was young, long time ago, I drove an ice cream van in the Scania country side as a summer job and visited many farmers that rarely went into the city. I had a hard time understanding them! As for the many different words in Scania, many of them stem from the time when this part of the country was Danish, until mid 17th century...

[@becurious2000]

What a fun job! Driving in the Swedish countryside with an ice cream van 😀

[@annabackman3028]

'Macka' is modern Swedish for 'smörgås'. It began as slang, but is considered a 'real' word now.

[@SilverionX]

Because Swedish has so many exceptions and weird, complicated little rules, coupled with the fact that we don't have that many grammar lessons in school (at least I don't remember that many), Swedes tend to use the language intuitively instead of from an understanding of grammar. This can lead to some funny moments when people who immigrated have a much better understanding of Swedish grammar than the majority of the population because they've had to learn properly as adults. Including people who write a lot in their line of work. I can whip up a pretty decent text that would stand the scrutiny of a journalist (maybe delusional but it's happened), but I couldn't for the life of me tell you what grammar is involved. I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Kinda hilarious if you think about it.

[@becurious2000]

Funny... I feel the same about English sometimes for me. For example. I was thinking about the word går, gå, gick, gått and it made me think about the word in English go, going, gone, went. Then I thought about the word in English forgo and I was like "what is the past tense of forgo?.... forwent? ... that sounds strange....When I looked it up, that is what it said.... but even for my native English ear... forwent sounds really strange. Haha.

[@andersmartensson8659]

I have to add my voice to the others here, I'm impressed with your skill in speaking Swedish. And about our accent down here "Skånska", it is not only you that have difficulties in understanding that, if you go to like Stockholm, some times you have a hard time making yourself understood there. :) I spoke a very short sentence once to a store assistant and got a reply. Then I spoke a very long more complex sentence, and the same person stood there like a big question mark. :) I had to break it down into shorter sentences to make the person understand what I said. Good luck and I hope you continue to learn Swedish! And if you really want a challenge, go to either the north east or south east part of Skåne, and talk to "natives" from those parts. They have a lot more pronounced accent, than what you get from Helsingborg and around there. Some times even we natives from the other parts of Skåne have problem understanding them.

[@susanne856]

I would love to know more about your experiences from being on the autism spectrum and your nursing profession if you want to share on that. It would be very interesting to know more about how you came to decide on your profession and i you have had any struggles or strengths in terms of studying and working. Every experience in different ofcourse but I would love to hear your story! God job with the swedish and skånska! Skånska is one of the most difficult accents!

[@becurious2000]

I have a couple video on it if you want to check them out. They are from when I first posted on KZbin.

[@anteefternamn6123]

Det verkar som att du klarar dig bra 👍 Vi som bor norr om skåne kämpar också med deras dialekt 😂

[@theoldfart8632]

The Word ”macka” is not a specific Word used in skåne. That is a ”slang” word for smörgås and is used all over Sweden. It originates from Stockholm area and has spread all over Sweden. The skånedialect originates from old danish language mixed with Swedish. Skåne belonged to Danmark for some 600 years before being Swedish territory.

[@becurious2000]

Yes I think that’s been mentioned by a few in the comments here 😆

[@matshjalmarsson3008]

From Stockholm, after 15 years in Blekinge and Skåne I still don't understand what the older folks say sometimes

[@audreywinter6910]

I'm confused. I lived in the north of Sweden for a number of years as a German migrant and there the duck was anka (ankan). Maybe a native speaker here can clarify for me? I can wholeheartedly agree with the difficulties of "verb på andra plats", which was partly my own fault, because for some reason I learned Swedish from English in my head, when it would have been much easier to start with German grammar. Swedish actually adapted that sentence structure from German, so it should have been quite familar to me. 😄

[@danielhoijer]

The simple explanation There is a myriad of subspecies withing ducklike birds. Anka= Domesticated duck And=Wild duck

[@audreywinter6910]

@@danielhoijer Thanks for clearing that up!

[@vaxfantomen]

Your doing great considering that most Sweeds would consider skånska more as a danish then a swedish language ^^ Jokes aside, the way I approch the pitch is more of a song that travels across the words to sound "right" then just rules. You can bend any swedish word 6 more times then should be possible witch spawns all theese very diffrent accents. Just like the "En and Ett" and when to use them correctly, most sweeds cant explain why (there are some rules but not a single one can remember them) but they can hear the wrong answer instantly. So if you can train yourself with as many EN and ETT words just to get a feeling of whats correct from your pitch it might help you with other related problems in the future.

[@swedishmetalbear]

I think the interesting thing about Swedish compared to English.. Is our use of du which is actually English "thou". Whereas in English.. Thou hath all but disappeared in English and become You... Which is really our "ni" which has all but disappeared in Swedish...

