The word sjuksköterska, the Swedish word for a nurse, has three parts. Let’s look at them all individually.

We’ll start with sjuk.

Sjuk is the Swedish word for “sick”, and can be used much the same way as in English. It can describe someone who is sick or ill, and can also be used colloquially in a couple of ways: firstly to describe someone who is disturbed or unstable, and secondly to describe something in bad taste, like a sick joke (or ett sjukt skämt).

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

The reason it looks so similar to the English word is simple: they both originated from the Proto-Germanic word *seukaz, meaning sick.

You’ll see it in a number of other words, too, like sjukhus (hospital), sjukdom (illness) and avundsjuk (jealous, literally “envy-sick”).

You wouldn’t use sjuk to describe vomiting in Swedish (“being sick” in British English). Instead, you would say han/hon kräks (he or she is being sick/vomiting), or han/hon mår illa (he or she feels nauseous).

The next part of the word sjuksköterska we’re going to look at is sköter (not skoter, which usually refers to a scooter or a snowmobile). This comes from the verb sköta, which has a couple of different meanings in Swedish. 

It can be used as a general term for looking after something, whether that’s caring for a patient or a child (barnskötare, literally “child-carers”, work in Swedish preschools) or managing something more intangible, like your finances.

Sköta also exists as a reflexive verb (that basically means it’s followed by a word like mig, dig or sig), where it means “to behave”: nu ska du sköta dig! (You need to behave now!)

Finally, the last part of sjuksköterska is the suffix -erska. This is a suffix which has historically been used to turn a verb (like sköta) into a noun, where it refers to a woman carrying out a specific role or profession. However, male nurses are also referred to as sjuksköterska.

Another common word related to a sjuksköterska is undersköterska, the word for an assistant nurse – essentially a health professional who doesn’t hold a professional degree or accreditation, but who has completed training and is licensed to assist registered nurses or other physicians with routine patient care.

Example sentences:

Sju sjösjuka sjömän sköttes av sjuttiosju sköna sjuksköterskor på det sjunkande skeppet Shanghai.

Seven seasick seamen were cared for by seventy seven pretty nurses on the sinking ship Shanghai. (A common tongue-twister for Swedish learners learning how to pronounce the whistling or whooshing sj or sk sound).

Sjuksköterskor i många regioner kan strejka om vårdkonflikten inte är löst snart.

Nurses in many regions could strike if the healthcare conflict isn’t resolved soon.

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.