När örat hamnar i munnen på dejten
A2 Swedish listening practice · Standard Swedish · Curated for beginners
What does “slicka” mean in Swedish?
Slicka is the plain Swedish verb for “to lick.” Swedes use it without drama: a child slickar an ice cream, a cat slickar its paw, a stamp gets slickad before going on the envelope. The word lands extra hard on Swedish reality TV, where contestants narrate intimate moments with the same flat tone they’d use to describe doing the dishes. That deadpan delivery is part of what makes Swedish Bachelor-style shows recognizable.
In this clip, a contestant on a Swedish dating show recounts a date: “han började slicka mitt öra... hela det var i munnen” (“he started licking my ear... the whole thing was in his mouth”). The deadpan delivery is the joke.
Vocabulary frequency
How common is the vocabulary in this A2 Swedish listening practice listening practice?
General Swedish frequency
Spoken Swedish frequency
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸In Swedish reality TV (Bachelor Sverige, Paradise Hotel Sverige, Bonde söker fru)
- ▸In Swedish stand-up about dating (Petra Mede, Henrik Schyffert)
- ▸In Swedish parenting content about toddlers and ice cream
- ▸In Swedish health and skin-care YouTube
- ▸In Swedish picture books and animal-themed children’s TV