Jag svek Tom.

English Translation

I let Tom down.

Would “Jag besvek Tom.” also be right? Could I add it as an alternative answer?

As I understand it, “att svika” can also mean “to betray”. But if the meaning is “to disappoint”, is there a difference between att svika and att besvika?

There is no verb “besvika”. :slight_smile:

“To betray” as in “betray one’s country”, you have “förråda”. For “to disappoint”, you can also use “göra besviken”.

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Thank you for the explanation!

I had never seen the verb “att besvika” before, I just knew the adjective “besviken” and thus assumed that there is a corresponding verb for it, too.

Googling then showed me these two links:

I don’t understand half of the svenska.se page though.

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Well, “besvika” is not in use in modern Swedish. I didn’t even know it existed.

The text was published 120 years ago.

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I trust a native speaker’s assessment and your’s in particular. Thank you for the context. :slightly_smiling_face:

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