Position and Direction continued Posted by Transparent Language on Sep 12, 2009 in Grammar
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, whether you’re talking about “here” as in “come here!” and “here” as in “I’m here.”
Unfortunately, it’s not as simple and straightforward in Swedish. Here (no pun intended) you have two different words that mean just that – “here”. And that’s how Swedish distinguishes between position and direction in much more clearer fashion than English does.
Of course, it’s not just “here” that falls into this category, but “there” as well. And before I totally confuse you, and you give up reading the rest of this post, why don’t we just take a look at these words and see what they’re all about.
So, here (again, no pun intended) we go:
position – direction
- Where? – Where… to? – Where… from?
- här (here) – hit (here) – härifrån (from there)
- där (there) – dit (there) – därifrån (from there)
Don’t worry, they’re not as evil as they look. And once you get used to them, you will realize they’re actually very handy little words. I promise!
- Jag trodde att du skulle komma hit. – I thought you were coming here.
- Men jag är kvar här i Gävle. – But I’m still here in Gävle.
- Jag åker härifrån om en timme. – I’m leaving (from) here in an hour.
So in other words, if you are somewhere and you’re not on the way there or from there, then you use “här” and “där.” If, however, you are coming or going, or talking about changing your position, then you should use “hit”/”härifrån” or “dit”/”därifrån” depending on whether you’re coming or going.
And as somebody very aptly noticed in the comments section, it’s not just the particles that differ depending on whether they talk about position and direction, but the question words as well.
And it goes like this:
- Expressions of position (befintlighet) answer to the question “var?” (where?).
- Expressions of direction (riktning) answer to the questions “vart?” (where…to?) and “varifrån?” (where…from?).
I know it takes a little bit of getting used to, but in the end, it’s not all that complicated. Unless of course, you are like me, and half the time you don’t know whether you’re coming or going, or what not. And I mean it in a strictly innocent way.
🙂
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Comments:
David:
Another thing one can do is to make the directional adverb express a general sense of direction rather than movement to a specific place, by adding “-åt”. This is like the English distinction between “We’re heading to New York” and “We’re heading towards New York”. So one can distinguish between “Han kommer hit” (“He’s coming here”) and “Han kommer hitåt” (He’s heading this way”). And the same with ditåt, vartåt, bortåt, hemåt, uppåt, inåt etc. But with some of these adverbs one can choose a simpler strategy and just say “Han kommer åt det här hållet” (“He’s heading in this direction”) or its equivalent. But I’m not sure how often you actually need to do this in order to be understood.