22 Comments
From listening, how do you tell the difference between "a big wheel" and "a big Christmas"?
839
jul and hjul sound exactly the same, but the one that means Christmas is an en word, so 'a big Christmas' would be en stor jul, whatever that would be.
- 259
In American English, a big wheel is a common slang expression for an important person. Does the same go for Ett stort hjul in Swedish?
The h is completely silent, just as in words like "hjärna" (brain) and "hjärta" (heart)
- 1033
There used to be a plastic kid's toy called a Big Wheel. Ugly as sin and very noisy!
In South Africa we call a ferris wheel a 'big wheel', but I suppose that's not the case here...
ens5 and KateSP asked relevant questions. Any response from the "A" team?!
Can this be idiomatic for an important person, as in English? Or is it explicitly a large, round object that rolls?
- 259
As was mentioned in this discussion about a year ago, neither the VIP meaning nor the Ferris Wheel meaning of the phrase in English carry over into Swedish.
