Communication strategies used by German-Swedish bilinguals when they have lexical difficulty are discussed. Findings indicate that in a language test situation, when attention is focused on words rather than topic, face-saving over a lexical gap seems to be of great importance to the speaker. When a communication strategy has led to a noticeable failure, the speaker has three principal options: to proceed as before, admit the failure but dissociate himself from it, or conceal the failure and deceive the listener. For dissociation and deception there are certain markers that can help identify the two strategies. These markers can also help in determining whether or not the speaker has used a communication strategy, since they are strongly linked with conscious errors and other products that the speaker considers to be failed communication strategies for his lexical difficulties. (MSE)