# Swedish: Hi, I am very pleased to be your friend



## Giemme

Hey guys, can please someone tell me how translate this sentence in Swedish?
Thanks, much appreciated


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## USB-anslutning

I'd say Hej, det glädjer mig mycket att få vara din vän.


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## Giemme

Thank you very much!

Is there any difference if you are referring to a girl or a guy? For instance, this is to be addressed to a girl...

Cheers


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## Plopp

Nope, Swedes are very 'unisex' languagewise.  Feminine words (for example 'friend' (väninna), teacher (lärarinna) etc) exist but are not often used. It's just as correct to call a woman 'lärare'. On the other hand we have feminine words that apply even to men, for example nurse (sjuksköterska). Very few people use the masculin term 'skötare', which results in men being called sister.... Midwife (barnmorska) is another example, even worse, because there we don't even have a masculine word.
We have had women as chairman in the Parliament (talman) but there is no equivalent (talkvinna) so they had to adress her "Mrs. Talman"!


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## Giemme

Right! Thanks for the great answer! The Italian language is so far away from that: we have to change nouns, adjectives and verbs depending on the fact we are referring to the masculine or feminine: friend will be amico (m) or amica (f): even though a few things are absolutely neutral. Architect will be architetto even if you are referring to a lady (no one will ever call her architetta), etc.
I can see Swedish is very similar to English. Do you use latin expressions, as English do (even more that Italians), or do you have a Swedish equivalent? E.g. do you use the expression 'p.s.' (post scriptum)? I don't know if this is a kind of universal thing or it is translated or represented in a different way...


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## Plopp

Yes, we do use 'p.s.' and 'etc', but I can't really think of any other frequently used latin expressions. On the other hand we have a lot of French and English words and even a few Italian...


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## hanne

I just wanted to point out that the Scandinavian languages are not quite as much like English as you may think. We *do* have grammatical genders, just not masculine and feminine, instead we have neutrum and utrum. Historically it was masculine, feminine, and neutrum (like German and Icelandic have today), but at some point masculine and feminine were combined into one common gender. And adjectives also change depending on the gender of the noun.

In Danish we'd use either etc. or the Danish equivalent osv. (og så videre ~ and so on). I usually prefer osv. myself, since etc. looks a bit too "fancy". We don't use i.e. or e.g. like in English (instead dvs. (det vil sige) and fx/f.eks. (for eksempel)).
P.s. is quite universal, as far as I know.
There are a some other expressions like ad libitum and ad hoc, which aren't exactly frequently used, but appear now and then.


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## Giemme

That's very interesting. Which Italian words do you currently use in Swedish and, in general, in the Scandinavian languages? Hope you aren't talking about things like mafia, pasta, spaghetti etc. I found out that English use plenty of Italian (besides to the latin) words, and not always food related (primadonna, ballerina, impromptu, fiasco, inferno, etc) even though not always with the actual meaning they have in Italian: in Italian inferno means hell, in English means fire...


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## Plopp

Italian hasn't been the greatest contributor to Swedish language, but besides the words you've already mentioned we also use musical terms like 'allegro', 'falsett', 'kontrabas', 'piano' etc ; financial words like 'kredit', 'faktura' and 'bankrutt'; words concerning art and achitecture like 'al fresco', 'piazza', 'terrakotta' and 'terrass'. With words like 'falsett' and 'terrass' it's difficult to say whether they came from French or from Italian, it could be either one or both.


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## iAnna

A more informal way to say it:
Hej! Jag är väldigt glad för att få vara din vän.
Hej! Vad glad jag är för att få vara din vän.
Hej! Vad glad jag är för att vi två är vänner.
...


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## Wilma_Sweden

iAnna said:


> A more informal way to say it:
> Hej! Jag är väldigt glad för att få vara din vän.
> Hej! Vad glad jag är för att få vara din vän.
> Hej! Vad glad jag är för att vi två är vänner.
> ...


I agree, *but* för is completely unnecessary, and normally it is omitted in this type of construction:
Jag är väldigt glad att få vara din vän.
Vad glad jag är att få vara din vän.
Vad glad jag är att vi två är vänner.

/Wilma


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## Giemme

GLAD PÅSK!

  I have finally delivered my message and I am waiting for an answer. Fingers crossed!

  I can see that the words you mention aren’t 100% Italian but derived from Italian and from Latin. The Italian equivalents would be ‘falsetto’, ‘contrabbasso’, ‘piano’, and then ‘credito, fattura, bancarotta’, and again ‘piazza, terracotta, terrazza’. Yes, they probably have a common root, the Latin and so you can find them both in Italian and in French. 

  I have also noticed that the Swedish equivalent for Easter (PÅSK) is similar to the Italian Pasqua, and glad, with the meaning of happy, reminds me the English word. In Italian it would be 'Buona Pasqua'


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## dinji

Plopp said:


> Italian hasn't been the greatest contributor to Swedish language, but besides the words you've already mentioned we also use musical terms like 'allegro', 'falsett', 'kontrabas', 'piano' etc ; financial words like 'kredit', 'faktura' and 'bankrutt'; words concerning art and achitecture like 'al fresco', 'piazza', 'terrakotta' and 'terrass'. With words like 'falsett' and 'terrass' it's difficult to say whether they came from French or from Italian, it could be either one or both.


One of the most frequent words in our language is _bra_ 'good', which have very stong Italian associations. The assumption is though, that it may have entered from French _brave_ through low german.


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## Plopp

Yes, of course, Dinji! I didn't think of that! And we do shout 'bravo' when somebody has done something good.


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## dinji

Plopp said:


> Nope, Swedes are very 'unisex' languagewise.  Feminine words (for example 'friend' (väninna), teacher (lärarinna) etc) exist but are not often used. It's just as correct to call a woman 'lärare'. On the other hand we have feminine words that apply even to men, for example nurse (sjuksköterska). Very few people use the masculin term 'skötare', which results in men being called sister.... Midwife (barnmorska) is another example, even worse, because there we don't even have a masculine word.
> We have had women as chairman in the Parliament (talman) but there is no equivalent (talkvinna) so they had to adress her "Mrs. Talman"!


In Swedish gender equality calls fo unisex solutions to these kinds of terms. I understand the trend in German is the opposite: gender equality calls for the creation of gender based pairs like in Italian. 
The difference is certainly that in Swedish (like Danish), gender is grammatically diversified only for the neuter. The difference masculine/feminine is only natural, not grammatical, and therefore realised exclusively with personal pronouns. Unisex solutions therefore work elegantly, without problems of concord with adjectives and pronouns.


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## Giemme

I am in need of help again. I don't know if this sentence is somehow related to the one on the subject...
Please could someone explain me what does in mean?

'ar taggad! Valkommen till London froken Norlander'

Thanks,

Gianluca


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## Plopp

I do hope someone else can translate this better than me...  'att vara taggad' means being eager, well prepared, well motivated.  An athlete for example can use this expression before a competition.
The rest of the message is easier: Welcome to London, miss N.


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## Giemme

Your translation is absolutely great, thanks!
I will find out who Miss Norlander is. At this point my Swedish reply might be something like:

'Gianluca is up to challenge. What to do next?'

How does it come? I was thinking about how hard can be talking about our feelings using another language. For instance, English is so straightforward. In Italian you have sometimes to use kind of roundabout way to talk. In Italian such a sentence would be someting like:
'Gianluca accetta la scommessa. Qual'é la prossima cosa da fare?'

...


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