26 Comments
Is there a way to say lady instead of woman, but not imply some level of royalty or older age (such as damen seems to do?) In the American South, referring to an adult female as a woman vs. a lady has a strong connotation. Is there any similar social issue in Swedish?
”Tjej” is too young and ”dam” is too old, I don’t think we have any other neutral word than ”kvinna”.
In some contexts "dam" is used without implying older age:
- Mina damer och herrar... (Ladies and gentlemen)
- Damerna först! (Ladies first!)
- When talking about sports: "Dam-VM i fotboll" (Women's football world cup), "damlandslaget" (women's national team, as opposed to herrlandslaget), "Sveriges damer vann finalen" (Sweden's women won the final), etc.
- Toilets and changing rooms are for "damer" or "herrar"
- More?
That word is usually only used by older men in a pejorative sense, I wouldn’t call it ”nice”.
They look related, but they come from slightly different roots. The word that kvinna came from, Proto-Germanic *kwenǭ (woman), gave rise to "quean", which is a slightly... ruder word for woman. English "queen" came from *kwēniz, wife, which does not have an equivalent in modern Swedish. But if "queen" helps you remember kvinna, then sure, they sound pretty similar. [2019/05/06]
Just to be clear, *kwoeniz is an inflectional variant of *kwenon. They're not as much different roots as they are the same root, from different constructions. Etymological literature normally list "queen" and kvinna, kona as closely related.
I'd say, make sure that she needs you to struggle for her at first. Otherwise it could be irritating for a woman If she doesn't want to hurt you and has to suffer. Tastes differ and you can't force a woman to love you, at least If you are not a person that she would like to love possibly. We sometimes fight a war that we cannot win or we which we lost already. Keep struggling to master the language instead! If you're a professional, you will be more probably in demand! The language is with you for your whole life, most women are not :D. Lycka till!
Älskar - loves. Kärlek - love.
Kärlek always means the same thing, but "Kär" och "Älska" have slightly different connotations. "att vara kär" - to be in love - tends to imply infatuation, whereas "att älska" - to love - implies a deeper love, at least when referring to another person.
If you're a gay woman you can use that sentence. A gay man might say "Jag älskar en man" if he's in love.
/ˈkvɪnːˌa/, just a k and a v next to each other like the s and t in "stop" are. Practice saying it: kv, kv, kv. [2019/05/06]
I'm still somewhat confused about the pronunciation of "jag". I seems like it can be jog, jo, ja and, as it is in this case, je. I'm now starting to realise that it might depend on what sort of syllable it's in front of? Since in this case it's a soft "äls", "jag" becomes softer and so you pronounce it "je"?
Am I correct?
To like is either "att tycka om" or "att gilla" in Swedish.
I like a woman - Jag tycker om en kvinna / jag gillar en kvinna.
