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SWEDISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ska.

ska; a style of dance music

3 characters1 syllables approx.Svenska language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈskɑː/
  1. ska; a style of dance music

    common-gender
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from English ska.

verb/skɑː//ˈskaː/Gothenburg
  1. will, be going to, (except not formal in tone, but a literal match for meaning) shall, is to; (in the past tense "skulle") were to; was to (Usually not sensible translations, but will provide the right intuition in some tricky cases – see below.)

    Ska vi gå?
    Imorgon ska vi mata tigrar
  2. will, be going to, (except not formal in tone, but a literal match for meaning) shall, is to; (in the past tense "skulle") were to; was to (Usually not sensible translations, but will provide the right intuition in some tricky cases – see below.) to be to; to have to; to must (as alternative translations that might provide intuition in some cases)

    De skulle skydda försörjningslinjen till varje pris
    Försörjningslinjen skulle skyddas till varje pris
  3. will, be going to, (except not formal in tone, but a literal match for meaning) shall, is to; (in the past tense "skulle") were to; was to (Usually not sensible translations, but will provide the right intuition in some tricky cases – see below.) would (Compare "were to" for the connection, like in "If I were to / would do it" and "They determined that cutbacks were to / would have serious consequences." Compare also old-fashioned English like "If it rains, I should [would] stay home." The more common sense of "should" makes things tricky.)

    past
    Nedskärningar skulle få allvarliga konsekvenser
    De hade bestämt sig. Monstret skulle dö!
  4. will, be going to, (except not formal in tone, but a literal match for meaning) shall, is to; (in the past tense "skulle") were to; was to (Usually not sensible translations, but will provide the right intuition in some tricky cases – see below.) would (Compare "were to" for the connection, like in "If I were to / would do it" and "They determined that cutbacks were to / would have serious consequences." Compare also old-fashioned English like "If it rains, I should [would] stay home." The more common sense of "should" makes things tricky.) (literally) would be able to; (often, idiomatically) could; might

    past
    Om jag var rik så skulle jag kunna köpa ett slott
    Det kan hända
  5. to be supposed to; to be said to, to be claimed, to be alleged, etc. (Compare the fact that "He shall do it" and "He is supposed to do it" are close in meaning. Compare also the tone of translating "ska" as "is to" and "skulle" as "were to" here.)

    Mannen ska ha uppträtt hotfullt
    Hon ska vara över två meter lång
  6. to intend or be intended to go (to somewhere, in some direction, with someone, or the like), as if a gå (“walk”), åka (“go [with a conveyance]”), följa (“follow”), resa (“travel”), or the like had been elided (Compare constructions like "I want home" in English.)

    Jag ska g̶å̶/̶å̶k̶a̶ till affären
    Paketet ska s̶k̶i̶c̶k̶a̶s̶/̶l̶e̶v̶e̶r̶e̶r̶a̶s̶/̶.̶.̶.̶ till Portugal
Where this word comes from

Apocopic form of skall (“shall”), present tense of skola (see there for additional senses and examples), from Old Norse skulu, from Proto-Germanic *skulaną. Compare senses of Old English sculan.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.