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Cursing in Swedish, Lesson 1
The Devil - j?vlar
Cursing in Swedish - Lesson One
The most frequently used Swedish curses are based on the name of
the devil, in Swedish either dj?vulen, j?veln, fan or satan. The only
difference between dj?vulen and j?veln is one of spelling. Dj?vulen
is used in correct, literary Swedish, whereas j?veln represents the
spoken language.
The expression j?vlar (literally "devils") is used roughly equivalent
to the English "damn"or "hell".
J?vlar, jag missade bussen! (1)
Damn, I missed the bus!
J?vlar, det gl?mde jag! (2)
Hell, I forgot that!
J?vlar vad det regnar! (3)
It's raining like hell!
J?vlar is considered a rather coarse word. Slightly (but only very
slightly) more decent is j?klar, which can be used in sentences of
the first type:
J?klar, flaskan ?r redan tom! (4)
Damn it, the bottle is already empty!
An abbreviated form of j?vlar, i.e. j?vla, is used in roughly the same
way as "fucking" in American English, referring to persons as well
as to objects:
Den j?vla idioten kom aldrig (5)
That fucking idiot never came
Jag tappade den j?vla tv?len (6)
I dropped the fucking soap
Sometimes other English words than "fucking" better reflects the
precise nuance of j?vla:
Vilken j?vla r?ra! (7)
What a bloody mess!
Vilken j?vla otur! (8)
What rotten luck! (Literally: What bloody bad luck)
J?vla can also be used to emphasise an adjective. Then it is
approximately equivalent to "bloody":
Det var j?vla dumt gjort (9)
That was a bloody stupid thing to do
Vilken j?vla ful bil (10)
What a bloody ugly car
It is possible to use j?vla also in a positive sense. Thus, adjectives
denoting positive properties are reinforced:
Det var ett j?vla gott ?l (11)
That was a bloody good beer
Det ?r en j?vla bra hemsida
That's a really marvellous homepage
The singular form, j?vel, i.e. "devil", is often used to characterise
persons either in a positive or a negative way. Used in this manner,
there is no equivalent English word available for j?vel:
Hon var en smart j?vel (12)
She was bloody smart
Var ?r den dumma j?veln? (13)
Where is that stupid motherfucker?
Den fete j?veln slog mig! (14)
The fat son-of-a-bitch hit me!
A construction specific to the Swedish language is vara en j?vel p?
att, meaning being especially good at something:
Han var en j?vel p? att fiska (15)
He was bloody good at fishing
Also the plural j?vlar, "devils", can be used in this contruction:
Pubkillarna var ena j?vlar p? att pissa (16)
The guys at the pub were masterly at pissing
An unusual combination occurs in herrej?vlar, literally a
combination of the name of the Lord with "devils" and roughly
equivalent to "Jesus fucking Christ".
But keep in mind that j?vla and words derived from it are not
always vulgar. When the Swedish Communist Party was threatened
by internal feuds, the party boss C.H. Hermansson in a speech in
1969 said that:
N?gon dj?vla ordning ska det vara i ett parti! (17)
There has to be some order in a party!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lesson 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Overview
English homepage | Svensk hemsida | Nederlandse homepage
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last update 6 May 1997 by [email protected]
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