The dialogue is recorded in talspråk, spoken Swedish, with a focus on the Stockholm area, but written normally.
Greetings
Tjenare, tjena and tja are all modifications of tjänare* and are common greetings in Sweden. You will also come across these phrases in a formal setting when someone tries to act a bit more causal.
Following a greeting we mostly see a question for the health situation of the conversational partner. Beside the common Hur mår du? you might come across these:
Hur är det?
How is it?
Hur är läget?
How is the situation?
Vad händer?
What is happening?
Tjänare is about 100-150 years old working as a colloquial substitute for hej.
Sörrö and hörrö
or serru and hörru
Sörrö is ser du and hörrö is hör du, you see and you hear. You can translate these expressions with you know.
Jo, serru, jag var tvungen att göra det.
Well, you know, I had to do it.
Jo, hörru, jag var tvungen att göra det.
Well, you know, I had to do it.
Hörrö is also used as an interjection to get the attention of someone or to initiate a conversation:
Hörrö, kom tillbaka!
Hey you, come back here!
Hörru du, har du varit i Sverige någongång?
Can I ask you, have you ever been to Sweden?
Keep in mind that you don’t write this but you say it. Thus the different ways of writing here.
Liksom
In Swedish, like in English, we have filler words that don’t really mean much in the sentence they are used. For English speakers it’s common to say “like” a lot. In Sweden we use an equivalent to that actually: liksom. A synonym, also used like this, is typ. Another common filler word is ba which is an abbreviation of bara. You’ll hear this mostly among the younger population.
Pronunciation rules
Ending consonants
A lot of words get their endings dropped in spoken Swedish.
| Written language | Pronunciation | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| jag | ja [ja] [jɑː] | I |
| det | de [deː] | it |
| är | ä [ɛː], e [eː] | am, are, is |
| var | va [va] [vɑː] | was, were |
| vad | va [va] [vɑː] | what |
| med | me [meː] | with |
Verb-endings
Also the endings of the verb forms preterite and supinum are dropped.
Jag jobbade hårt igår.
Ja jobba hårt igår.
I worked hard yesterday.
Jag har jobbat hårt den här veckan.
Ja har jobba hårt den här veckan.
I’ve worked hard this week.
Contractions
Words that end on a G or D in particular lose that consonant when the following word begins with a D. This D is then turned into an R. It is of note that this “rule” only works for a couple of words. Particularly we have pronouns (du, dig, “dom”, det) and då.
This phenomenon is also turning up with other consonants and unemphasized vowels. In particular when they normally get dropped in spoken language.
| Written language | Pronunciation | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Tog du (…) | toru [tuːrɵ] | Did you take (…) |
| (Jag) ser dig | serej [seːrɛj] | (I) see you |
| (Han) har det (bra) | hare [hɑːrɛ] | (He) is doing (well) |
| (Vad) gör du då? | jörurå [jœːrʉːrɔ] | (What) are you doing then? |
| Hade du (kul på festen?) | haderu [hadərʉː] | Did you have (fun at the party?) |
| Själv då? | självrå [ɧɛlvrɔ] | How about you? |
| Ta det lugnt | tare [tɑːrɵ] | Take it easy |
This contraction occurs where the people roll their R since this is done in the front of the mouth with the teeth similarly to how you construct a D.
Dom
The pronouns de and dem are most of the times pronounced like dom and according to our little rule sometimes rom. This even confuses native speakers when they are writing. They sometimes think that dem is the correct spelling also for de.
Subject
De är här.
They are here.
Object
Jag ser dem.
I see them.
Spoken Swedish
Dom är här.
They are here.
Jag ser dom.
I see them.