Archive for 'Swedish Language'
Pronunciation Breakdown: Swedish Sj-Sound Posted by Chelsea B on Sep 24, 2021
Learning about phonetics is cool. And if you ask me, pretty difficult! A recent blog commenter said they have difficulty with the Swedish sj-sound and asked for tips to practice it. Classified as a “voiceless fricative phoneme” it’s one of the most difficult sounds in the Swedish language to reproduce. While I’m not a phonetics…
Swedish Jews Observe Yom Kippur Posted by Chelsea B on Sep 16, 2021
Yom Kippur, is considered the holiest day of the Jewish calendar year. A day of atonement, fasting, and prayer, emphasis is placed on individual reflection and atonement in preparation for the year to come. It’s estimated that 15,000-20,000 Jews live in Sweden, and because even secular Jews tend to celebrate Jom kippur, as it’s spelled…
Refresh your Swedish Reflexive Verbs and Pronouns Posted by Chelsea B on Sep 10, 2021
To understand reflexive verbs, start by thinking about activities where the action reflects back on its subject. For example, “I’ll behave myself.” “He’ll shave himself,” and so on. In Swedish we pair even more verbs with a reflexive pronoun – the verb “to learn” is reflexive, “to concentrate” is reflexive, too! In this post, we’ll…
Choosing Between Swedish “Because Phrases” Posted by Chelsea B on Aug 13, 2021
How do you say “because” in Swedish? Lots of ways! But what is the difference between darför, för att, eftersom, and för? While they all have similar meanings, they differ in application slightly. The primary difference is the sentence structure that accompanies them. Put your grammar caps on, let’s get nitty-gritty with “because phrases”! Varför…
Olympic Pump-Up Songs på svenska! Posted by Chelsea B on Aug 6, 2021
Blood pumping. Sweat dripping. Adrenaline on high. Olympic athletes are experiencing these things in abundance right now. But how do they get themselves in the zone to perform at such a high level? Lots of folks put their headphones on, bob their heads in time, and blare a great pump-up song. Music has been used…
Summery Prose with Harry Martinson’s Juninatten Posted by Chelsea B on Jul 23, 2021
It’s July, almost August in fact. And although we’re technically over the Midsommar hump, I feel like summer only just arrived. Long days still fade into mild evenings and the sun sparkles gently as it sets into any of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes. This week, I want to share a poem that captures that feeling. Juninatten…
Navigating Between Swedish Past and Perfect Tense Posted by Chelsea B on Jul 16, 2021
Memorizing and conjugating Swedish verbs needs to be more than just busywork. Learning how to use one tense over another is more important. To illustrate this point, we’re going to navigate the difference between the preteritum (past) and perfekt (perfect) tenses, and then how to use them together. So grab your favorite verb chart and…