skäl

See also: Appendix:Variations of "skal"

Saterland Frisian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skɛl/
• Hyphenation: skäl
• Rhymes: -ɛl

Verb

skäl

1. first-person singular indicative present of skälle
2. third-person singular indicative present of skälle

References

• Marron C. Fort (2015), “skälle”, in Saterfriesisches Wörterbuch mit einer phonologischen und grammatischen Übersicht, Buske, →ISBN

Swedish

Etymology

From Low German shel, schele, ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *skiljaną (“to divide, split”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɧɛːl/

• Audio (Gotland):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛːl
• Homophones: själ, stjäl

Noun

skäl n

1. reason (for something)
   1. ground, cause, justification
2. parting (of roads)
3. (weaving) shed (parting of warps)

Usage notes

Skäl vs. anledning can be thought of as "reason for" vs. "reason why." Compare "skälet till att hon är där" (the reason for her being there), where skälet suggests a motivated reason, and "anledningen till att hon är där" (the reason (why) she is there), where anledningen is more general, if the reason is that she got lost and happened to end up there, for example. Both examples could idiomatically be translated as "the reason she is there" (or "why she's there").

In "Hade de goda skäl/anledningar?" (Did they have good reasons?), skäl is idiomatic and feels more logical than anledningar, in the same way that "Did they have good reasons for what they did?" feels more logical than "Did they have good reasons for why what they did happened?"

In "De har skäl/anledning att fira" (They have reason to celebrate), anledning normally sounds more natural than skäl, for the same reason that "They have reason (why) to celebrate" normally sounds more natural than "They have a reason for celebrating." Here, skäl might imply that they are celebrating and that they have a reason for it, for example, which doesn't fit as smoothly into most contexts.

In "skälet/anledningen till att det regnar" (the reason for it raining / the reason why it's raining), the difference is more subtle. Anledningen would normally sound more natural, like in English.

In the structure of European Union documents, "preamble (citations and recitals)" is translated with "ingress (beaktandeled och skäl)".

Declension

Declension of skäl

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	skäl	skäls
	definite	skälet	skälets
plural	indefinite	skäl	skäls
	definite	skälen	skälens

Derived terms

• anständighetsskäl
• asylskäl
• bekvämlighetsskäl
• beredskapsskäl
• diskretionsskäl
• domskäl
• effektivitetsskäl
• familjeskäl
• flyktingskäl
• förnuftsskäl
• försiktighetsskäl
• ha sina randiga skäl
• humanitetsskäl
• huvudskäl
• hälsoskäl
• kostnadsskäl
• känsloskäl
• miljöskäl
• motskäl
• prestigeskäl
• principskäl
• rättviseskäl
• sakskäl
• samvetsskäl
• sekretesskäl
• skatteskäl
• skälig
• sparsamhetsskäl
• svepskäl
• säkerhetsskäl
• vägskäl
• åldersskäl

References

• “skäl”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “skäl”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “skäl”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)

Anagrams

• kläs, läsk