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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: bures

Today’s word of the day is not technically a Swedish word at all, but it is a word spoken in one of Sweden’s minority languages, Northern Sami.

Published: 6 February 2024 12:10 CET
Swedish word of the day: bures
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash, Veronaa/Getty Images Signature via Canva

February 6th marks Sami national day, so we’ve chosen a Sami word for today’s word of the day to mark the occasion.

The Sami are the indigenous people of Sápmi, a region spanning the northernmost areas of Norway, Sweden and Finland, as well as the Kola peninsula in Russia. The Sami language is not technically one language, rather nine, with different variants of the Sami language spoken in different parts of Sápmi. These variants are considered to be mutually intelligible, similar to the relationship between Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.

The Sami languages belong to the Finno-Ugric language group, along with Finnish, Estonian, Karelian, Hungarian and a number of smaller languages spoken in Russia.

Unlike Swedish, Sami has many cases – eight in Lule Sami and Northern Sami – and is a highly inflected language, meaning that the form or ending of words changes depending on how they are used in a sentence.

  • Don’t miss any of our Swedish words and expressions of the day by downloading The Local’s new app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Swedish Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button

Today’s word of the day, in Northern Sami, is bures.

Bures is both an adverb meaning well or good, as well as the word for hello, and is used in the phrase bures boahtin (welcome, literally ‘good arrival’). 

Bures originally comes from the adjective buorre, also meaning good, which you will see in time-based greetings like buorre beaivi (good day), buorre eahket (good evening), buorre iđit (good morning) and buorre idjá (good night). You’ll also see it in seasonal phrases such as Buorit Juovllat ja Buorre Ođđa Jahki (Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year), and buorit beassážat (happy Easter).

You might expect that it would also be used when wishing someone a happy Sami national day, but the word lihkku is used here instead. Lihkku is a word meaning luck or fortune, loaned into Northern Sami via Finnish lykky, which in turn loaned it from Swedish lycka, meaning luck.

If you wanted to wish someone a happy Sami national day, you would say lihkku sámi álbmotbeivviin. Álbmot here means a people, nation or group, and beivviin is the conjugated form of beaivi, the word for day or sun.

If you want to learn more about the Sami languages, there are more resources (in Swedish) on the website of the Sami Parliament, sametinget.se. 

Example sentences:

Bures! Mo dat manná?

Hello! How are you?

Dat manná bures, giitu.

I’m doing well, thanks.

Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it. It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.

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For members

SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: prick

This is one of those words which often causes a chuckle in British English speakers when they hear it in Swedish for the first time.

Published: 3 July 2024 09:08 CEST
Swedish word of the day: prick

Unlike in British English, where the word “prick” is both slang for the male genitalia as well as an insult (among other things), prick in Swedish is much more benign.

It can be a noun or adverb (prick) or a verb (pricka) in Swedish, and both the English and the Swedish words have the same root – a Proto-Germanic word meaning “to stick or prick”.

The adjective is prickig (spotty), while prickfri would be used to talk about something without any marks or spots. This could be in the sense of a spotless record (often used when talking about driving licences), or more literally – it’s the name of a cleaning product used to remove mould spots.

You’ll see similar words in lots of other northern European languages, like prikke in Danish, prickeln in German and prikken in Dutch.

As a noun, it refers to a small dot or spot, for example the dots on top of ö and ä are usually referred to as prickar, and the extra dots on letters often used in the names of heavy-metal bands like Mötley Crüe are known in Swedish as heavy metal-prickar. One entertaining example of this is the British band Tröjan, which translates as “shirt” in Swedish. The band is meant to be pronounced like “Trojan”, as in a Trojan horse.

  • Don’t miss any of our Swedish words and expressions of the day by downloading The Local’s app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Swedish Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button

A sniper is a prickskytt (literally: spot-shooter), while target practice would be att skjuta prick (to shoot [at a] spot), and someone who is accurate either literally or figuratively could be described as pricksäker. The verb pricka can also be used to describe hitting the target.

Unlike in English, if you were to call someone a prick in Swedish, it would probably be a positive thing – it’s usually only used alongside the words rolig or trevlig to mean a funny or nice guy. If used with ruskig, however, then it’s negative – en ruskig prick would be a scary or nasty person. 

Even when used in a negative way, prick is quite mild and definitely child-friendly: Ruskprick is the name of a smuggler in Astrid Lindgren’s Vi på Saltkråkan (Life on Seacrow Island) series. This is also a play on the word ruskprick, a type of seamark used in Sweden up until around 1965 – seamarks are still referred to as prickar in Swedish.

The word prick is used when talking about time, too. If you were told to meet someone prick klockan åtta, that would be “eight o’clock on the dot”, or “eight o’clock sharp”.

There are a number of set phrases featuring prick, too. There’s mitt i prick (right where intended, a bullseye), till punkt och pricka (to the letter) and på pricken (spot on, exactly, or on the dot), as well as pricka av (to tick something off a list).

Example sentences:

Han är en trevlig prick! 

He’s a nice guy!

Min dotter gillar prickig korv på mackan.

My daughter likes salami (literally “spotty sausage”) on her toast/bread.

Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it. It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.

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