87. Death Vocabulary

0:00 Hej och välkomna till avsnitt 87 av Learn Swedish with Katrin. Vem är du? Det är jag som är döden. Kommer du för att hämta mig? Jag har redan länge gott vid din sida. Do you know what movie that famous quote is from? It's from Inma Berriman's The Seventh Seal. This week we are going to talk about döden death A little dark maybe, but also a surprisingly useful vocabulary topic.

0:48 Swedish, just like many other languages, has several words connected to death that look and sound quite similar, but mean very different things. It's very easy to mix them up. So today we are going to sort them out. We're going to look at some softer ways of talking about death and a few common expressions.

1:21 To follow along in the transcript, study the vocabulary, and do the exercises that go along with this episode, go to patreon.com forward slash slow Swedish to join the Learn Swedish tier today for only ten dollars per month. Let's start with the most important verb at du die at d to die at d dures it dured it dug it har d has have died har dut.

2:23 Notice the past tense dug not d this is an irregular verb. We use d when a person, animal or even a plant dies. Min murfar dug for tio årsen. My grandfather died ten years ago. Ingen dug i olyckan. Nobody died in the accident. Alla mina växter har dött. All my plants have died. Then we have durd. This is not a verb, it's an adjective.

3:22 Durd means dead. It can also be a noun meaning death er dir is dead er dir en dir a death and durden death the death durden. So compare these two Hand he died Han erd he is dead tells us what happened. Durd describes the state someone is in. We can also use dir as a noun when we talk about someone's death.

4:32 Efter hennes durd flitade familien till annanstad. After her death the family moved to another city. Now let's move on to a very similar word at dörda which means to kill at doda to kill at doda dödar kill kills dörade killed dörade hor dörat has have killed har dördat the important difference is that when someone dur they die when someone dör someone or something they cause that person or thing to die Katen dade and moose The cat killed a mouse Olickan dödade tre personer the accident killed three people Let's compare again Han dug he died Nogon dödade honom someone killed him Han blev durd He was killed Han erd he is dead Dur is to die Durda is to kill but killing someone is not necessarily

7:00 the same thing as murdering someone for that we have at murda and this gives us a little family of useful words At murda to murder At murda et mood A murder It mood En murdare a murderer and murdare it moodfish an attempted murder It moodfishok Pay attention to the R combination in this word R plus D creates a retroflex D sound murda Mood not murda or murda Murda is much more specific than döda It means to intentionally kill a person.

8:25 You can for example say Han Dördade Enspindel He killed a spider But you would not normally say Han Murdade Enspindel He murdered a spider That sounds very dramatic because we don't normally use murda for killing insects or animals. Mod murda and murdere are of course words you will hear quite often in crime stories and in the news.

9:03 Polisen tror att mannen blev murdad. The police believe that the man was murdered. Polisen utreder et mod. The police are investigating a murder. Mördaren dumdes till fängelse. The murderer was sentenced to prison. Then we have the word manslaughter in English which means to unintentionally kill another person.

9:41 In Swedish we do not have one word for that. We say volande till annans död. Volande till annans död. This means to cause another's death. There are also situations where d feels a little too direct. Just like in English, Swedish has softer ways of saying that someone has died, for better and worse. Some people don't like using these phrases, and some do, but it's always good for you to know what they mean.

10:21 At gobort to pass away at gobort at somna in to pass away at somna in ovliden deceased ovleden. At gobort is probably the most useful one to know. Literally gobot means to go away, but when we use it about someone who has died, it's similar to English pass away. Somna in is a funny one that a lot of Swedish learners get wrong.

11:13 They hear somna in and think it means the same thing as at somna, to fall asleep. But it's a particle verb and the in changes the meaning. We often use somna in when someone dies peacefully, for example after an illness or at an old age. Minfarmurg. My grandmother passed away last year. Han somnade in lungt hemma.

11:53 He passed away peacefully at home. Then we have avliden, which means deceased. This is more formal and is common in things like news reports and official language. The deceased man was seventy five years old. Before we finish, let's look at some expressions with dur and durd. Because luckily when Swedish people talk about dying, we're not always talking about death.

12:37 Po liv och dird a matter of life and death Polivo Durd Nera durden close to death nara doden du of skrat Die laughing du of scrat scam. Die of embarrassment du av. Liv red terrified livred. I'm dying jago på att du av scrat I was dying of laughter Jag ville av scam. I wanted to die of embarrassment. Mengu rulit My God I'm dying that's so funny.

14:22 This is very informal and can be used in lots of different situations. Something can be incredibly funny, embarrassing, cute or ridiculous, and your reaction can simply be ja dur. So if your Swedish friend says ja dur you probably don't need to call an ambulance. So remember, man dör och man can blidad eller döda och när man har döt er man död.

14:59 A slightly dark topic today, but these are very useful words to know. I know myself when speaking Spanish, I have no clue what form of morir I'm supposed to use. So I thought I'd help you guys out a bit. And hopefully after this episode you won't accidentally say that someone murdered when you mean that they died, because that would change the story quite a bit.

15:29 To unlock the study materials for this week and all previous weeks, all you need to do is go to patreon.com forward slash slow Swedish and sign up for the Learn Swedish tier. It only costs you ten dollars per month and you can cancel any time. Thanks for listening this week. Tak for that duho listened.