It\u2019s 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\u2019ve been speaking both of those languages for a lot of years. A lot of teachers might cringe at what I\u2019m about to write because some people believe you should avoid saying that things you\u2019re teaching are difficult, but there\u2019s no point in lying: prepositions are hard and they never seem to have any rules.<\/p>\n
Of course, that\u2019s not entirely true. The rule part at least. A while back, we published a post titled How fast can you eat 25 hotdogs? In Swedish<\/a>. It gave you a few questions to ask yourself to help guide your preposition use when dealing with frequency. How fast? How long? How often? One way of conquering your fears is to face them. And then bore them into submission. So today, we\u2019re going to face prepositions. Actually, we\u2019re just going to face one preposition in particular. But it\u2019s a very common one: TILL<\/em>!<\/p>\n There are a lot of different ways till<\/em> can be used (and even more here that won\u2019t make this list), but this a start:<\/p>\n To indicate movement: The same can be said if you decide to walk to the library: But that\u2019s the easy part of till<\/em>. It does so much more.<\/p>\n To indicate a new owner using an indirect object: To indicate a future time period: A couple of things to keep in mind here: first, you might hear people say tills<\/em> in these cases instead of till<\/em>. That\u2019s totally acceptable. When those two words are used as prepositions, they are considered synonyms. Second, don\u2019t use till<\/em> when discussing the clock. If it is 10:55 and you want to say that there are five minutes until 11 you say: klockan \u00e4r fem i elva<\/em>. I<\/em> is the preposition you want there.<\/p>\n To indicate a connection to something or togetherness: So there are four of the ways you can use the preposition till<\/em>. You can also use till in a few other instances, to show possession, for example: Or in a prepositional phrase like, for example, you use till<\/em> also. Till exempel<\/em> = for example. Remember, you can read about abbreviations on this post titled 14 Swedish Abbreviations You Need to Know<\/a>, where you\u2019ll learn that the abbreviation for till exempel<\/em> is t.ex<\/em>.<\/p>\n And now that we\u2019ve faced our fear of prepositions, and probably bored ourselves a bit along the way, we don\u2019t have to be as afraid of the preposition till<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s 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\u2019ve been speaking both of those languages for a lot of years. A lot of teachers…<\/p>\n
\nHur snabbt<\/em>, which is answered with the preposition p\u00e5<\/em>.
\nHur l\u00e4nge<\/em>, which is answered with the preposition i<\/em> or no preposition at all.
\nHur ofta<\/em>, which is answered with the preposition om<\/em> or i<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/strong>Till usually translates pretty easily as to, as in I\u2019m moving to Sweden. There\u2019s motion here. You\u2019re moving TO Sweden:
\nJag flyttar till Sverige<\/em>. I\u2019m moving to Sweden.<\/p>\n
\nJag g\u00e5r till biblioteket<\/em>. I\u2019m walking to the library.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Till<\/em> can also be used as a preposition with an indirect object. Indirect objects are those objects that are receiving the direct object. If your friend is sending you a postcard from Sweden, your friend is the subject, the postcard is the direct object, and you are the indirect object. In these cases, till<\/em> usually translates as to or even for:
\nMin v\u00e4n skickade ett vykort till mig<\/em>. My friend sent a postcard to me.
\nGe den till mig<\/em>. Give it to me.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Till<\/em> can also be used when discussing time periods. You can often translate till<\/em> as either until or for depending on what you’re trying to say. Think about things that are going to happen in the future with this preposition:
\nHon kommer hem till jul.<\/em>\u00a0She’s coming home for Christmas.
\nJag ska jobba till den 1 januari<\/em>. I\u2019m going to work until January 1.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>This can be a tricky one, but till<\/em> is used when you need almond milk for your cereal or a sandwich for lunch. It can sometimes be translated as with or for:
\nKan jag f\u00e5 mandelmj\u00f6lk till flingorna?<\/em> Can I have almond milk with my cereal?
\nJag vill ha en macka till lunch idag<\/em>. I want a sandwich for lunch today.<\/p>\n
\nHan \u00e4r en kollega till mig<\/em>. He\u2019s a colleague of mine.<\/p>\n