long aired commercials with a black sheep called Frank. The pun of the commercials, extolling inexpensive service, is based on the English word cheap, which usually is pronounced as "sheep" by Swedes—hence Frank. Vocabulary and grammar As with most non-native speech, native Swedish speakers may pick the wrong word when speaking English based on what sounds right in their own language. While Swedish and English share many words, both from their Germanic origins, and from later French and Latin influence, there are several Swedish-English false friends, such as nacke (similar to English "neck") meaning ’nape, back of the neck’, and eventuellt (similar to "eventually") meaning ’possibly’. Some loanwords have a more specific meaning in Swedish than the original English, such as keyboard meaning only ’electronic keyboard, synthesizer’. Compare the list of Swedish-English false friends on Swedish Wikipedia. English has become the lingua franca in many Swedish workplaces. Swedish speakers often modify English business-specific terms with Swedish endings, such as peaken, (‘the peak’ [of the season]), spotrater (‘spot rates’), and cancellera (‘cancel’). Many Swedish compounds and expressions translate directly into English, but many others do not, even if the translations can be understood. For instance, the Swedish ta med means ’bring’, but is often translated as the literal "take with". Controversies In June 2010, BP's Swedish chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg famously caused a PR uproar after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by referring to the common people as "the small people", drawing upon the Swedish phrase den lilla människan. In December 2019, climate activist Greta Thunberg was criticised by some right-wing commentators after saying said politicians should be put "against the wall", a term which in English can be interpreted as execution by firing squad. She later apologised, saying "...that's Swenglish: "att ställa någon mot väggen" (to put someone against the wall) means to hold someone accountable", and that she is against violence. Svengelska The Swedish language term svengelska refers not to Swenglish, but to spoken or written Swedish filled with an inordinate amount of English syntax and words, with the latter sometimes respelled according to the norms of Swedish phonetics, or calqued into Swedish. See also Non-native pronunciations of English Svorsk Språkförsvaret Notes Further reading External links The Local: Swenglish: the definitive guide and top ten Test Your Swenglish. Lists some common mistakes of Swedish speakers of English. Macaronic forms of English English