Adjusting the Recipe
When cooking, you often need to change the size of a recipe. Verbs like dubbla (to double), halvera (to halve), and dela (to divide) come in handy when adjusting mängden (the amount) or dealing with resten (the rest) of your ingredients.
| I double the recipe because the amount is too small. | Jag dubblar receptet eftersom mängden är för liten. |
| You must halve the amount of sugar. | Du måste halvera mängden socker. |
| We must divide the rest of the dough into three pieces. | Vi måste dela resten av degen i tre bitar. |
Kitchen Measurements
Swedish recipes frequently rely on volume rather than weight for dry ingredients. You will see a lot of deciliter (often abbreviated as "dl") and liter.
| Are there two deciliters or a liter of milk left? | Finns det två deciliter eller en liter mjölk kvar? |
Fractions with -del
To express a mathematical fraction, Swedish attaches the suffix -del (part/share) to the ordinal number.
- en tredjedel (a third)
- en fjärdedel (a fourth/quarter)
When you need more than one of that fraction, treat -del like a normal noun and add its plural ending -ar to make -delar (e.g., två tredjedelar). Use the preposition av to say "a fraction of something".
| We cut the onion and add a third of it to the pot. | Vi skär löken och tillsätter en tredjedel av den i kastrullen. |
| It is the same recipe, but we only use a quarter of the butter. | Det är samma recept, men vi använder bara en fjärdedel av smöret. |
| I divide the cake, so you get two thirds. | Jag delar kakan, så du får två tredjedelar. |
Hälften vs. En halv
When talking about halves, Swedish has two distinct words depending on the grammar of the sentence:
Hälften is a definite noun meaning "the half". You use it to talk about a specific proportion of a whole, usually followed by av (of).
En halv (or ett halvt for ett-words) is an adjective meaning "a half". You use it directly before a noun when counting or measuring.
| He always eats half of the cake himself. | Han äter alltid hälften av kakan själv. |
| A third is not as much as half. | En tredjedel är inte lika mycket som hälften. |
| We need two and a half deciliters of flour. | Vi behöver två och en halv deciliter mjöl. |