Swedish Language Blog

Recently I’ve been having quite a lot of discussions about grammar. I don’t know why – it just simply started to come up in conversations all of a sudden. And you’d think that grammar would be a sure conversation killer, right? After all, who wants to discuss the finer points of subordinate clauses in a social setting? But guess what? People don’t really mind talking about grammar and such conversations can get quite heated actually. Especially so when it comes to foreign languages.

Lately, I’ve participated in several such discussion, and inevitably the topic, regardless of what it was at the beginning of the conversation, always morphs into something like: “Why do we need to learn all this stupid grammar when studying foreign languages?” and “Do babies learn grammar when THEY learn to speak?” and “Speaking is more important than proper grammatical constructions.” And so on… You get the idea.

Such discussions are giving me a headache. Really. You see, I’m not a fan of grammar. In fact, I quite despise the whole issue, and frankly, if I could I would never even open a single grammar textbook in my life.

But I also understand that grammar is important. Whether we like it or not, having at least some basic idea of the quirks and rules of the foreign language one is learning is essential. Otherwise, we end up speaking that language like a bunch of idiots.

And the questions of: “what is more important – speaking or grammar?” and “why should we study grammar if babies learning to speak never have to deal with stuff like possessive pronouns or passive voice?” are quite pointless. At least they are to me.

I’m no linguist, but even I have enough common sense to see that we, as adults, are do not learn foreign languages the way babies learn their native language. And hence, speaking without any grammatical backbone whatsoever can only get us so far (and it won’t be very far – trust me, I’ve been there and done that). I think the post about “sin, sitt, sina” kind of illustrates what I’m talking about here.

So yes, if you are just interested in the most basic communication skills, then sure – you can survive those two weeks in a foreign country while butchering the local lingo. But if you want to get to know the language and the whole mentality that comes with speaking it on a daily basis, then unfortunately, you have no choice but to grab a grammar book and study it every so often.

Otherwise how would you know that a possessive pronoun in English often corresponds to the definite article in Swedish, huh?

• Jag måste tavätta håret. – I must wash my hair.
• Han stoppade handen i fickan. – He put his hand in his pocket.
• Hon tappade balansen. – She lost her balance.

Now that you know what I think about it, please tell me your opinion – is grammar important or not? And what are some of your best ways to learn Swedish grammar?

I have never suspected that possessive pronouns (possessiva pronomen) can be the cause of so many emails! In my post about birthdays, I used a couple of possessive pronouns, and seemingly all of you who had my email address got in touch saying something along those lines “Yo Anna, if you are going to use some goofy examples, don’t you think it would be a good idea to explain first why sometimes ‘din’ is ‘ditt’ or ‘dina’? Because we are not, like, you know, mind readers and stuff.”

Ahhh… Those Swedish personal pronouns… They sure are fun! And don’t worry, they are not as complicated as you think. And by the way, I think I did cover them somewhere on this blog last year.

But since your wish is my command, let’s review those bits, because you are right, they are important, and getting them right makes all the difference between sounding like an idiot and speaking like someone who actually cared enough to learn it properly.

In English, it’s straightforward and easy. Whether you are talking about “my car” or “my children” – “my” stays the same, no matter what.

In Swedish, it’s a bit more involved than that, simply because Swedish nouns are divided into “en” and “ett”. And because most possessive pronouns behave just like adjectives, they need to be treated like adjectives. And hence, most of them get the “t” ending when accompanying “ett” nouns and “a” ending for plural nouns.

Take a look:

• min bil – my car

but

• mitt hus – my house

and

• mina skor – my shoes

Unfortunately, not all possessive pronouns follow this simple pattern. If they did, our lives would be just too easy, right?

Here’s one example:

• hans katt – his cat

and

• hans hus – his house

and

• hans pengar – his money (money is plural in Swedish)

And unfortunately, this one is not the only one. There’s more of them pesky little buggers who don’t like to conform.

Here is the complete table of possessive pronouns:

• my – min – mitt – mina
• your (singular) – din – ditt –dina
• his – hans – hans – hans
• her – hennes – hennes – hennes
• its – dess – dess – dess
• our – vår – vårt – våra
• your (plural) – er – ert – era
• their – deras – deras – deras

“Dess” is the possessive pronoun of “den” and “det” but it’s not used very much. Normally, the concept of “its” is expressed in some other way, like for example:
Jag har en katt. – I have a cat.
But instead of saying “Dess päls är vit.” – Its fur (coat) it white.
We would rather say
Den har vit päls. – It has white fur (coat).

There is also a mysterious (at least mysterious to many Swedish learners) pronoun “sin” but I think we should cover it in its very own special post.

PS. Today is the LAST DAY to enter my Midsommar Book Contest!!! The deadline is midnight EST (Eastern Standard Time in the US). So don’t miss out!!!

Scroll a few posts back to get the details!

I don’t know if you’ve noticed (because I must say it has totally escaped even me) that our little Swedish Blog is one year old now! Can you believe it? I’m not sure about you, but somehow this fact is enough to put a big smile on my face.

You’ve survived one whole year with me! And frankly, I couldn’t have done it without you. Your comments, support, suggestions, and just plain being there and reading what I have to say ten times a month is more than what any blogger could have asked for. Because what’s a blog good for if no one ever reads it, right?

So, while we’re on the subject of age, let’s learn how to say how old we are in Swedish (well, not “we” because you’re not supposed to ask a lady’s age, but just in general) , OK?

• Swedish Blog är ett år (gammal). – Swedish Blog is one year old.

See? It’s easy. Very similar to English. That final “gammal” is not even necessary. Just like we would say in English that someone is (for example) 14, with “years” and “old” being understood and omitted.

Same in Swedish. You could say that:

• Han är 14 år. – He is 14. And that’s good enough.

Notice anything interesting about that final “år”? Even though it looks like a singular noun, in reality it’s not.

Take a look:

• år (def. året, pl. år, pl. def. åren) – 365 dagar * – year

This is the kind of stuff that happens with many “ett” nouns, and unfortunately, there’s no way around it – you just need to learn it.
And how do we ask about someone’s age?

• Hur gammal är du? – How old are you?

And our young friend would answer:

• Jag är 14 år. - I am fourteen.

But what happens if the object about whose age we are inquiring happens to be an “ett” noun? Then of course, instead of “gammal”, we have to say “gammalt”.

• Hur gammalt är ditt barn? – How old is your child?

“Barn” is an “ett” noun, and so the adjective “gammal” acquired one “t” at the end.

But wait a sec. Now take a look at this:

• Hur gamla är dina barn? – How old are your children?

“Barn” is one of those pesky nouns, just like “år”, that look the same in both indefinite singular and plural forms. But because “gammal” morphed into “gamla”, we know we are talking about more than one of your children here.

And this is how a simple birthday celebration turned into a grammar lesson. Ouch!

Har den äran på födelsedagen, Swedish Blog! – Happy Birthday Swedish Blog!

* A year with 366 days is called “skottår”.

PS. Even though it’s after Midsommar, it’s not too late to enter my Midsommar Swedish book contest!!! If you a reader from a country other than Sweden where Swedish books are hard to come by, all you need to do is to leave a comment under this post telling me IN SWEDISH why I should send the book to YOU (and not to someone else)! Good luck!!!