Swedish Lessons

There’s a Dutch one, but it’s in the Dutch forum.
Further I don’t know any…

Det här var en mycket intressant tråd. Jag har hittat en kort liten novell, men jag är rädd att den kan vara lite för svår. Vill ni så kan ni ju prova att översätta stycken så kan vi svenskar rätta eftersom. Glasögon-Fias upplevelser

Vocabulary
pryda = to be decorative (sorta)
bilfärd = Drive (not as in the verb, think “a drive”)
Ängar = fields
svischa = to swoosh :razz:
dock = though
ideala = ideal
förhållandet = relationship, condition
sängbordet = the table by the bed
pga. (på grund av) = because of
slarva = neglect
hemsk = terrible
tvål = soap
torrputsa = polish without any liquid
följd = result
skina = shine
glänsa = shine

Enough for now, if there’s a word you don’t understand just check in a dictionary. This one is pretty good

//Translation:
This was a very interesting thread. I’ve found a short novel, but I’m afraid it might be a little too hard. If you want to you can try translating parts of it, and then we Swedes can correct it. Fia-Glasses experiences

The Swedish word order is very strange.

I went to school = Jag gick till skolan

So far, everything fine…

BUT

Then I went to school = Sen gick jag till skolan

If you translate word by word into English: “Then went I to school”

I can’t think of more examples right now, but I can assure you that as you start to write more complex sentences, more and more words will have to be thrown around like this. This is one of the biggest problems non-native speakers have with Swedish, and I understand that it’s confusing to them. I think I’ve heard somewhere that some linguists regard the Swedish word order as one of the most confusing there is.

On a sidenote, there is a Swedish novel called “Ett öga rött” where the author uses grammatically wrong Swedish (with what most foreigners would regard a more “natural” word order) throughout all of the book, since the main character is a non-native speaker of Swedish. It’s kinda cool, and this “incorrect” Swedish has become almost a language on its own since about 10% of our population is foreign in origin.

i love sweden. how bout i just move there, ill learn it quicker. anyone willing to let me live with them till i pick up the language and become a freelance translator/guide and spend my days at the airport picking up american customers. or just get a normal job. what is there to do for fun in sweden.

That depends on where in Sweden you’d like to live. If you liv up north, there’s not much of a nightlife. Instead you do “manly” stuff, like kiling polarbears etc. (j/k) But if you live in the middle/southern part you can do more or less the same things that you can do wherever it is you live now.

I am not sure, but I think it works like this, whenever there is time specification in the beginning of sentense: like when, after,in the morning, the word order changes from the typical: I went to school, to Nar gick jag till skolan. (when went I till school).

If the time is specified at the end of the sentense, then the words stay in the same order…

Correct me if I am wrong …

It changes in questions too:

Jag gick till skolan - I went to school.
Gick du till skolan? - Went you to school?

I’ve also heard linguists say that the swedish “sj”-sound is very unique. :uh:

the way norwegians say æ (ä in swedish) is not anything close to the swedish ä the swedish ä is more like a norwegian e

Swedish “älvorna”
Norwedish “elvorna”
English “the elves”

Yes, ä is sometimes pronounced as “e” (like in äpple, älva etc) and sometimes as “ä”/“ae” (like in ärta, nära).
The swedish word for is is written “är”, but in spoken language it is sometimes pronounced as “e”.

Yes, but that depends on what dialekt you speak. Where I come from (the southern edge of the northern part of Sweden :eh:) we say “är”, but where you come from they say “e”.

Doesn’t anyone have a microphone? It would be a lot easier to explain the different sounds that way.
Hehe, imagine one of the non-swedish people here trying to say “kjol” (skirt), “tjock” (fat), or “sjuk” (sick). :happy:

yes it’s a uniquely swedish sound (or so i’ve read). I’ve had trouble pronouncing that one. I had one recording saying “sju” (seven) and for the first few times it sounded to me very much like “fu” :eek:

For a while i was pronouncing it like german “ch”… Then i realised i can approximate it better by saying “khu” first then removing the “k”… also i can pronounce it by flattening the “X” sound of my language… :tongue: i got that idea when i read that arab immigrants in Sweden usually pronounce “sj” as X :smile:

Now i can pronounce it fast and without pre-practice but still everytime i think in my head what a funny sound it is :content:

Yeah, tons of people have problems with that sound if they’re not originally from Sweden. Trying to think of a sound like that in english, or at least a similar sound, but I can’t really come to think of any… “Sk” can also be pronounced as the same sound, for example in “skillnad” or “skön”

When me and my family first came to sweden they spelled my name like “Olesja”, cause, well, they thought it would be “Oles-ja” but instead it turned my name into this horrible “Olescha” or something lol. Now it’s just Olesia, thank God lol.

