About 15 years ago, I watched a lot of Comedy Central. And for whatever reason, a song by a guy named Rob Paravonian stuck with me. It\u2019s about life. It\u2019s about growing up. It\u2019s about soul searching. And most important, it\u2019s about particle board.<\/p>\n
The chorus begins \u201cParticle board\/All the furniture I own is made of particle board.\u201d But none of this matters really, because he wasn\u2019t singing in Swedish and he wasn\u2019t singing about Swedish. That being said, as I began teaching Swedish, I had to start talking about particle verbs. And without fail, every time I replace that one word into the song: \u201cParticle verbs\/All the sentences I make are made of particle verbs.\u201d<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s talk about particle verbs. Technically, they\u2019re called phrasal verbs and include prepositional verbs and particle verbs. If the phrasal verb uses a particle, it\u2019s called a particle verb; if it uses a preposition, yup, you guessed it, it\u2019s called a prepositional verb.<\/p>\n
Phrasal verbs are very handy. They\u2019re also very much a pain when learning a new language. When creating a phrasal verb, you\u2019re combining a verb with a preposition or particle. In doing so, you\u2019ve created something completely different than the expected meaning of the two words. Does that make any sense? Let\u2019s take a look at an English example first: Look is our verb here and after is our preposition, which gives us a phrasal verb meaning take care of.<\/p>\n Another example: Hanging is our verb, out is our particle, and our phrasal verb means to frequent or to spend time with.<\/p>\n Of course, if we separated those words and expected to understand the meaning of the sentence, we might be a bit confused. Hang out? What are we hanging? And where are we hanging it?<\/p>\n In Swedish, these are known as \u201cpartikelverb<\/em>\u201d and the stress is going to be on the particle, not the verb. So now that you know a bit more about phrasal verbs, let\u2019s take a look at one set of phrasal verbs. While you can obviously group phrasal verbs by the particle or preposition, I\u2019ve decided to focus on the verb. Today\u2019s phrasal verb? Att k\u00e4nna<\/em>. To feel.<\/p>\n Here are five\u00a0Swedish phrasal verbs that use the verb k\u00e4nna<\/em>: Let\u2019s use a few of those partikelverb<\/em> in some sentences:<\/p>\n \u201dSpegeln ser bara mitt senaste ansikte, jag k\u00e4nner av<\/strong> alla mina tidigare<\/em>.\u201d \u201cThe mirror only sees my latest face, I experience all of my earlier ones.\u201d (That\u2019s a line from Tomas Transtr\u00f6mer, by the way).<\/p>\n Han k\u00e4nde<\/strong> inte igen<\/strong> mig. <\/em>He didn\u2019t recognize me.<\/p>\n Vill du k\u00e4nna p\u00e5<\/strong> hur det \u00e4r att vara student hos oss? <\/em>Do you want to try\/see what it\u2019s like to be a student with us?<\/p>\n Jag k\u00e4nde p\u00e5 mig<\/strong> att han skulle dumpa mig.<\/em> I had a feeling he was going to dump me.<\/p>\n Hon k\u00e4nner till<\/strong> m\u00e5nga roliga sk\u00e4mt.<\/em> She knows a lot of funny jokes.<\/p>\n Good luck!<\/p>\n
\nSamantha looked after<\/strong> my fish while I was away.<\/p>\n
\nWe were just hanging out<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
\nk\u00e4nna av<\/em>: to experience something
\nk\u00e4nna igen<\/em>: to recognize
\nk\u00e4nna p\u00e5<\/em>: to try something
\nk\u00e4nna p\u00e5 sig<\/em>: to have an intuition\/feeling about something
\nk\u00e4nna till<\/em>: to know of something<\/p>\n