I have a brother. He lives in Sweden. I have another brother. He lives in the US.<\/p>\n
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 be very stilted. Instead of starting a new sentence each time I wanted to give you new information about my brother and continuing this somewhat stilted manner of speech, I might instead use a relative pronoun. Like \u201cwho\u201d:
\nI have a brother WHO lives in Sweden. I have another brother WHO lives in the US.<\/p>\n
That one simple word cut four sentences down to two and gave it a much better flow. We can do the exact same thing in Swedish. And we will.<\/p>\n
When we first start learning Swedish, we are using these simple sentences. And it\u2019s something that is necessary and useful. But as we continue to learn the language, frustration often sets in as we are limited by what we can and can\u2019t say. Our language feels stilted. And it probably is. Let\u2019s describe someone else\u2019s family then in that classic (yet choppy) way: In Swedish, we can use som<\/em> as a relative pronoun. It takes the place of \u201cwho\u201d in English (and \u201cthat\u201d and \u201cwhich\u201d for that matter) and refers back to the noun in the first sentence. So let\u2019s take those choppy sentences and use a relative pronoun to make it flow just a little bit better: Ta da! It\u2019s that easy. What we\u2019ve done from a grammatical standpoint is take two main clauses (Jag har en bror. Han bor i Sverige<\/em>) and instead created one main clause and one relative or sub clause. Som<\/em> doesn\u2019t change. It is going to be som<\/em> regardless of the gender or plurality of the noun we are referring back to. For example: Let\u2019s take a look at a few more examples: You\u2019ll notice that in each of these sentences, som<\/em> refers back to the noun in the main clause (en penna<\/em>, en hast<\/em>, en kvinna<\/em>) and helps to give us more information about the noun.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s your turn. Write a sentence or two using som<\/em> in the comments below. Lycka till<\/em>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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…<\/p>\n
\nJag har en bror. Han bor i Sverige. Jag har en syster. Hon \u00e4r l\u00e4rare.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nJag har en bror SOM bor i Sverige. Jag har en syster SOM \u00e4r l\u00e4rare.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nHan bor i ett hus SOM \u00e4r stort<\/em>. \u2013 Hus<\/em> is of course an ett<\/em> word, but you\u2019ll notice som<\/em> doesn\u2019t change.
\nHon har en hund SOM \u00e4r stor<\/em>. \u2013 Hund<\/em> is an en<\/em> word, but, again, som<\/em> doesn\u2019t change.
\nHan bakar kakor SOM \u00e4r stora<\/em>. \u2013 Kakor<\/em> is plural, but, no surprise here, som<\/em> doesn\u2019t change.<\/p>\n
\nHan skriver med en penna SOM han fick fr\u00e5n l\u00e4raren.
\n<\/em>Hon rider en h\u00e4st SOM heter Jolly Jumper.
\n<\/em>Hon \u00e4r gift med en kvinna SOM \u00e4r 26 \u00e5r gammal.<\/em><\/p>\n