Tag Archives: Swedish grammar
Indeclinable Swedish Adjectives Posted by Marcus Cederström on Oct 6, 2014
We’ve talked about adjectives quite a bit here. How to use them with en words, how to use them with ett words, how to use them with plural words. You can check out some of those posts here: Swedish adjective and noun Adjectives and specificness in Swedish Adjectives and specificness in Swedish, Part 2 30…
How to Impress Your Swedish Friends: Abbreviate Your Clauses Posted by Marcus Cederström on Apr 28, 2014
As you get more and more comfortable with Swedish, you’ll start to notice that some of those pesky bisatser, or subordinate clauses, are being shortened by Swedish speakers. In Swedish, it’s called a satsförkortning. In English, it just means that you’re abbreviating the clause. For example: Han såg att hon sjöng. He saw that she…
Swedish Pronunciation – Hard and Soft Vowels Posted by Marcus Cederström on Dec 31, 2013
Trying to discuss pronunciation in writing is not always easy. In fact, I think it is downright difficult. But we’re going to try anyway, because pronunciation is obviously an important aspect of fluency. One easy way to improve your pronunciation is to understand how consonants respond to the vowels that follow. This post is going…
Every Other Hippo is Swedish (And Other Useful Frequency Terms) Posted by Marcus Cederström on Apr 23, 2013
There are some phrases in foreign languages that are just good to know. Hello (hej), good bye (hej då) thanks (tack), where is the bathroom (var är toaletten), every other hippo is Swedish (varannan flodhäst är svensk), you know, the usual. But within those useful terms are some things that can be tricky, like frequency…
Som – A Swedish Relative Pronoun Posted by Marcus Cederström on Nov 16, 2012
I have a brother. He lives in Sweden. I have another brother. He lives in the US. These are four acceptable English sentences. If I was describing my family to you, you would know exactly what I was talking about. I would have conveyed meaning. You may also have found this manner of speaking to…
Fronting – Swedish Style Posted by Marcus Cederström on Sep 27, 2012
We’ve talked about adverbials before (Swedish Sentence Adverbials), they are those super handy words and phrases that help modify our sentences. Tibor has done an amazing job writing about some of the different types like Time Adverbs with certain tenses and RUMSADVERBIAL (Adverbs of place). Definitely check them out for more information. Today, I’m going…
Direct vs. Indirect Speech in Swedish Posted by Marcus Cederström on May 30, 2012
Just recently, we received a comment on Facebook (you should really check out our Facebook page. You get new vocab words every day, as well as great discussion and some beautiful pictures of Sweden!) about indirect vs. direct speech asking for a quick explanation. Tibor is working on some really great posts about Swedish syntax…