[@becurious2000]

Really? Fascinating, I did not realize that

[@znail4675]

@@becurious2000 If you speak to some elderly so could they call you out if you use "du" on you being too familiar and should be more polite and use "ni".

[@carl9901]

you don't have to worry about anden. it's always gonna refer to the duck. Very few are religious in sweden

[@erikjalefors9377]

You are doing great !! Fubbik and rullebör ain’t the most common words to hear from a Texan ! I too as a native Swedish speaker struggled a bit with some of the words in skånska !

[@becurious2000]

Haha! Thanks

[@Er.L.]

"Eventually" and "Eventuellt" is also a pretty good example of false friends, where "eventuellt" kind of just means that something MIGHT happen.

[@becurious2000]

Yes! And we use that one a lot in healthcare. I see it abbreviated at Ev. a lot.

[@NennysProkuktions]

Its funny how I recognize the false friends problem, but from the other side. I remember struggling with will when learning english in elementary school, saying things like "I will have your help" instead of "I want your help".

[@becurious2000]

wow 😮 I did not think about it from the other side

[@ChinaUncleMikey]

haha, my swedish is still in an elementary level, but there are so many things im struggling along the journey. for example, i dont know when "att" should be in place in verb infinitive between two verbs. also the changing form of adjectives according to singluar, plurals and definities of the subject made me dizzy.... the "r" sound is very difficult for me to pronounce as a native mandarin speaker......but i will keep it on......cheers

[@becurious2000]

The “att” thing took me a few months to wrap my head around… it certainly is hard. I know what you mean about the “r” sound too as many of my best friends are from Vietnam and struggle with the sound as well. The plurals and definite I still struggle with when I talk…. Fake it till ya make 😅

[@annicaesplund6613]

English and Swedish are both in the germanic language group.

[@Mossy-Rock]

Thanks for your excellent video! I've been learning Swedish for several years, and am currently at the B2 / C1 level since I don't get much of a chance to speak it with anyone here in the USA with any frequency or regularity. The thing that causes the most problems for me are the two genders - en / ett. I'm constantly getting it wrong, which messes up a lot of other things in the sentence.

[@becurious2000]

That’s a pretty impressive level for not living in Sweden…. Even for living in Sweden 😄

[@Mossy-Rock]

@@becurious2000 Thank you.

[@peersvensson9253]

Fubbick xD I love that you're learning words like that. "Din jävla fubbick!"

[@becurious2000]

😂

[@houzbizness303]

My advice to anyone coming to Sweden who is planning to stay is to recognise Swedish as not only being an important and necessary language, but accepting it as YOUR language. This may sound harsh but one needs to also set the ego aside. You will feel foolish, stupid, or inadequate when trying to communicate. You may feel alone as a result of this. The sooner you learn the language the better. Employment opportunities, friendships, social and romantic relationships often depend on language skills. Feeling proud about yourself and feeling proud over your new country doesn't do any harm either. Embrace your new life!

[@becurious2000]

Funny I was just saying to my friend back in the states I speak Swedish more than English these days. It really helps. Looking forward to taking on the task of learning one more language 😅

[@houzbizness303]

@@becurious2000 I think I ediited my comment while you were replying. The comment wasn't aimed directly at you, I think you got that. I was drawing on personal experience. I think we often put up barriers that needn't be there. Thanks for the reply.

[@becurious2000]

@@houzbizness303 no worries friend 😁. I agree. I feel even though many Swedes speak English… there are many who don’t, many who do but don’t feel so comfortable speaking it, and also I think it opens the door to closer relationships with people here. Swedish are so appreciative when we try to learn it. ☺️

[@jackarootoro]

Eventually you will get it./Eventuellt kommer du att fatta. And that is another well-known false friend, eventually/eventuellt. 🙂 Can I just say that learning Swedish in Skåne really sounds like a challenge? The dialects vary so much over short distances!

[@Greksallad]

I think you've made great progress for such a short time. Great video! I just wanted to say if anyone wants to learn more about Swedish pitch accent I can highly recommend "Understanding the Swedish Pitch Accent" by Academia Cervena here on youtube. He also has very detailed videos about pronunciation, spelling, word order etc.

[@F1rstWorldNomaD]

I like Texan accent in men, it sounds very optimistic and carefree. I LOVE Alabama accent in women... I dont know why.

[@becurious2000]

Fascinating! You ever heard a Hawaiian accent ? 😊

[@micke5735]

I'm impressed with your dedication, and you seem to try really hard. I don't really care if someone speaks with a perfect accent, if I know there vocabulary is big enough to communicate without hindrance. It's ofc a bit easier to listen to a good accent, but it's not the most important for me at least.

