"Han gillar bollar."
Translation:He likes balls.
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FYI, this sentence does not have any ambiguous connotations in Swedish... If you were to replace the word "bollar" with "kulor" though...
In light of Anrui's explanation, I find it a bit surprising that Swedes use ammo instead of toys for slang in that case. ;->
Which is probably where the 'bullets' usage came from. Historically, a bullet was a sphere, not a potentially hollow ogive, and the shot used in some of the smaller caliber muzzleloaders was about the size of marbles.
My boyfriend is native Swedish and he says that it's perfectly correct to say "fina bollar" when talking about... that.
He is from Västerås, but he has lived in Stockholm, Göteborg, Skåne, etc. But he said it can depend on the region.
I agree - it's regional and it's certainly not unheard of. But I would generally not consider it something that it can mean in standard Swedish. :)
"gillar" and "tycker om" means the same (likes), but "tycker" by itself means "thinks" as in "have an opinion".
Tycker itself is think or imagine. Tycker om and gillar are both 'like' but to my english ears gillar feels more like approval and tycker om more personal, like 'thinks of'.
I'm thinking I'm more likely to gillar my boss but tycker om my best friend. Can any Swedes help?
No, I'm sorry - there are no such connotations. While gilla is a little more colloquial, they're synonymous.
Probably the bouncy kind. I could easily imagine saying this about my toddler, who's going through a "throw all the things to see if they bounce" phase at the moment.