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

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

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.

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 😀 )

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.

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.

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).

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.

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

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!

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!

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 🙂

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.

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.

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

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!

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 😄

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.

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

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**

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.

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

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 🤞

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...

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.

"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.

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).

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!

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

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

Skåne is Swedish Texas! Correct....

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.

You are doing great. Når du er færdig med svensk og skånsk, da kan du prøve med dansk ;-) - När du är klar med svenska och skånska, kan du prova danska. And all your hard work with pronounciation will go down the drain :-) . In Danish there is something called "stød" - it is a glottal stop - it is really hard to learn. By the way, I am from Copenhagen and have listened to Swedish all my life, so I understand it almost as well as Danish and in Skåne they usually understand Danish.

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?"

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...)

"Tycker" and think don't mean the same thing. "Tycker" is having an opinion. "Tänker" means using the brain.😄

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

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 :)

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

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

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.

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...

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.

Relax, you are on the right track, give it 1 more year. You have no problem at all. "Anden" is an unfair overly complicated example cause where I grew up in Sweden it is AWFULLY close how you pronounce that. Horrible for Swedish learners. Drop it and make sure you can order a coffee instead.

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

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!

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...

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

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. 😄

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

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

The best thing about Swedish is that you can put any number of words together into one word! For example: “dammsugarmunstycketillbehörslista”. (I just invented that one!”

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

Actually, "macka" is almost certainly Stockholm slang.

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.

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

English and Swedish are both in the germanic language group.

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

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.

9:47 Tycker = think? Not when it means cogitate, but yes, when it means opine (as in an evaluation). I think about a math problem - jag tänker på att matte-problem. I think he's rude - jag tycker han är oförskämd.

When in Sweden, it's important that you can show your guilty leg! ;)

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

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

Oof, Skåne. You're doing Swedish on hard mode then!

"Monoton" finlandssvenska är lätt att lyssna på och lätt att uttala för personer vars modersmål int är svenska. Hur som helst är det en stor utmaning att komma ihåg vilka orden är ett eller en.

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!

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

Mycket bra! Imponerande framsteg 👏

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

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

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.

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!

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

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!!

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.

I guessed Skåne.... Bad luck.

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’.

LOL my wife who is learning Swedish got the same problem... den SKÅNSKA DIALEKTEN... BTW, even though I am Swedish myself, I always illustrate Skånsk accent this way.... its like speaking Swedish but having a hot potato in the mouth 🤣

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

I agree with you @brandoncagle1611 There are many false friends, and I also agree with you about the grammar. However, even though we have pitch accent, we will understand you from the context. You took the word "anden" as an example. If you say "Jag tror att anden kommer till himlen när man dör", then I will figure out from the context that you mean "the spirit/ the soul", even if you pronounce anden wrong. Maybe you are a bit like me, and want it to be perfect, but never be afraid to pronounce things the wrong way. Most people will understand you anyway, unless you just say single words. As long as the word is put in a context, then there are no big problems. As for word order "Ja, det gjorde jag." can also be said as "Ja, jag gjorde det" (roughly translated to "Yes, I did that". Other things in Swedish that can be hard for English speakers are compound nouns. That is when you take two nouns and put them together to form a new noun. There are a few such nouns in English. For example healthcare (British English), while it is health care in US English, but I think British people would understand if I wrote health care too. However in Swedish, the meaning of the word can change to something completely different. You can read about särskrivning on sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Särskrivning There you have an example "En brun hårig sjuk sköterska" i stället för "En brunhårig sjuksköterska". The former translates to "A brown hairy sick nurse", while the latter says "A brown haired nurse". As you can see both sjuksköterska and sköterska translates to nurse in English. Sjuksköterska is more specific to medical care, while sköterska can be someone taking care of other things. For example barnsköterska, a child nurse (that works in preschool). Nowadays you don't see barnsköterska very often, but we most often use barnskötare for both male and female preschool staff. I think you use nurse I'm many senses even in English. There can be a nursery for plants. A gardener in Swedish is "trädgårdsSKÖTARE". There is no feminine word for this (ie trädgårdssköterska). In English you have health care, but in Swedish there is a difference between hälsovård and sjukvård. We also have friskvård. Sjukvård is for sick people. You go to a Med Dr to get treatment or medication. Hälsovård and friskvård are more profylactic. Friskvård can be going to a gym, in order to keep fit (and to not get sick). Hälsovård can include nurses and doctors, but also a lot of others like dieticians, physiotherapists etc. If you haver diabetes you can get information about a suitable diet from the dietician. This falls under hälsovård, but it's not a direct treatment.

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

#1 Finding someone to talk to.

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?

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

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.

You're doing well, keep at it!^^ Regarding "tycker om", it might be good to note that "jag tycker (I think)" is in the context of "to have an opinion", so it might make a little more sense if you consider that "tycker om" aka "like" is basically a positive opinion. In comparison to "jag tänker (I think)" which refers to using your brain to think (logic or intent with less of a personal opinion). Jag tänker gå hem (I think I'll go home). Jag tycker det är dags att gå hem (I think it's time to go home). Jag tycker om att vara hemma. (I like being at home).🤔

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.

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!

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...

You will do fine! You know why? The will (he he he) to do it, the interest and your age (its an asset! Sure you miss out on somethings a young brain get free -but you have the experience and the intellect!) I just subscribed, because you are awesome! I understand its an upphill struggle coming from the US, a lot of Europeans have their native language, English from TV, Movies and Music, a second or third language from school -aaaaand some people come from another country and have the language from their origin, aaaaaaaaaand some countries have two, three or more languages in their country... So sure, the common US citizen know only English, if they come from immigrants, two languages. The lack of interest of anything that goes on outside of their country, ehm, their state, ehrm, their county or even city is another hurdle you "Americans" fight with. (The northern Americans as well as the southern Americans know a little more...)

I think Semester is pretty funny... as it basically means the exact opposite of the English Semester even tho theyre literally spelled exactly the same. Swedish Semester = Schools out, its Vacation time English Semester = Vacation is over, back to School.

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".

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 !

Everywhere, except around Lund, the skåne dialect is very heavy. Hard for most swedes to understand, usually takes some time getting used to. The people speaking skånska mostly get annoyed when someone not native skåning tries to take after their dialect. Acting they getting trolled by someone mimicking their way of speaking in a really bad way. I myself think my skånska is perfect, however its never well received amongst skåningar. 😂

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?

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!

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!