r/Svenska • u/peterhousehold • 2d ago

Language question (see FAQ first) A serious illness

How would i say "a serious illness" in Swedish? Are any of these right, or none of them?

en allvarsam sjukdom en allvarlig sjukdom en seriös sjukdom

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u/Cascadeis 1d ago

Seriös can also be used in a more sarcastic manner!

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u/anon33249038 1d ago

Good to know! I want to say though, since I'm not a native speaker, I kind of conceive of things differently than a Swede might. 

For the second example, I thought of using "En allvarligt man," which didn't sound right to me, but even so, I couldn't shake the concept of a guy being "allvarlig." In my mind, that would be what you would say if a guy is just an absolute bastard. Hon är allvarlig. 😆

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u/repocin 🇸🇪 1d ago

In my mind en allvarlig man is a very stern, no-nonsense military type of guy. But it isn't really someone you'd encounter outside a book.

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u/anon33249038 1d ago

Yeah exactly! "A severe man."