A study of the use of English and other languages in TV-commercials in Sweden

Abstract: This investigation is about the English language in Swedish TV-commercials. Theinvestigation shows that there are commercials in Sweden that involve other languages thanSwedish. The languages found in this study apart from Swedish were English, Italian andGerman. The results show that the most common language was Swedish, which was used in405 (96.4%) of the 420 commercial spots of which the data consists. In 57.6% of thecommercials Swedish was the only language that was used compared to the 3.6% spots whichonly included English. Swedish was used together with English, Italian or German in 159commercials. There were 168 ads which contained some form of English, as the onlylanguage or together with Swedish. The results show that there was no major differenceregarding the time when the commercials containing only Swedish were broadcast. The sameconclusion could be drawn for the commercials which contained Swedish together withEnglish. The commercials which only included English were broadcast most frequently in themorning and at night. In conclusion, Swedish was the language used to the greatest extent.Furthermore, English appeared in nearly 50% of the commercials even though it was onlyused exclusively in a few ads.