Swedish or English?

[Bamboo Grove]

Some years ago we had a chat about the Swedish word farthinder (viewtopic.php?f=17&t=10924&p=112785&hil ... r*#p112785), which in English looks like someone is trying to stop your bowels’ movements. There are other words which look the same but have a totally different meaning. Here are some from

http://studentblogski.wordpress.com/201 ... sed-about/

Amazingly enough, some of these words are so commonly used that you can almost hear or read them many times a day.
Here’s a list of 7 words that I think English speaking people shouldn’t be confused about when they come to Sweden. *
1. Bad:
The “A” in Swedish is pronounced like “Ah” which means that this word ”bad” is not the one that you’re familiar with, but is pronounced “b(ah)d”.
Apart from how it’s pronounced,
Bad (n) = Bathroom (or pool sometimes as you can see in the pic)
Bad (v) = Past tense of the verb “Ber” which means “Ask for/Pray”
2. Barn:
Although it sounds almost the same in English and Swedish, the Swedish “barn” means “children”…
3. Gift:
First things first. This one is pronounced as “Yeft” (the G sounds much like the Y in many Swedish words particularly when followed by a vowel).
Gift (or Yeft) interestingly has 2 meanings in Swedish which you can use your imagination to correlate.
Gift (adj) = Married
Gift (n) = Poison
Crazy, huh?
4. Bra:
Bra is one of the most commonly used words. You’ll hear it very often on daily basis and knowing what it means, you’re going to end up using it as well :-)
Bra means “good”
Bra, eh?
5. Puss:
It sounds almost the same and it refers to something that you can consider “nice”
Puss (n) = Kiss
6. Kiss:
Although replaced by “Puss”, “Kiss” still exists as a word in Swedish and has the exact same pronunciation as its English counterpart.
Sorry to disgust you, but…
Kiss (n) = Urine
So, yes… Be careful when you’re publicly repeating the word “Kiss”
7. Fart:
To make things short,
Fart (n) = Speed
Add (In) before it “Infart” and you get the word “Entrance”
Add (ut) before it “Utfart” and you get the word “Exit”
And finally,
Slut:
The “u” is pronounced more or less like “ew”, so it doesn’t sound like the English word and it means something extremely different.
Slut (n) = End
One of the funniest situations is when you take the bus or train for the first time in Sweden and see this word “Slutstation” which means “Last station” :-)

So don’t worry if when arriving at the slutstation, you see a sign saying “farthinder”, just infart your car. However, you cannot kiss outdoors. Remember this and it will be bra.

[richard]

Love it

I never did find the village/town in Germany called 'ausfahrt'

[oakdale160]

Barn for children, in scotlant isn't a bairn a child

[barrys]

Barn for children, in scotlant isn't a bairn a child

or a 'wain' where I'm from

[barrys]

Love it

I never did find the village/town in Germany called 'ausfahrt'

Or what about these.

1 in Austria, the other in Germany:

Wank is a mountain and village in southern Germany, situated in the Loisach valley close to the Austrian border in the southwestern Ester Mountains range near Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

[Frank La Rue]

And finally,
Slut:
The “u” is pronounced more or less like “ew”, so it doesn’t sound like the English word and it means something extremely different.
Slut (n) = End
One of the funniest situations is when you take the bus or train for the first time in Sweden and see this word “Slutstation” which means “Last station” :-)[/quote]

So don’t worry if when arriving at the slutstation, you see a sign saying “farthinder”, just infart your car. However, you cannot kiss outdoors. Remember this and it will be bra.[/quote]

Hilarious! - The thing is that the Swiss actually institutionalized Slutstations last year:

http://www.businessinsider.com/switzerl ... ive-2013-8

The Swiss are very practical - my father studied at the Eidgenøsishce Hochschule in Zurich, I studied at Hochschule St. Gallen and my son studied at Geneva School of Diplomacy, we all learned to respect the Swiss, (not gloating - only sharing why I have affinity for Swiss approaches to things) I oftentimes wish Norway would take the swiss approach to many things from EU to immigration.

As far as I know Switzerland also has the highest portion of Thai ladies measured to population - maybe this is because Thai ladies also have a practical approach to things?