# Swedish: Hemavan tycker om dej



## Arcadian

Hi everyone new member from Devon in S.W. England here. 

I lived in Sweden for two or three years back in the Eighties and loved it as it's always been my favourite country and am currently anxious to get back into speaking it regularly again soon on Skype, especially as towards the end of my stay I was very happy to realise I was thinking in Swedish and no longer in English !  

Quick question to begin with if I may. In a recent email reply from an old male Swedish friend he finished off by saying "Hemavan tycker om dej" which I seem to remember meant something like "Your friends here back home are always thinking of you". However I also remember from when I was living there having a bit of difficulty with the word tycker as I used to think it meant love as well....??

Appreciate any help thanks


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## t_o_l

Well, the construction "tycka om" means "like" so in this case it means "likes you" rather than "think".


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## Arcadian

Thanks it's all very rusty ! I also remember the phrase "jag tycker pa det" which if I'm correct means "I think it's that" - is that the correct use of "tycker" on its own ?

Also could anyone suggest the best way(s) to get some practice speaking Swedish again, ideally in Stockholm using Skype, as I don't know anyone over there who uses one... ? As I'm in the academic world perhaps Stockholm University might be able to help.... ?


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## EStjarn

Arcadian said:


> In a recent email reply from an old male Swedish friend he finished off by saying "Hemavan tycker om dej" which I seem to remember meant something like "Your friends here back home are always thinking of you".



I agree with t_o_l regarding the meaning of _tycka om_ as 'like' or 'be fond of' here rather than as 'think of'.

The expression might be a pun on the famous "I ❤ NY". Hemavan is a locality in northern Sweden, so you might find in tourist shops around there T-shirts saying "I ❤ Hemavan". Turn that around you get "Hemavan ❤ you", which is essentially what your Swedish friend tried to express.

*EDIT:* As regards your second question, the meaning of "Jag tycker på det", to me it means nothing. It is either dialectal or incorrect. But you're right that the verb _tycka_ can be used to express opinion, e.g. _Jag tycker filmen var väldigt bra - _I think the film was very good.


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## Arcadian

Thanks. Yes I think I remember the Swedish tutor mentioning the "tycker om" and "tycker pa" difference, and thanks for clarifying Hemavan as I wasn't quite sure what he meant....


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## ramram

Arcadian said:


> Thanks. Yes I think I remember the Swedish tutor mentioning the "tycker om" and "tycker pa" difference, and thanks for clarifying Hemavan as I wasn't quite sure what he meant....


Maybe what you're thinking of is "tycker om" versus "_tänker_ på"? "Tycka" and "tänka" can both be translated to "think" in English (depending on context), which I know people coming from English often have a problem with.


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## Arcadian

Oh yes that's right !  And then there was trycka pa - how do you put a small o over the a in pa ? -  which I think meant to push. I really love the Swedish language and miss it a lot !! 

OK which is easier learning English or learning Swedish ? If I hadn't been living in Sweden I'd have given up at the first gate !!


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## Ben Jamin

Arcadian said:


> Oh yes that's right !  And then there was trycka pa - how do you put a small o over the a in pa ? -  which I think meant to push. I really love the Swedish language and miss it a lot !!
> 
> OK which is easier learning English or learning Swedish ? If I hadn't been living in Sweden I'd have given up at the first gate !!


Being neither English nor Swedish native speaker I can atetst that they are both equally difficult/easy concerning phonology, grammar and idiomatics, while English has far too many words for the same thing.


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## Arcadian

Ben Jamin said:


> ....while English has far too many words for the same thing.



Lol quite correct, but I would suspect that many other languages and their words are just the same as well carrying many different nuances when other but relevant words are placed within the same context and phraseology, which then of course gets difficult for the non native speaker to get the exact implied meaning. And it's not only the non native speaker who can have difficulty either as many native speakers as we all know can quite easily disagree with each other's interpretation and why a thesaurus in such cases is essential. 

Presumably most languages have their own thesaurus...?


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## Ogago

There is a myth that the English language has more words than Swedish. Despite the fact that there are infinitely many words spoken or written in the both languages, and others. Because we can invent new meaningful words whenever we want out of nothing of the only reason we need it right then. 

Let me quote sprakforsvaret.bloggagratis.se/2007/07/17/ 


> Faktum är att en engelsk dagstidning innehåller ungefär lika många ord  som en svensk dagstidning och att en genomsnittlig engelsman har ett  ungefär lika stort aktivt ordförråd som en svensk. Det har också gjorts  en undersökning av antalet ord i Strindbergs respektive Shakespeares  verk, vilken visade att Strindberg använde 119288 ord och Shakespeare  29006. (Fakta: Svenska språknämnden)


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## Ben Jamin

Ogago said:


> There is a myth that the English language has more words than Swedish. Despite the fact that there are infinitely many words spoken or written in the both languages, and others. Because we can invent new meaningful words whenever we want out of nothing of the only reason we need it right then.
> 
> Let me quote sprakforsvaret.bloggagratis.se/2007/07/17/


It depends on what you call a new word. If you take for example a Swedish word like "bilolycka" and count it as a new word, then you should also count "car accident" as a word.


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## Ogago

Ben Jamin said:


> It depends on what you call a new word. If you take for example a Swedish word like "bilolycka" and count it as a new word, then you should also count "car accident" as a word.



You are absolutely right. It all depends of how you define a word.

If we look at a word like "car" that is only one word in English. In Sweden there are four: "Bil", "bilen", "bilar", "bilarnas". Do we consider these as the same word or are they in fact four? If we treat them as four we have four times as many nouns in Swedish as in English. Same goes for adjectives: "Red" in English, "röd", "rött", och "röda" in Swedish. Three time more adjectives in Swedish if you chose them to be different words.

Does it matter? I don't think so. I am only fighting the myth that says that one language is superiour than others. I agree fully with Svenska Språknämnden here.

As this thread has gone off-topic I stop here. If the moderator thinks it has gone off-topic, then I don't mind if xe delete my postings.


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## Arcadian

I think this is an extremely interesting topic which would be great to continue somewhere so is there an off topic forum specifically for such posts ? Also I'm finding it all extremely useful to get back into reading Swedish again, my favourite language bar none, as I found it harder than speaking. In addition I will really need it soon for Skype for work reasons....

Please don't delete it until a new forum is found - tacka !!


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