"Du är ful!"
Translation:You are ugly!
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Story time! I was sitting on a night bus once, traveling from Göteborg to Borås. As it was pretty crowded a Swedish couple, having been out partying, shared a single seat next to me and struck up a conversation in English. After a while I proudly claimed: "Oh by the way, I know a few words and phrases in Swedish". "Really? Say something!", said the boy. I wanted to remark on the slight drunkenness of my conversational partner and went "Du är ful!" (meaning to say "Du är füll!" ("You are drunk!")). "Wow. That's a rude thing to say, you know that?", said the girl jumping to the defense of her boyfriend. Still not noticing my mistake I argued: "But it's true! I mean, just look at him!!" .... Anyway, we managed to clear up the misunderstanding and had a big laugh at it. Swedes are cool. :)
So it's not true that Swedes don't talk to random people like here in America?
They were drunk. :P It's the same here in Ireland. Its unlikely someone will strike up a conversation randomly. But go out drinking and you'll make lots of new friends.
Yes, the only person, I managed to make a conversation with, during my three weeks holiday in scandinavia last year, was a drunk swedish woman in Köbenhavn! :)
Yes, this is not Italy, when you just have to stroll a bit in the evening on the main square (when people gather at that time) in (especially small) towns and in say 60% of tries, you will get someone for the conversation! :)
I jave a friend in sweden that says that if someone is talking to you they're probably 80 years old or an axe murderer.
I still do not understand when a Swede says Full and when Ful. am i the only one who has trouble with this?!
The difference is vowel length. Full has a short vowel, while ful has a long one.
Is the ful/full mix-up something that happens ever, or do they sound drastically different to a native?
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Yeah, I remember learning the two similar words for ugly and drunk. I haven't had much opportunity to use my Swedish skills for quite some time, so I could definitely use a reminder about the difference in pronunciation of these two Swedish words.
Yes I think if I ever had to speak Swedish and use the proper word for drunk, I would just say a different phrase. Du drack för mycket. And follow up in English with You seem drunk. Because even quite inebriated Swedish young people most likely would understand me in English. I don't want to risk insulting a drunk person. Even when we mess up, people appreciate that we try to speak their language while in their country. And being polite, they won't correct us either. I spent an entire trip saying "devil" for Gävle, the name of a beautiful town. I came home and my father corrected me but he could have said the town's name a thousand times and I would not have heard the subtle difference between correct and calling the place "devil". In his generation, unlike here in the USA, the word devil in Swedish is a major swear word. And of course, the difference between the town's name and "that" word are a totally clear difference to natives speakers.
I'm guessing you said djävla for Gävle, since that's a major swear word. It means "damned", though, rather than "devil." The word for devil is djävul, and it is not a swear word.
The initial d in those words is silent, but it's not just the vowels. Swedish is a pitch-accent language, and the pitch is different between Gävle (start high, move down) and djävla (start low, move up).
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I like your idea of saying "Du drack for mycket." When I was practicing my Swedish skills, visiting Sweden for the first time, I did use the Swedish word for drunk, when my Swedish friend was hiccuping. I think I pronoounced it correctly 'cause everyone laughed.
Oh, but about the world "gavle" there is a song titled "en gavle pa karlek" by GES. So is the translation "A devil of love"?
Is the long and short vowels. Short sounding like our word "fund or fun" and long vowel being "fool" the longer "oo"? That's how I hear it but what cruel fate caused two words that both insult to sound so much alike. Maybe let's not call anyone ugly ever.
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Agreed, it's not nice to use the word ugly when referring to a person because the world 'ugly' is an UGLY word. Ha!
Yep. In fact, ful could be used to mean "ugly" in Old and early Middle English.
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Somehow, I doubt very much that there will be an occasion for me to use this phrase the next time I visit Sweden.
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I'm having some difficulty with the pronunciation of "ful" and "full." On the recorded voice, it sounds like she's saying 'full' .... but I thought "ful" is pronounced more like "fool." Can someone clarify for me? Thanks.