Archive for 'Grammar'
Swedish Verbs, part 1 Posted by Transparent Language on Sep 12, 2008
Long, long time ago, I think in one of my earliest posts, I said that Swedish verbs are easier than English. And for the most part, that is indeed true. There is no goofy “–s” in the third person singular, no irregular “to be”, the auxiliary “do” is gone altogether, and “have/has” is simply “har”…
Real Gender Specific Nouns Posted by Transparent Language on Sep 4, 2008
In my last post, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, I showed you a Swedish noun with a “real” gender. A noun that has both a male and a female version. That word was “skådespelare” which means an “actor”. This is actually a bit similar to what happens in English as well. We have an actor…
Partikelverb Part 1 Posted by Transparent Language on Aug 29, 2008
Adrienne asked a question about partikelverb, and because I’m such a good sport, I decided to blog about it today. Now say, I know it’s an impossible task to make partikelverb interesting, but hey, we can give it a shot, right? So, what’s a partikelverb anyway? As the name suggests, it’s a verb and a…
A Little Bit About Adjectives Posted by Transparent Language on Aug 19, 2008
It’s grammar time today, because we can’t have just fun and games all the time. I want you to learn something really useful here, even if only occasionally. 🙂 When talking about “jobbig” I briefly mentioned the rules regarding Swedish adjectives. That when an adjective describes an “ett” noun, it gets a “-t” ending. And…
Useful Words: Jobbig Posted by Transparent Language on Jul 29, 2008
In every language there are words that you either just love or simply hate for whatever reason. Personally, I’m not a fan of words that are difficult to spell, and unfortunately the English language is full of them. Like “assassinate”. The only reason I remember how to spell it is because it has two of…
Plural Ett Words Posted by Transparent Language on Jul 26, 2008
I have a foreign neighbor who reads this blog (hi neighbor!), and I think it’s very convenient that she does. She’s right under my nose, she’s learning Swedish, speaks passable English and is not afraid to ask questions. So I wasn’t surprised when she spied me out while I was taking my cats out for…
På And More På Posted by Transparent Language on Jul 21, 2008
I went to the movies tonight with my friend and we saw “Hancock”, it was actually pretty good. Yes, I know, I know. This movie is old news in the US, but here it’s just opened and the theatre was packed. I didn’t even know there were that many people left in my town on…