# Swedish: bortaslår / hemmaslår



## modus.irrealis

Hi,

I came across these two words which I couldn't find in the dictionaries I have access to. They were in a hockey article and I puzzled out that _bortaslår _is "beat away" and _hemmaslår _is "beat at home" -- that is, the prefix tells you whether the team won an away game or a home game. This does fit the context but I just wanted to make sure that this is correct.


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## Tjahzi

I'd say you have the correct meaning right there. 

The prefixes are simply added to denote whether the winning team was playing away or home. For the record, there is no similar construction dedicated to the losing side.


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## modus.irrealis

Thanks Tjahzi.


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## LuthienMoss

I have never ever heard these words.


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## El Patillas

modus.irrealis said:


> Hi,
> 
> I came across these two words which I couldn't find in the dictionaries I have access to. They were in a hockey article and I puzzled out that _bortaslår _is "beat away" and _hemmaslår _is "beat at home" -- that is, the prefix tells you whether the team won an away game or a home game. This does fit the context but I just wanted to make sure that this is correct.


 

Hej Modus.irrealis!

Hmm, I´ve never heard these words "bortaslår" and "hemmaslår" either, and it actully sounds pretty bad in my ears and I couldn't find them in my dictionary. But I googled it thou and found some articles with it, but I suggest that you say: (like every normal swede would say) "Sverige *slog* Kanada *borta* med 6-0" (here in past tense) instead of "Sverige *bortaslår* Kanada med 6-0" (just for example)

I would appreciate if more swedes gave their point of view. I´m from the south of Sweden and maybe its dialectal or something?? 

Okej, lycka till med svenskan!
-Elpa


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## Tjahzi

I believe the reason why some people here haven't heard these terms is that they are used exclusively in sports talks, or in fact, in news broadcastings regarding sport, that is, team sports in which teams play each other "home" or "away". Also, on the radio rather than on TV, I sense. In addition to that, one should keep in mind that these are not the standardized forms (that would be to just ignore who played home and away) but rather offsprings of an already existing word, which further decreases its frequency. So, despite some natives haven't heard these words, I can ensure you that they are used and widely accepted...in their natural habitat at least.

A last note, especially in regard to the post above, I believe the construction is most often used with the past tense and I would say that a sports commentator is at least as likely to say that *"Sverige bortaslog Kanada med 6-0"* as *"Sverige slog Kanada borta 6-0"/"Sverige slog Kanada med 6-0 borta"*.

Conclusion: It's not dialectal, but rather words used in a very specific field of language.


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## modus.irrealis

Interesting. To be honest though, my exposure to Swedish is limited to hockey articles (last time about the Olympics, this time about Forsberg), and I can manage to understand these even with my very basic knowledge of Swedish grammar, but it makes sense that the Swedish of the sports media would have some distinct vocabulary and so on -- that's the case in English as well. But it did seem somewhat strange to me to see a compound verb with this meaning, hence my need to double-check.

About the past tense, yes, all the examples I saw were in the past tense and it was just out of habit to give the form I'd have expected to see in the dictionary.



El Patillas said:


> "Sverige *bortaslår* Kanada med 6-0" (just for example)


Of all the examples!


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## LuthienMoss

Tjahzi said:


> I believe the reason why some people here haven't heard these terms is that they are used exclusively in sports talks, or in fact, in news broadcastings regarding sport, that is, team sports in which teams play each other "home" or "away".


 
Can explain why I haven't heard it, I never watch sport. But hey I guess you learn something new every day! 



Tjahzi said:


> *"Sverige bortaslog Kanada med 6-0"* as *"Sverige slog Kanada borta 6-0"/"Sverige slog Kanada med 6-0 borta"*.


OK, that makes more sense


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## ArnaudC

LuthienMoss said:


> I have never ever heard these words.


 
Not heard either, but I think I could read them.


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## Wilma_Sweden

Tjahzi said:


> Conclusion: It's not dialectal, but rather words used in a very specific field of language.


Yup, I agree. I'd never seen it either, but I'm not a big sports fan apart from equestrian sports which have their own weird and wonderful terminology... 

I just wanted to emphasise the general flexibility of the Swedish language that allows you to form new compound words on a whim, only some of which eventually snowball into the dictionaries. Please note that compound words in Swedish should be written as one word, e.g. *dagobertmacka* (Dagwood sandwich), although you often see them - incorrectly - broken into two words: dagobert macka , a big yuk and a no-no!

/Wilma


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