Archive for September, 2011
Inverted sentences, Part 1 Posted by Stephen Maconi on Sep 21, 2011
You may have noticed that sometimes Swedish speakers do not place the subject of their sentences first, before the verb, as you would in English. Heck, sometimes they leave out the subject entirely (in spoken language): Jag stötte på Malin på stan idag. Visste inte hon var på besök här! I ran into Malin in…
Swedish Language Learning Tips Posted by Marcus Cederström on Sep 21, 2011
Learning a new language is difficult. It can not be done in two weeks. It takes years to reach fluency. This isn’t news to anyone who has ever truly delved into a language. There will be great frustration and small accomplishments. There will be cursing (in your native language and maybe even the language you’re…
Breaking news – Swedish Design goes London Posted by Tibor on Sep 19, 2011
Swedish Design Goes London During the Design Festival. Click here to download the catalogue With exhibitions, seminars, talks and several producers and designers, Swedish design will be very visible in the British capital in September 2011. To start with, the Ambassador of Sweden will exclusively open up her Residence at Portland Place for a Swedish design…
Age in Sweden Posted by Katja on Sep 16, 2011
The almighty ‘personnummer’ (your birthdate) makes everyones ages’ public and this may explain why Swedes do not mind giving their age when introducing themselves. For example when a group of people introduce themselves for each other, they say what their name is and how old they are. You age is a kind of ‘taboo’ subject…
10 facts about Swedish politics Posted by jennie on Sep 15, 2011
Since today marks the opening of the Swedish Riksdag and it’s election day in our neighbouring country Denmark, I figured 10 nice and easy facts about Swedish politics would be appropriate. 1. As Head of State, the King opens the Riksdag session every year in mid-September. This service takes place in Storkyrkan and the…
Många vs. Mycket Posted by Marcus Cederström on Sep 15, 2011
Jenny’s post on Hur mycket kostar det? definitely hit a nerve, not just because I am a poor student again and ask that question all the time, but because it did a wonderful job of demonstrating a very important “how” question. One that in this case uses mycket – much. But there is another “how”…
Swedish Present Tense in relation to “before and after now” Posted by Tibor on Sep 14, 2011
FÖRE NU (past aspect) NU (present aspect) EFTER NU (future aspect) Perfect: Finished activity, but unknown or continous time sequence. Jag har arbetat mycket den här månaden. I have worked much this month.Perfect: Perfect has usually a result in the now. The activity might have started before “now”. Jag har öppnat fönstret. result: Fönstret är…