du/dig and ni/er
English is very confusing in the use of the word ‘you’ to denote both singular and plural. My former boss asked me a couple of months back ‘would you like to come to dinner?’. When I turned up alone he asked me where my partner was. Naturally he could have framed it as ‘would you guys like to come to dinner/would you and your partner like to come to dinner?’ But he should not have had to. Swedish has du/dig (singular) and ni/er (plural) so that you know whether someone is talking to just you or to all of you.
family relationships
In English the words grandfather/aunt/nephew are quite confusing unless you qualify them with maternal/paternal. Many times it does not matter because it is just general conversation, but sometimes you need to know what side of the family someone is talking about. Swedish includes that in the one word. Farfar is father’s father, morbror is mother’s brother, systerdotter is sister’s daughter. It works like that all throughout the family tree.
mys
Danish Hygge was a lifestyle craze a couple of years ago, and Mys is the Swedish version of that, and then some. Mys means ‘cozy’ but the Swedish word can be a verb, a noun and a whole scenario. You can do it on Fridays, or you can be a cozy person, or you can wear cozy pants. For me it is television, coffee and candy, a warm blanket and a book. For others it is family time with the kids in their pyjamas at the end of a stressful work and school week. ‘we are going to cozy at home’ is a reason to not go out.
fika
In its narrowest sense, fika means to have coffee. It is a verb and a noun. There may or may not be buns. But the important thing is the social aspect. Perhaps the closest in English would be afternoon tea. It’s not just about the tea, it’s about the occasion.
lagom
This means just enough, just right. Not too big/small/hot/cold etc. You don’t even have to qualify it. Just say lagom. It also describes Swedes. They never stick out or go for conflict. They are just enough.
dygn
This means 24 hours. You don’t have to say day and night, or round the clock or 24 hours. You can just say dygn and people would know what you mean.
One word that I did have on this list was the Swedish övermorgon, meaning the day after tomorrow. Then I discovered that English does, indeed, have the same word. Now it’s just to get people to use it.