Dream on. // Olesia

I can’t get my microphone to work :sad: But I wouldn’t be a good person to teach people how to say “sj” because I tend to say it wrong sometimes. My mother comes from Finland, so I learnt finnish first as a child. And finnish does not have any “sj” sounds, except some similar sounds in loan words. Like “sheikki” (sheik, shejk in swedish).

When I just had started school some other kids picked on me because i couldn’t pronounce “tjuv” (theif) or “sju” (seven). :bored:

I actually borrowed a microphone from a friend, but it turns out that my sound card sucks, so I can’t use it. It shouldn’t be that hard to find a recording of someone saying “tjuv” or “sjuk” etc… I would have looked for one now, but right now I’m on this 3G-card, so my connection is super-slow. Unless someone else finds one, I’ll look for one when I get back to my mom’s, that’ll be around monday or tuesday (I think).

Here you can type in swedish words to hear how to pronounce them, but the sound quality isn’t so good, so it’s hard to hear the sj sounds.

chemistry in Swedish:

Na= Natrium
He=Helium
H=väte
Cl=Klor
Au=Guld
Pb=bly
Pt=platina
Cu=koppar
P=fosfor
F=flour
(Sn=Tenn?)
Zn=Zink
C=kol
Li=litium
Ag=Silver

My chemistry teacher’s name is Zink. :shock:

Time for Lanina’s Grammar! :tongue:

Words in plural.

In english, a s is just added when it comes to plural.
“Pig - Pigs”
There are some words that are different, like
“Man - Men”

In swedish, it’s a bit more difficult.
Most words get a r when talking about a substantive in plural.
But, most words also end in consonants, how does this work?
It goes [vowel]+r.
What vowel is usually determined by what the last letter in the word is. And some you just have to learn.

-OR
Examples: Kvinna (woman), hylla (shelf), panna (forehead)
Most words in this group ends with an A.

These words will have -or in plural.
So:
En kvinna
Flera kvinnor

En hylla
Två hyllor

Some words that end with consonants are also here, like “ros” (rose).

-AR
All words in this group are words that are “n-words”, so that its “en pingvin” (a pinguin) or “en stol” (a chair) not words like “ett bord” (a table)

Example:

En fågel (a bird)
Flera fåglar (many birds)

En pojke (a boy)
Två pojkar (two boys)

There are some wierd things here too. Some words change more than just putting -ar after them. Words like “dotter” (daughter) becomes “döttrar”.

-ER
Most words in this group are also “n-words”. There are many words here that that end in e-[consonant] like “regel” (rule)
Before you can put -er on them, you have to take the last vowel out. So it becomes “regler” instead of “regeler” (easier to say).

Examples:

Film - Filmer (film, films)
Bok - Böcker (book, books)
Växt - Växter (plant, plants)


There are more groups, but I will write about them later. :razz:
Like -R, -N and words that do not change at all.

And how are we supposed to know what n-words are? Is there any logic in that?

Is it also
en film - two filmer (a film, two films)
en Bok - two böcker (a book, two books)?

chemistry in Swedish looks much like Dutch.

Na= Natrium [com] = Natrium [/com]
He=Helium [com] = helium[/com]
H=väte [com]= waterstof [/com]
Cl=Klor [com]= chloor [/com]
Au=Guld [com]= goud [/com]
Pb=bly [com]= lood [/com]
Pt=platina [com]= platina [/com]
Cu=koppar [com]= koper [/com]
P=fosfor [com]= fosfor [/com]
F=flour [com] = fluor [/com]
(Sn=Tenn?) [com] = tin [/com]
Zn=Zink [com] = zink [/com]
C=kol [com]= koolstof [/com]
Li=litium [com]= litium [/com]
Ag=Silver [com]= zilver [/com]

Owh yeha that’s rigth we had Swedish lessons, not Dutch.