Archive for 'Grammar'
How fast can you eat 25 hot dogs? In Swedish. Posted by Marcus Cederström on Sep 30, 2013
Prepositions are hard. They’re hard in English. They’re hard in Swedish. They’re just hard. They can be used in so many different ways and mean so many different things. There are pages and pages of rules. It’s kind of exhausting and overwhelming. And now that we’ve got all that negative stuff out of the way…
Present Participle Posted by Tibor on May 24, 2013
This post is for move advanced learners in Swedish. Although, if you have a similar structure in your language it can be familiar for you. Present Participle or in Swedish Presens Particip is used in very many ways. It ends with –ande or –ende It can be a noun in a sentence: En ordförande= a…
Every Other Hippo is Swedish (And Other Useful Frequency Terms) Posted by Marcus Cederström on Apr 23, 2013
There are some phrases in foreign languages that are just good to know. Hello (hej), good bye (hej då) thanks (tack), where is the bathroom (var är toaletten), every other hippo is Swedish (varannan flodhäst är svensk), you know, the usual. But within those useful terms are some things that can be tricky, like frequency…
The many uses of the preposition “av” Posted by Stephen Maconi on Apr 19, 2013
Some of our readers have requested a post about the Swedish preposition av, so here it is! The word has many uses, among them what is expressed by English “of”. This is, however, far from always the case, and “of” can also be expressed by other Swedish prepositions, depending on what the speaker means to…
Expressing the “same” in Swedish Posted by Stephen Maconi on Feb 28, 2013
You walk into your office one morning and one of your colleagues says, “Hey, look! We are wearing the same shirt at the same time!”. Daily office life is just remarkable, isn’t it? In English, wearing the “same” shirt and wearing it at the “same” time as someone else are both expressed by the same…
The help verb “bruka” Posted by Stephen Maconi on Dec 4, 2012
Hej allihopa! I am happy to publish the first post of December 2012 on the Transparent Swedish Blog. Hopefully you will find it useful in your study of the Swedish language! Today felt like a good day to tell you all about the help verb bruka and its very handy usages. For those of you…
How to Use “Man” in Swedish Posted by Marcus Cederström on Nov 30, 2012
Man is one of those sometimes confusing words in Swedish. It can be used a couple of different ways and mean a couple of different things. First, and maybe most obvious, it means “man” in English when you’re just using it as your classic noun. It can also be used to create a passive tense…