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 ) 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).
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”
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… i got that idea when i read that arab immigrants in Sweden usually pronounce “sj” as X
Now i can pronounce it fast and without pre-practice but still everytime i think in my head what a funny sound it is
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.
I can’t get my microphone to work 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).
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).
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.
Like -R, -N and words that do not change at all.
I don’t think there is any logic. Most words a “n-words”. Maybe someone else has posted something earlier in this thread?
Swedes mostly just go for what sounds good.
Well, I’m lazy today. I’m going to write about words that do not change at all in plural.
Most of these words are words for professions ending on -re
Lärare = Teacher
Slaktare = Butcher
Musiker = Musician
Then, there are just some randoms words.
Träd = Tree
Lejon = Lion
Fönster = Window
I can understand why it’s hard to put a suffix on words ending on -re, but why it’s “ett träd, två träd” instead of “ett träd, två trädar” is just weird.
Is anyone still teaching/learning here? (probably not, since the last post was in 2007 )
Is there logic to it in other languages? Grammatical gender is fairly new to me, since we don’t have that in English (afaik).
From an earlier post, -en words are for male or female, while -ett words are for neutral.
If so, then is the -OR, -AR, -ER rule related to gender? Like -OR is for female, -AR for male, and -ER for inanimate male/female or something?
Also wondering this too, and if there’s something like a BIG language topic to link to all the lessons
[size=75](I don’t remember what I was searching for when I found this… Hope it’s not against the rules, from my understanding the Bumping rule referred to just saying “Bump” to an old thread with no actual content?)[/size]
That would be nice This is just a suggestion though, in case people would want to share their languages, since this is an international forum. Not sure if others would be interested in this.
On Swedish topic, I had two dreams involving Swedish these past two nights/mornings. One was about this thread in particular, and I was called Ålot (that is not how it’s supposed to be pronounced though).
On this thread topic, adding a new lesson! (Hope that any people fluent who are still active will be able to correct me)
In English, we have “the” to denote a distinct noun. For example, “the man” has a slightly different meaning than “a man”. “The man” means mean we are talking about a specific man, while “a man” just means any man in general.
In Swedish, they also have this same concept, however instead of adding a word like “the” they add “en” or “et” (or a variation) to the end of the word.
En words
A man = En man
The man = Mannen
A woman = En kvinna
The woman = Kvinnan (just add -n here, since kvinna ends with an “a”)
A island = En ö
The island = Ön (I guess just add -n if the word already ends with a vowel?)
Ett words
A table = Ett bord
The table = Bordet
A child = Ett barn
The child = Barnet
Water = Vatten
The water = Vattnet (I guess this is irregular)