My first several months in Sweden was interesting. Even though I live in a house where mostly Bangla is spoken, i occasionally hear Swedish as well. My husband and his family has been living here for more than 20 years so it is only natural that even when they speak bangla or english, swedish pops in the conversatoin.
I sometimes noticed my father-in-law say det går inte when my mother-in-law would ask him about some household appliance. SO, instead of asking what it actually meant, my genius self would assume that det går inte means I dont know. I would go to sfi class and when the teacher would ask me something that i did not know the answer to, i would simply reply back saying, "Det går inte". The nice teacher would just stare at me with a helpless smile.
A week later i learned the REAL translation of I dont know. It was "Jag vet inte." Boy was I off! So i wondered, all this time i had been saying what???
"Det går inte" means It doesnt or it is not going too well or Its not working.
DING DING!
Ofcourse! Household appliance not working..."det går inte".. and i used this in sfi??? When the teacher asked me what time it was in swedish, i said it doesnt work. I felt pretty stupid. But hey, i learned from my mistake. Ha!
Another alternative i use now is "Ingen aning" which means "no idea or no clue".
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