Archive for 'Vocabulary'
The Wash Post Posted by Transparent Language on Oct 25, 2008
I am still away and still receiving calls for help from my dearly beloved. Last night it was the wash that required five urgent phone calls to get my urgent attention. We don’t own a washing machine. Actually, our apartment is not even set up for one. Instead, there is something in our building called…
The Diary of Dairy Posted by Transparent Language on Oct 23, 2008
I am out of town for a while, actually I’m out of Sweden for a week, and I’ve been gone for only one day and my dearly beloved already managed to call me four times. “I need milk,” he says, “I’m at the store and I don’t know what kind of milk to buy.” Errr……
Hej Kära Peter! Posted by Transparent Language on Oct 19, 2008
Peter’s comment on the post below made me think. I don’t write that many letters in Swedish. In fact, I don’t write that many letters in whatever language – I’m probably the world’s worst correspondent, as my friends no doubt can tell you. So, in order to properly answer Peter’s question I had to dig…
Åka or Gå? Posted by Transparent Language on Oct 12, 2008
Today’s topic is one that confuses many Swedish learners – those pesky verbs that are deceptively similar, have pretty much the same meaning in English, yet in Swedish are used in a completely different context. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Actually, Swedish has quite a few such verb combinations. But today we’ll start with the…
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…
Exploring Norrland Posted by Transparent Language on Aug 12, 2008
One good thing about being from (or living in) Umeå is that you’re not from anywhere else in Västerbotten. Because imagine the alternatives! You could be from a place like Lycksele, for example. I’m sure that Lycksele is a perfectly delightful little town, or a large village depending on who’s talking, of about 9 thousand…
When Your Tooth Hurts Posted by Transparent Language on Aug 8, 2008
Today is our Queen’s name day (Silvia) and also the first day of the Olympic Games, but I’m not really that fond of either one. The Queen has always struck me as creepily Stepfordish. I mean, is that woman even real or is she just a life-size paper cut-out? You know, like those of Star…