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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…
Like this, like that Posted by Stephen Maconi on Sep 13, 2011
When trying to explain the extent to which something has a certain property in Swedish, you’ll have to know the following grammar! The extent to which something has a certain property – inside the nominal phrase Using the word ‘such’ in such cases as ‘You have such a pretty house!’ is possible to say in…
Infinitives in Swedish Posted by Stephen Maconi on Sep 6, 2011
When learning Swedish vocabulary, you will come across many different types of words, and naturally, many of these words are verbs – action words. For example, springa – to run – is a verb. Verbs can be shown to students of Swedish in many different forms, but for memorization, the most common form is the…
Crossing the border Posted by Stephen Maconi on Aug 10, 2011
Crossing the border from Canada to the United States is one thing. Crossing the border from Sweden to Norway and vice versa is very much another. Sweden and Norway have long had many different types of agreements to ease communications between each other. One of these agreements allows Norwegian citizens to enter Sweden freely and…
Photos from Nyköping Posted by Stephen Maconi on Aug 4, 2011
Nyköping is a city in Södermanlands län (Södermanland municipality), about an hour south of Stockholm. It is best known for the historical Nyköpings gästabud, or the ‘Nyköping banquet’, during which Birger Magnusson, the king of Sweden in 1317, locked up and starved his brothers Valdemar and Erik in the castle’s prison as revenge for previous…
Flying to Sweden Posted by Stephen Maconi on Jul 13, 2011
When you book your flight to Sweden, you should of course check the cheapest and/or quickest (depending on your personal preferences) methods of getting to your final destination within the country. Check online for the closest airports to your destination, or see if you can take the cheapest flight and ride a train the rest…
The logic behind Swedish noun gender Posted by Stephen Maconi on Jul 4, 2011
When you first start learning Swedish, the whole noun gender thing might be confusing. In Spanish and French, the gender thing makes sense since ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ correspond to human gender. In Swedish, however, the genders are ‘common’ and ‘neuter’. This does not mean Swedes aren’t male or female! 😉 Some nouns, as you may…