29 Things You Should Never Do In Sweden

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Don’t Worry About Mispronouncing Town Names

Source: https://img.theculturetrip.com

Don’t be too hard on yourself if you cannot pronounce the names of Swedish towns and cities. The pronunciation of these words written with punctuation marks you’ve never encountered before is tricky. Stockholm is easy enough to say, but don’t get frustrated if you cannot correctly enunciate Linköping, Södertälje, Västerås, or Växjö. The locals are very understanding about this with tourists, and they’ll be happy to help you navigate or even teach you how to accurately pronounce the names. If your tongue is getting twisted trying to mention a town, don’t hesitate to just show a citizen the name on your map or your phone.

However, learn to correctly pronounce IKEA. Most of us say it as eye-KEY-uh the way Americans do, but the proper way to say this retailer’s name is ee-KAY-uh. If you find yourself shopping in an IKEA store in Europe, make sure you pronounce it correctly so you wouldn’t embarrass yourself in front of the locals.