23 Comments
Usually, middag = dinner. Middag, while literally "midday", is rarely used in the sense of noon or midday, except in förmiddag (before noon) and eftermiddag (afternoon).
1324
OK, thanks, it's been about 35years since I learned Swedish so am a little rusty and out of touch with current usage. Great to have the chance to refresh!
- 891
There are certainly some older people who still mean lunch when they say middag, and there may also be some local variation, so you may even hear it from younger people. However, we think it would be too confusing to approve both options in this case. We are after all teaching Standard Swedish.
My grandma calls ”lunch” for ”middag” and if she says ”meet you at middag” she means at noon, but as rhblake said, most younger people would interpret that as ”at dinner time” i.e. around 6 pm.
So you have no widely accepted word for noon, aside from just saying the time?
Indeed, 'dinner' refers to the main/most important meal of a day, 'supper' is the evening meal if one wants to be explicit. While in many western countries the dinner is the supper, on the other hand, in many eastern countries it is the lunch which should be referred to as dinner. It leads to a lot of confusion though, so I stick with saying 'dinner' and meaning 'supper'...
Sound similar to English, where I am from we eat 'dinner' around midday and we eat our 'tea' in the evening. But in the south of England they eat Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner
The word "rest" carries a lot of different meanings in English. Is vila similar, or does it mean something more specific, e.g. to take a nap?
- 891
It's like 'rest' in English. a nap is en tupplur (a funny word), there's also sova middag which means 'take a nap after dinner'.
Just to clarify, is this correct.....
Ska du vila efter middagen? = Will you rest after the dinner? Ska du vila eftermiddagen? = Will you rest this afternoon?
- 891
The latter would be i eftermiddag = 'this afternoon'. It's also possible to say: på eftermiddagen, but that means 'in the afternoon'.
- 891
Not really, the 'should' as in 'ought' would be Borde du …? or if you mean it in a general sense, Borde man …?
I wrote WIll you rest in the afternoon and it was marked wrong. I don't quite understand what implies dinner here.
Efter middagen = after the dinner
Eftermiddagen = the afternoon
The space matters!
I have heard, on several course cds, that ska = shall or will. In this case...shall you rest after dinner. In English, shall and will are interchangeable. Does this work as a translation?
- 1878
Old and young nearly always equate lunch as the mid day meal in the US. Nutritionist all say the breakfast is the most important meal of the day for people that keep traditional schedules.
