Thursday 17th April 2015 - The Letter O.
O is for all of those O-ORD in Swedish (='un'-, 'im'- and 'in-words'; often adjectives) that mean the opposite or the negation of the ground form. Examples? OMÖJLIGT (=impossible) or OTROLIGT (=unbelievable, incredible) OSANT (=untrue, false, not true, a lie) OSKÖNT (=not beautiful, not pretty, ugly) OANTRÄFFBAR (=unavailable) OUPPNÅLIGT (unreachable) OGÖRLIGT (undoable) OSYNLIGT (=invisible) OÖVERTRÄFFAT (=unbeatable).
In English the over-use of these negating prefixes is used for fun , such as wishing someone a happy un-birthday. But you would never say 'happy un-birthday' in Swedish. But certain Swedish writers have actually created new words for their stories by using prefixes and suffixes in new and unexpected ways, or just making new compound words putting old words together.
More examples?
Have an un-bad day today!
Thank you for reading!
Best wishes,
Anna
First Commenter:
Tanya Walton
3 comments:
Swedish always has so much more sense to it that English!!
Great post....I have been trying to catch up with everyone after yet another long break....your A-Z is going well...made any headway wih some bee jewellery yet??
Dear Tanya,
Yes. I need to ask you what you would like and show you samples.
Let me email you about that.
Best wishes,
Anna
Haha, I love that. Have an un-bad day to you too!
Good luck with the A to Z Challenge!
A to Z Co-Host S. L. Hennessy
http://pensuasion.blogspot.com/
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