Swedish Greetings in the New Year Posted by Marcus Cederström on Jan 19, 2015
January is coming to a close and most everyone is back to work after having taken time off for the holidays here in Sweden. That won’t stop you from hearing people greeting each other using the term god fortsättning. It literally means good continuation as in a continuation of the holidays. It’s a wonderful phrase…
Awesomely easy Swedish grammar: Singular articles Posted by Stephen Maconi on Jan 14, 2015
Articles are words that are used to show whether a noun (person, place, or thing) is a specific one (previously metioned in conversation with a particular person) or an unspecific one. In English, we have three articles: a, an, and the. A and an have the same function: to show that the dog in the…
Swedish Children’s Shows and Snoppen och Snippan Posted by Marcus Cederström on Jan 12, 2015
Yesterday, Bacillakuten had it’s season premier on Sveriges Television. This shouldn’t really be a big deal. The show is one of those fun kid’s shows that aims to teach children while hopefully keeping them somewhat entertained and happy. Bacillakuten focuses specifically on teaching children about the body. Again, not a huge deal, really. We all…
Why the double-definite in Swedish? Posted by Stephen Maconi on Dec 1, 2014
As you study Swedish, you will notice that the definite form, or in more literal but less accurate terms the “the”-form, is often shown in two positions: at the beginning of the noun phrase and tacked-on at the end of the main noun in the noun phrase. In other words, you will often see the…
Thanksgiving Foods in Swedish Posted by Marcus Cederström on Nov 26, 2014
American Thanksgiving is coming up. It’s the fourth Thursday of November (since 1941). There’s plenty to be said about the holiday in the US, both good and bad – there’s the consumerism that has bled over from Black Friday into the actual holiday, there’s the origins of the holiday itself, the romanticization of a coming…
Swedish Grammar: General and specific “this” Posted by Stephen Maconi on Nov 3, 2014
Mmmmm! Hallå mina vänner! I had thought I was done with my series on demonstrative pronouns in Swedish, but I noticed a comment at the last minute with a great question that I decided deserved a full post. You might notice when listening to Swedish that when a person is presenting something new, they will…
Super Scary Prepositions: Till Posted by Marcus Cederström on Oct 31, 2014
It’s Halloween. A time for super scary creatures. And super scary parts of grammar. Nothing scares me more than prepositions. I hate them. There, I said it. I hate prepositions. I mess them up in Swedish and English. And I’ve been speaking both of those languages for a lot of years. A lot of teachers…