[@becurious2000]

Thanks 😊

[@petergustafsson1670]

How has it been to learn Swedish kinship terminology? Two different words for grandfather. English has two words for the children of your siblings - niece and nephew. Swedish has seven - brorson, systerson, brorsdotter, systerdotter, brorsbarn, systerbarn, syskonbarn. And so on. Was that easier to pick up than what you listed in this video?

[@becurious2000]

I think over all that was pretty easy for me as I am used to Vietnamese which has something similar. Where it is a little harder for me is when it comes to the plural forms for grandparents if I am referring to both sets. I am unsure many times what to say so I usually resort to saying mina föräldrars föräldrar .

[@birgittalagerstrom6264]

Om någon frågar, har du tvättat, då svara du, ja det har jag. Eller nej det har jag inte. It can't be easy 😂 keep it to rikssvenska. And welcome to Sweden. Välkommen till Sverige.

[@becurious2000]

😊🙏🏻

[@carlawiberg6282]

Well ... the past tenses aren't the same in Swedish as in (American) English. The question "Har du tvättat dina kläder?" should be answered "Ja, det har jag" -- not "Ja, det gjorde jag", which would be the answer to "Tvättade du dina kläder i går / i morse / i söndags?"

[@Gromklur]

I live in Helsingborg aswell. But Im not from here, I hail from småland where the dialect is very different. And the mix of småländska and skånska leads to some really funny words ^^ For example, in Helsingborg they pronounce "er" att the ending of a word as "or", like "säger" sounds like "sägor". And where Im from we dont pronounce the letter "r". So what I say is kinda like "Sägoh". :D

[@becurious2000]

Thanks so much for the fantastic explanation. I could not quite wrap my head around how to imitate the sound. This is a really good description!!!! 😊 🙏

[@Gromklur]

@@becurious2000 Another thing I just noticed is that your thumbnail is from Kalmar castle :D I worked there for 6 years, so I know those towers ^^

[@becurious2000]

@@Gromklur yup!

[@CALLE92JOHANSSON]

"Will" definitely is quite shattered in swedish with a lot of different ways to convey its meaning and I've thought about it before. I noticed the thumbnail, what did you think visiting Kalmar?

[@becurious2000]

Kalmar was awesome! Planning to go back in the summer to see it in all its glory and hopefully the island across the way too.

[@98Zai]

Super intressant! Det är svårt att förstå hur konstigt ens eget språk är, bara genom en utomstående kan man verkligen förstå! Det är därför mångfald (diversity) är bra för oss, och du bidrar med det!!

[@TheJonasbz]

Very intressting, i thought one of the hardet thing to learn was to know when to use en or et, you just gotta know if its ett bil eller en, to know if its should be bilet or bilen and as far as i know, theres no rule I think the word is used allover sweden, at least i know its been used in södermanland7upplöand region

[@becurious2000]

yea that is definitely a challenge for me... probably in my typ ten difficult things with the language.

[@wendajones9040]

“Skånska” is pretty difficult to understand! I even think so after living in Sweden for about 45 years!

[@grim8050]

Ett tillägg från min sida. Nu jobbar du visserligen inom hälsovården men jag har många kollegor som inte är ursprungligen från Sverige och något dom nämnde är att dom tyckte det var väldigt svårt att lära sig svenska för eftersom många svenskar är väldigt bra på engelska så tenderar dom att byta till engelska när dom hör någon som har svårt med språket vilket gör det svårt för dom att träna på att tala svenska.

[@znail4675]

Tell them to watch Swedish TV with subtitles when they got time over.

[@mockupguy3577]

#1 Finding someone to talk to.

[@erikwahlberg448]

Intressant! Liten rättelse: "macka" går att säga i hela Sverige. Inte bara i Skåne.

[@robertjonsson797]

Nice Castle in the thumbnail i say as a citizen of Kalmar.

[@greenmachinesweden]

You are better at grammar than I am. I think it is not needed to learn languages. Talking like Yoda was a fun comparison. I understand the intonation challenge, it is exactly the same for me, but oppisite. 🙂👍

[@ak5659]

I know your svenska/skâska pain as I was once in a similar situation with Italian. False friends ... Often an old/obsolete meaning of an English word is the the contemporary & most common meaning in other Germanic languages OR what's a very specific specific type in one language is the generic in another. Ex. 'Dog' used to be a specific of dog and 'hound' was the generic word. Or 'flask' in English vs the other Germanic languages. Or 'will' in the sense of a willing accomplice, last will & testament, or '... thy will be done...' Independent vs dependent/ embedded clauses: 'What time is it?' vs 'There're no clocks in the room and I want to know what time it is' --- this stuff is very idiosyncratic to me.