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- Topic: Swedish >
- "Jag dricker juice."
58 Comments
We actually accept saft as a valid translation here since there is no other good translation for saft in English. However, in Swedish this distinction is very clear and it is important to know that saft and juice aren't the same thing in Swedish..
Unless things have changed lately there's a law "juicelagen" that specify what you are allowed to put into something called juice. Basically you are only allow to add the "thing" mentioned and a little bit of acid (the one in lemons/oranges).
Mangojuice = made from mango and nothing else // Morotsjuice = made from carrots... // etc
But as my Swedish friend says, unfortunately this distiction doesn't exist in English/portugues/spanish/etc. They call everything juice/sugo/etc no matter if it's the real thing or just water, sugar and some chemical to give a fake taste. This drives me crazy when I travel :-(
Not sure about the USA but the distinction is there in Britain. Juice has to be made 100% from fruit, if it uses concentrate it must be declared on the packaging.
Nearly everything else is called either squash or cordial depending on the strength of the concentrate.
There is also nectar which needs to be at least 25% fruit but it's rare that you see anyone with this.
In the US the juice may be "orange juice" with fine print somewhere saying "made from concentrate"
So... saft is a juice not from concentrate? (=pure squeezed juice) on british standards
Okay, read further. Saft is a "drink" not a juice. Juice as in not-from-concentrate.
That, or "juice drink", you see it a lot in Lidl in Britain. "Juice drink" implies not 100% fruit juice, i.e. mixed with water/ sugar added &c.
Like previously mentioned, English hasn't got as clear a line between those drinks as Swedish does, but "cordial" or "squash" would be more like "saft". Saft is a concentrate made of sugar and fruit, berries or flowers (usually elder flower) that you dilute with water before drinking.
I'm unsure as to how "jag dricker juice" can mean both "I drink juice" and "I am drinking juice". Is there no distinction in Swedish?
Because they are both "Germanic Languages". It's kinda like a loooooong time ago they were the same language. :)
1453
Swedish is in the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family, plus the vikings (from Denmark, Norway and Sweden) invaded England, Scotland and Ireland in the 8th or 9th century and ruled essentially until 1066, when another group of Scandinavians who had invaded France took over. Lots of English words, and even more words in Scots English, were borrowed directly from Scandinavian languages.
The spelling jos was introduced in the Swedish Academy's dictionary 1973. During this time there was a debate about spelling words the way you pronounce them. The spelling, however, was removed in 1986 when the Swedish Academy published their eleventh edition of their dictionary. Jos hasn't been a correct way of spelling the word juice since then.
I learned a bit of Swedish in the late 70s. Thank you for this detailed explanation.
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Kanske lite sent men ändå... https://svenska.se/tre/?sok=juice&pz=1 Jos är fortfarande en "riktig" stavning men används inte så ofta.
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Your link doesn't actually contain that spelling in SAOL, though, unless I'm blind.
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Ah, okay, Erik was talking about SAOL so I didn't bother checking SO.
I do agree with you that jos is a perfectly usable if rare spelling.
I never heard that exist a grammatical difference for natural juice and a chemical one in English. At least here in Brazil people usually say "suco" for everything. But when someone says "refresco" it's only about the chemical one. And some call these "juices" powder as Death's powder. Heheheh
- 1059
That's not true. saft in Swedish is really 'cordial' or 'squash' in English, but we also accept saft as a translation for English 'juice' since Sweden is especially picky about juice being juice.
The Swedish word juice has a special spelling history described by Erik_E in a comment above. Today, the only spelling in the standard spelling word list SAOL is juice.
In the US, they're usually referred to as "juice" and "juice from concentrate", with the from concentrate in really small lettering and then some pictures of oranges or whatever. It doesn't matter whether it's real fruit or just flavoured sugar water.
"Squash" is a completely different thing this side of the pond.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucurbita
[2019/05/06]
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It isn't a valid alternative spelling today. We actually accept jos since it used to be in the SAOL, but the only spelling they give today is juice so that's really the only correct one.
Cheers for that! What does "SAOL" stand for? Poor Swedish, getting infected with our crazy English spellings (also see "guide").
SAOL = Svenska Akademins Ordlista (Dictionary of the Swedish Academy)
Although the mission of the Swedish Academy is only to observe the language used, their dictionary is often used as a norm. For example, when playing Scrabble, it's common to use SAOL as the list of accepted words.
So, could someone clarify whether 'saft' is 'juice' as in pure fruit juice, or does it mean squash, and the same question for juice?
I am guessing that since 'juice' is a loan word from English it is more recent in origin, and is more likely to refer to cordials, whereas I'm guessing 'saft' is more likely to refer to fresh juices. But I may be wrong. Help?
- 1059
saft is squash or cordial, juice is pure fruit juice.
Confusingly, the thing you press out of something can also be referred to as saft, as in köttsaft, which would be the juice that comes out of meat.
Oh, wow! Just as well I asked, since I had it completely the wrong way round!!!
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I'm no cooking expert, but it seems that gravy is sky (this is from when we borrowed the French word juice and spelled it like it sounded to us) and stock is buljong or spad.
I'd say köttsaft needs to be raw but gravy seems to be cooked. I also think gravy would often be sås, I don't think sky can have flour in it (it should be clear I think) but it seems gravy can.
Anyone more familiar with the terminology feel free to correct this!
Hey! Thank you - at least I will remember 'sky' now, since you pointed out the similarity in pronunciation to French 'juice'. Thank you!
If "Jos" is not valid spelling anymore, then why is it included in the lessons?
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Quoting from Arnauti's comment above: "We actually accept jos since it used to be in the SAOL"
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I think the problem is it shows up as a recommended answer sometimes. (Unfortunately I didn't know to report it when it happened to me today on a different question.)
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Well, yes - anything that's accepted may show up as a correct solution. We'd love to be able to mark answers as correct, but not preferrable. However, we can't, so we're currently stuck with how it works.
why does the "j" in "juice' in swedish sounds like "L" in the rapid speech? what exactly is it pronounced though? Someone please help, thanks a lot!
Ok dumb newbie question: When I hear it spoken in å sentence (fast) it stunds like jag simply drogs The g and it sounds like "Ya. " but When I hit The turtle and really slow it down it sounds like The g is back. Which is Correct Please?
How to pronounce it properly, for me, ljus and juice sounds like the same. ... it is hard for me to distinguish? ???
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ljus uses the Swedish u sound, and juice is pronounced as if it was jos in Swedish. Both are long vowels. You can look them up on forvo. :)
What is the difference between "I am drinking," and "I drink" in Swedish? Are they both "Jag dricker"?
