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Body parts in Swedish: The Head and Face Posted by Stephen Maconi on Apr 8, 2016
Maybe you have a doctor’s appointment. Maybe you have a headache. Maybe you just have a pretty face. Life is full of reasons to talk about your body, and when in Sweden, do as the Swedes do – speak Swedish! There are lots of body parts, so let’s start you off with vocabulary words describing…
“Must” and “have to” in Swedish Posted by Stephen Maconi on Mar 29, 2016
In English, we differentiate between “must” and “have to”. “Must” is generally considered more formal and authoritative, whereas “have to” may be interpreted more colloquial and less hard. Swedish, on the other hand, uses måste in all contexts. For Swedes, it’s just an ordinary, statusless modal verb. Måste used in the same way as…
In and out in Swedish – Part 2 Posted by Stephen Maconi on Mar 21, 2016
Välkomna tillbaka, mina damer och herrar! (And everyone else, of course!) In part 1 of In and out in Swedish, you learned how in and ut indicate movement while inne and ute indicate static location (i.e. non-movement). You also learned that in can be combined with a preposition to mean “into”. This is the same…
In and out in Swedish – Part 1 Posted by Stephen Maconi on Mar 18, 2016
Hej på er, Swedish learners! Swedish is, as many of you know, a Germanic language. As a result, a lot of central words to the language are very similar to English words. This is the case for in and ut, respectively meaning “in” and “out”. But in and ut in Swedish are a bit…
Inverted sentences in Swedish Posted by Stephen Maconi on Feb 19, 2016
I’m sure you’ve heard it. I’m sure it’s confused you. Some pesky Swedish speaker saying things like Idag ska jag träffa honom and Det tror jag inte. Sentences where the subject comes after the verb. “Blasphemy!”, you might be thinking. Truth be told, inverted sentences are, in fact, used in abundance in Swedish. But…
Basic “maybe” sentences in Swedish: “kanske” Posted by Stephen Maconi on Feb 17, 2016
Maybe it’s a bird. Maybe it’s a plane. Or maybe it’s Superman! Knowing how to use “maybe” is very important in English. Likewise, knowing how to use kanske is very important in Swedish. Swedes use their kanske all over the place, so make sure you know it! Kanske is an easy concept, but the…
Looking good in Swedish: “att se ut” Posted by Stephen Maconi on Feb 11, 2016
Hejhej, Swedish learners! One of many things that we generally need to know how to talk about in a language is how something or someone looks. In English, there are two common patterns with “look” which are very much alike: Pattern 1: That cloud looks like a dog. Pattern 2: That cloud looks dark…