Swedish-English grammar. Necessary, not sexy!
English and Swedish have a number of words that look the same, or pretty similar, but actually have very different meanings.
I like to call these “false friends” and it can be useful to remind yourself of the differences between them occassionally.
Although Swedish – English translation and grammar isn’t exactly sexy or hot, it’s important for Swedish businesses to communicate effectively and accurately in English. So, just for today here are four false friends I often notice crop up time and again:
Four False Friends
Aktuellt – current, topical, pertinent, den aktuella… = the … in question, the present…
Actually – is equivalent to the Swedish word “faktiskt” or sometimes”verkligen”
Eventuellt – possible, possibly, if necessary
Eventually – slutligen, till slut, till sist
Koncern – group of companies
Concern – angelägenhet, bekymmer, affärsrörelse
Konsekvent – consistent
Consequent – följande
I recommend Engelskt ordbruk by Frykman and Kjellmer or English Synonyms and False Friends by (my former colleague at Stockholm University) Stig Hargevik and Stevens for more help with false friends and translation from Swedish to English.
Feel free to share any others in the comments at the bottom of this post!
Image:FlickrCC
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