Originally posted by: SparelyAcc with helpful comments by skalpadda and GMJJmjiD På Duolingo
SparelyAcc
Alright, so I've been using duolingo for a fair bit, but haven't tried to learn too much more unless I know everything I already have unlocked learned fairly well, and I keep mixing up the meanings of the words I mentioned in the title. Is there any way to help me remember which is which, or should I just use sticky notes?
skalpadda
"Varsågod means you're welcome or be my guest.
Examples:
A: Får jag ta en kaka? (May I take a cookie?)
B: Ja, varsågod! (Yes, be my guest!)A: Tack för kaffet! (Thanks for the coffee!)
B: Varsågod! (You're welcome!)Snälla means please, but has a very pleading quality. Snäll means kind, so you're literally appealing to someone's kindness. Most often used by children asking for something from adults.
Example:
Snälla mamma, kan jag få en glass? Snälla! (Please mom, can I have an ice cream? Please!)Ursäkta means excuse or excuse me
Examples:
Ursäkta, vet du vad klockan är? (Excuse me, do you know what time it is?)Ni får ursäkta, men jag måste åka hem nu. (You'll have to excuse me, but I have to go home now.)
GMJJmjiD
...exploring snäll/snällt/snälla slightly deepend, hope you don't mind (any protest welcome if needed):
Using snälla as some kind of interjection as described in the examples above for sure means something like a strengthened please, but basically it remains being an inflection of the adjective snäll which translates to kind (I guess we make it a bit more clear by differentiating between meaning and (literal) translation). There are common expressions in the field of intent we are dealing with here which use inflections of snäll without pleading/begging intentions of that quality, e. g.:
Var snäll och stäng fönstret, det blir kallt. - Be kind and (Would/Could you please) close the window, it is getting cold.
Vänta lite, är du snäll. (Singular) änta lite, är ni snälla. (Plural) - Wait a moment, please (if you'd be that kind). Note: This is close to the construction with the interjectional snälla but will for sure not be perceived the same way when using it as a real adjective in a complete sentence.
The (mainly) pre-fixing var snäll och and the (mainly) post-fixing är du/ni snäll(a) are often interchangeable. An even more formal version, working as a pre- or post-fix, would be om du/ni vill vara snäll(a) - if you want to be kind
Other use can be found in constructions for saying something like thank you:
Det var (mycket) snällt av dig. - That is/was very kind of you. Note: The preterite of var of the infinitive vara (or the present conjugation är) is commonly used in such context in Swedish even though the action it refers to is still ongoing.
You can even use snäll for describing a person in general, apart from participating in a specific action, though I'd rather tend to use vänlig then.
Regards / Hälsningar
skalpadda
Yep, lots of uses of snäll, but I tried to keep it narrow as the objective was to differentiate between the different words.
I'd recommend a bit of caution with using snäll/snälla as a politeness term among adults. There are plenty of perfectly good uses, but it's very easy to sound accidentally sarcastic or like you're talking down to someone if you don't get it right. Kind of the same as English, where going around asking people to kindly do things isn't necessarily always polite.
For example, snälla du can be fine and polite when saying something like snälla du, skulle du kunna hjälpa mig öppna dörren?, but snälla du on its own can also mean something like oh, come on!. There's a lot of context sensitivity.
Describing someone as snäll is always fine though, or saying that an action was kind (tack, det var snällt av dig).
Basler Biker wrote: viewtopic.php?t=3284
Varsågod, här kommer Sveriges största Sortiment för heminredning... (IKEA catalog 1984)
=> confirmed by ShinyZoroark, that varsågod is heard a lot as a starter to "welcome" people.