"Hon var full av glädje."

Translation: She was full of joy.

[pmelosh]

Would 'She was full of gladness.' also work?

[DesignByAdrian]

Yes, but no native English speaker uses that word.

[PLLumsdaine]

What? Gladness is a perfectly natural word in English — slightly more literary and less common in colloquial use than joy or happiness, but not rare or archaic by any means. As the Hollies sang:

If I'm laden at all,
I'm laden with sadness
That everyone's heart
Isn't filled with the gladness
Of love for one another

[devalanteriel]

And now it's accepted, as is "glee". :)

[HansLovesIce]

"She was very joyful" sounds to me like a natural translation for this sentence.

[Beanybadger]

Pretty sure that would be hon var mycket/väldigt glad

[mirabelxing]

How is 'glädje' different from 'lycka'?

[devalanteriel]

lycka is more of a euphoric feeling, typically.

[mirabelxing]

Aha, I think I get what you mean, thanks. But would you mind giving me an example with each word so I can see the differences under context?

[devalanteriel]

I would, but it's actually really hard since lycka is usually used in its other sense, where it means "luck". You could easily make sentences like Han kände lycka hela eftermiddagen, but you could just as well use glädje there as well - not as a synonym, mind you, but they typically work in the same contexts.

[mirabelxing]

I see. This is more than helpful. Tack så mycket :)

[nixloz]

Why is "she was filled with joy" not accepted?

[devalanteriel]

• full = full
• fylld = filled

I can appreciate the argument that "was filled with" really means the same here, though, so I'm kind of on the fences.

[nixloz]

To me "filled with" sounds more natural when used for emotions.