Archive for 'Grammar'
The Genitive Posted by Transparent Language on Sep 24, 2009
I think I wrote about it before, but probably last year. And since the question keeps coming back, it might be worth to revisit the genitive. You see, as far as nouns go, and compared to other European languages (Finnish immediately comes to mind here), Swedish is very simple indeed. It has only one case…
Position and Direction continued Posted by Transparent Language on Sep 12, 2009
A couple of posts back we were talking about those little words that denote such important things as position and direction. Boring stuff, yes I know, but very useful nonetheless. So today let’s continue in the same vein and discuss här and där. And hit and dit. You see, in English, it’s all the same…
Particles of Position and Direction Posted by Transparent Language on Sep 5, 2009
Uhuh, I knew this day would come. I knew that sooner or later someone would email me asking about the difference between “hemma” and “hem” and “hemifrån”. “Ute” and “ut”, and “inne” and “in”. Yeah, you get the picture… It’s not very exciting stuff (hey, I’d much rather write about the lovely city of Lund)…
Anybody’s “man” – another personal pronoun Posted by Transparent Language on Sep 2, 2009
Since we were talking about personal pronouns the other day, and as I see, it has provoked some very interesting comments, I thought it would be a good idea to continue on the subject. “What? There are even more pronouns in Swedish?” I hear you say. Well, not that many more. Actually, just one more…
Dem Pesky Personal Pronouns Posted by Transparent Language on Aug 26, 2009
The other day I got an email asking me to clarify which form of the third person plural personal pronoun (that would be the Swedish equivalent of “they” in English) was correct. The question, of course, was about “de” and “dom”. Hmmm… it’s an interesting question. Both of those words are pronounced the same –…
What’s the deal with själv? Posted by Transparent Language on Aug 16, 2009
I was talking to an American gal who teaches Swedish (in the US) the other day and there was one thing she said that just stopped me dead in my tracks. And that was “själv is a reflexive pronoun.” What? Please don’t tell me this is what teachers of Swedish in the US tell their…
Ordinal Numbers – Ordningstal Posted by Transparent Language on Jul 25, 2009
Let’s talk about numbers today. I know, I know, another boring topic. But unfortunately, an important topic. And judging from the number of mistakes I hear when it comes to numbers (yes, I’m trying to be clever here), also a necessary one. You see, Swedish numbers appear to be deceptively similar to English. So similar…