Archive for 'Grammar'
Swedish grammar: Is it “han” or “honom”? The answer might not be what you think! Posted by Stephen Maconi on Feb 6, 2015
If you’ve lived in Sweden for any extended period of time, you may have noticed that there are plenty of dialects and plenty of personal, individual variants (so-called “ideolects”) of Swedish. One particular variation you might happen to notice is the use of han rather than honom as the third-person male object pronoun of a…
How to want in Swedish Posted by Stephen Maconi on Jan 22, 2015
Hejsan hejsan! Human beings need and want all over the place. Consequently, one of the most basic and, frankly, most important things you can learn to say in a foreign language is “I want”. It’s simply something you want to know how to say! (ho ho) In Swedish, there are two easy ways to say…
Awesomely easy Swedish grammar: Singular articles Posted by Stephen Maconi on Jan 14, 2015
Articles are words that are used to show whether a noun (person, place, or thing) is a specific one (previously metioned in conversation with a particular person) or an unspecific one. In English, we have three articles: a, an, and the. A and an have the same function: to show that the dog in the…
Why the double-definite in Swedish? Posted by Stephen Maconi on Dec 1, 2014
As you study Swedish, you will notice that the definite form, or in more literal but less accurate terms the “the”-form, is often shown in two positions: at the beginning of the noun phrase and tacked-on at the end of the main noun in the noun phrase. In other words, you will often see the…
Swedish Grammar: General and specific “this” Posted by Stephen Maconi on Nov 3, 2014
Mmmmm! Hallå mina vänner! I had thought I was done with my series on demonstrative pronouns in Swedish, but I noticed a comment at the last minute with a great question that I decided deserved a full post. You might notice when listening to Swedish that when a person is presenting something new, they will…
Super Scary Prepositions: Till Posted by Marcus Cederström on Oct 31, 2014
It’s Halloween. A time for super scary creatures. And super scary parts of grammar. Nothing scares me more than prepositions. I hate them. There, I said it. I hate prepositions. I mess them up in Swedish and English. And I’ve been speaking both of those languages for a lot of years. A lot of teachers…
Swedish Grammar: This and that, Part 3 Posted by Stephen Maconi on Oct 29, 2014
Mmmmm! Hej på dig! I’m back with Swedish Grammar: This and that, Part 3. In parts 1 and 2, I explained two different ways to say “this” in Swedish. Now it’s time to explain “that”. If you recall from Part 1, the first way I taught you how to say “this” was den här. Den…