The Swedish word mandat and the English mandate are similar, but not quite interchangeable.
First, let's start with the similarities.
They're both from the Latin mandatum, which means a commission, command, or order, and essentially refer to the authorisation to perform a certain function.
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In both languages, they can refer to an order or authorisation in a broad sense, such as "the government has a strong mandate from the voters" or in Swedish, regeringen har ett starkt mandat från väljarna.
But the Swedish version is often more specific. For example, it is used to refer to seats in parliament. So in Swedish you might say that partiet vann 25 mandat, but you wouldn't say "the party won 25 mandates" in English – it would sound unnatural and Swenglish. In English you would instead say "the party won 25 seats".
Similarly, if Swedes accidentally talk about a "mandate period" in English, an English-speaker might understand what they mean, but it's not idiomatic English. But in Sweden, mandatperiod is the correct way of referring to a term of office or parliamentary term – the period of time in an electoral cycle during which an elected representative officially is in power.
Swedish doesn't use mandate as a verb, however, as English does ("the council mandates that bins be emptied every fortnight"). Better Swedish words would instead be, for example, att kräva, att föreskriva, att ålägga (kommunen föreskriver att soptunnor ska tömmas varannan vecka).
Example sentences:
Det finns 349 mandat i Sveriges riksdag
There are 349 seats in the Swedish parliament
En mandatperiod varar i fyra år i Sverige
A political term of office lasts for four years in Sweden
Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it. It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris