Posts in June 2009

Swedish Possessive Pronouns

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jun
30
2009

I have never suspected that possessive pronouns (possessiva pronomen) can be the cause of so many emails! In my post about birthdays, I used a couple of possessive pronouns, and seemingly all of you who had my email address got in touch saying something along those lines “Yo Anna, if you are going to use some goofy examples, don’t you think it would be a good idea to explain first why sometimes ‘din’ is ‘ditt’ or ‘dina’? Because we are not, like, you know, mind readers and stuff.”

Ahhh… Those Swedish personal pronouns… They sure are fun! And don’t worry, they are not as complicated as you think. And by the way, I think I did cover them somewhere on this blog last year.

But since your wish is my command, let’s review those bits, because you are right, they are important, and getting them right makes all the difference between sounding like an idiot and speaking like someone who actually cared enough to learn it properly.

In English, it’s straightforward and easy. Whether you are talking about “my car” or “my children” – “my” stays the same, no matter what.

In Swedish, it’s a bit more involved than that, simply because Swedish nouns are divided into “en” and “ett”. And because most possessive pronouns behave just like adjectives, they need to be treated like adjectives. And hence, most of them get the “t” ending when accompanying “ett” nouns and “a” ending for plural nouns.

Take a look:

  • min bil – my car

but

  • mitt hus – my house

and

  • mina skor – my shoes

Unfortunately, not all possessive pronouns follow this simple pattern. If they did, our lives would be just too easy, right?

Here’s one example:

  • hans katt – his cat

and

  • hans hus – his house

and

  • hans pengar – his money (money is plural in Swedish)

And unfortunately, this one is not the only one. There’s more of them pesky little buggers who don’t like to conform.

Here is the complete table of possessive pronouns:

  • my – min – mitt – mina
  • your (singular) – din – ditt –dina
  • his – hans – hans – hans
  • her – hennes – hennes – hennes
  • its – dess – dess – dess
  • our – vår – vårt – våra
  • your (plural) – er – ert – era
  • their – deras – deras – deras

“Dess” is the possessive pronoun of “den” and “det” but it’s not used very much. Normally, the concept of “its” is expressed in some other way, like for example:
Jag har en katt. – I have a cat.
But instead of saying “Dess päls är vit.” – Its fur (coat) it white.
We would rather say
Den har vit päls. – It has white fur (coat).

There is also a mysterious (at least mysterious to many Swedish learners) pronoun “sin” but I think we should cover it in its very own special post.

PS. Today is the LAST DAY to enter my Midsommar Book Contest!!! The deadline is midnight EST (Eastern Standard Time in the US). So don’t miss out!!! :)

Scroll a few posts back to get the details!

 
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Interesting Places - Linbana in Norsjö

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jun
27
2009

A week ago the season started at one of my favorite tourist attractions in Sweden. And I hear you groan… If it’s one of Anna’s favorite attractions it must be somewhere up north. Ridiculously up north. Hard to get to. Rather obscure. Infested with mosquitoes. Filled with blueberries. And surrounded by wild nature. Yep. You’re right. On all accounts, except for the “ridiculously up north” bit. The place I’m going to tell you about today is moderately up north by Swedish standards. It’s practically southern Lappland. And that’s practically central Sweden if you squint at the map at just the right angle.

And the attraction I’m talking about? Världens Längsta Linbana (the world’s longest ropeway) in Norsjö. Well, technically it’s between Örträsk and Mensträsk, but since nobody’s ever heard about those places, we’ll stick with Norsjö – much easier to find on the map.

What’s the longest ropeway in the world doing in the woods, you might ask? Hmmm… It’s a long story.

It started with a mine (gold, silver, copper, zinc, and lead) in Kristineberg. Back in the olden days, the ore had been transported to Boliden by road – about 100 kilometers (or 10 Swedish miles). But then WW2 happened and with it came severe shortages of fuel and rubber. In other words, road transport became pretty much impossible. But the world still needed that ore. And even more so than before. The problem of how to transport it to the coast was solved in a rather ingenious way.

“Hey, let’s build a ropeway,” someone said. And the rest is history.

And boy, did they build a ropeway, or what? 96 kilometers of it. Through the woods and over the lakes. It took 1500 men two years to finish it.

So how did they transport that ore using a ropeway? They simply loaded it into buckets and moved those buckets on a cable. Kind of like that:

These days 13 kilometers of this ropeway are used for moving tourists. Not in buckets, of course (but hey, now THAT would be an attraction, don’t you think?), but in comfortable cabins. The trip takes about an hour and a half and you can even order lunch. Or bring your own picnic along. And a camera – don’t forget about the camera!

And the best part? If you go towards the end of the season, you can see all the best hjortron patches from the air!

Yeah, yeah, nice bucket of hjortron. (Seen from the air).

And here’s the official website of Världens Längsta Linbana with all the relevant info. Enjoy!

 
Posted under Culture, Geography
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Happy Birthday Swedish Blog!

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jun
24
2009

I don’t know if you’ve noticed (because I must say it has totally escaped even me) that our little Swedish Blog is one year old now! Can you believe it? I’m not sure about you, but somehow this fact is enough to put a big smile on my face.

You’ve survived one whole year with me! And frankly, I couldn’t have done it without you. Your comments, support, suggestions, and just plain being there and reading what I have to say ten times a month is more than what any blogger could have asked for. Because what’s a blog good for if no one ever reads it, right?

So, while we’re on the subject of age, let’s learn how to say how old we are in Swedish (well, not “we” because you’re not supposed to ask a lady’s age, but just in general) , OK?

  • Swedish Blog är ett år (gammal). – Swedish Blog is one year old.

See? It’s easy. Very similar to English. That final “gammal” is not even necessary. Just like we would say in English that someone is (for example) 14, with “years” and “old” being understood and omitted.

Same in Swedish. You could say that:

  • Han är 14 år. - He is 14. And that’s good enough.

Notice anything interesting about that final “år”? Even though it looks like a singular noun, in reality it’s not.

Take a look:

  • år (def. året, pl. år, pl. def. åren) - 365 dagar * - year

This is the kind of stuff that happens with many “ett” nouns, and unfortunately, there’s no way around it - you just need to learn it.
And how do we ask about someone’s age?

  • Hur gammal är du? – How old are you?

And our young friend would answer:

  • Jag är 14 år. - I am fourteen.

But what happens if the object about whose age we are inquiring happens to be an “ett” noun? Then of course, instead of “gammal”, we have to say “gammalt”.

  • Hur gammalt är ditt barn? – How old is your child?

“Barn” is an “ett” noun, and so the adjective “gammal” acquired one “t” at the end.

But wait a sec. Now take a look at this:

  • Hur gamla är dina barn? – How old are your children?

“Barn” is one of those pesky nouns, just like “år”, that look the same in both indefinite singular and plural forms. But because “gammal” morphed into “gamla”, we know we are talking about more than one of your children here.

And this is how a simple birthday celebration turned into a grammar lesson. Ouch!

Har den äran på födelsedagen, Swedish Blog! – Happy Birthday Swedish Blog!

* A year with 366 days is called “skottår”.

PS. Even though it’s after Midsommar, it’s not too late to enter my Midsommar Swedish book contest!!! If you a reader from a country other than Sweden where Swedish books are hard to come by, all you need to do is to leave a comment under this post telling me IN SWEDISH why I should send the book to YOU (and not to someone else)! Good luck!!!

 
Posted under Grammar, Swedish Language
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Bus Travel in Sweden

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jun
22
2009

To continue with our theme of summer travels in Sweden, today let’s talk a little about different modes of transport that are available to you when vacationing in this lovely country. I know I covered air travel once before, and because not that much has changed since then (except perhaps for a few airlines going under), we’ll leave that for now and continue with a more budget-friendly option - such as traveling by bus. Hey, we’re in the midst of a global recession, and I don’t know about you, but for me “cheap” is the word of this summer season.

When it comes to travel, you can’t get any cheaper than going by bus.

Well, yes, I suppose there are even cheaper ways to travel – like buying your own donkey, but somehow I can’t imagine it would work very well in a country like Sweden. Though again, you never know. I think a couple of years ago there was a guy who traveled across Scandinavia on a mule. Anyway… let’s stick to buses for now. The crisis is bad but not THAT bad just yet.

I admit it, I like buses. And it’s not just because I’m a cheapskate. If you ride a bus during the day, you get to see a whole bunch of places and amazing scenery that otherwise you wouldn’t even know existed. One summer, just for the heck of it, I rode buses all the way from Kiruna to Stockholm.
As a bus traveler, I am partial to länstrafik buses. Those are the massive, mostly blue, mostly doubledeckers plowing the Swedish “outback”. Needless to say, I like to sit upstairs and watch the world go by as we zoom to Mo i Rana in Norway, or to Haparanda on the Finnish border. In many places in northern Sweden, those länstrafik buses will be your only choice, and unfortunately, their prices will also reflect this fact.

The further south you go, your options in bus travel increase tremendously. Here are a few bus companies ready to take you almost anywhere in Sweden and beyond.

Yes, this is “bus” with only one “s”. From Stockholm, this company can take you to Göteborg, Oslo, Malmö and many other destinations in between. Unfortunately, their website is only in Swedish.

I know this provider very well, I’ve spent many a long night (and day) on their buses going between Umeå and Stockholm. This is probably the cheapest option on this particular route, and those buses are always filled up with student crowds commuting to and from UMU. What’s nice about Ybuss is that they also stop at Arlanda airport, and hence provide a very attractive alternative for those in Norrland connecting to charter flights.

Not exactly a summer photo, I know, but this just goes to show you that buses in Sweden run year-round, even in conditions that would cripple traffic in most other countries.

is in cahoots with Ybuss these days, and thanks to that you can have a more or less seamless travel experience all the way down to Köpenhamn and beyond. What’s good about Swebus is that their website is multi-lingual.

is a company previously known as Säfflebussen and you will frequently hear folks refering to it by its old name. No worries, it’s one and the same.

Covers southern Sweden, as well as Oslo and Kastrup (that’s the international airport in Copenhagen).

again mostly southern Sweden, but it goes as far north as Sundsvall.

This is another one of my favorites.

This one is a long-distance institution in its own right. It can take you all the way from Haparanda (or rather Torneå – as its Finnish twin is known in Swedish) to Stockholm for only 570 SEK one way (no student discount on this route).

One thing to keep in mind when trying to book bus tickets on-line. Some bus websites accept search queries without Swedish letters å, ö, and ä, but many do not (the ones that don’t have a drop down box with destinations), so don’t get frustrated when the search results look like total nonsense. Just type in your search parameters again using Swedish letters and you will be on your way in no time.

Happy travels (by bus)!!!

 
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Midsommar Book Contest!

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jun
18
2009

It’s almost summer! I am saying “almost”, because we all know that the summer season officially starts with midsommar. And speaking of midsommar – what are your plans?
I will spend the occasion in Vancouver, actually, I’m on my way there right now - I’m sitting at the airport while typing this.

But, it’s not airports I wanted to talk about today.

To celebrate the beginning of summer, I have something special planned for you.

I don’t know about you, but for me it just wouldn’t be summer without a dorky summer pop hit, beach and summer reading. You just can’t have a summer break and NOT read a funny, lighthearted book. Do you agree?

And I remember how some of you complained about how hard it is to get Swedish books abroad.

So, I’m going to help you out a bit with this book problem! To celebrate the beginning of summer, I thought a little something special was in order.

And tah-dah! We have our first annual Swedish Blog midsommar book contest.
The book you can win is “Populärmusik från Vittula” by Mikael Niemi. Which just happens to be one of my most favorite books, ever.

It was the winner of the August Prize for the best Swedish novel of 2000 (vinnare av Augustpriset som bästa svenska roman 2000). So, you can say it’s almost a classic.

I picked this book not because I have an extra copy sitting around (thought that’s true, too) but because of its location – a lovely little town called Pajala in the north of Sweden. And you know how much I love the far north! The rest of Sweden is really, well, the rest, if you live in the north.

This book has been translated into English, so if you want to read along with an English version, that’s possible, too. That’s another reason why I decided to give away this particular book, and not another. I want to make this Swedish reading experience as fun for you as possible, so even if you’re not confident you can manage all the way through in Swedish, you can follow along in English when you get tired.

OK, enough of me talking.
Do you want to win it?
All you need to do is to tell me in the comments section, på svenska, in 15 words or less, why I should send this book to you (and not to someone else). The deadline - June 30th.

Easy? Very!
Just remember when you leave your comment to enter a valid email address, it won’t be seen by other blog readers, but it’s visible on my end, and this is the email address, I will use to contact you, OK? Don’t leave your mailing address in the comment - I will ask you for it when my distinguished panel of judges (consisting of me, myself and I) selects the winner.

Oh, and one more thing – the contest is open only to subscribed readers of this blog (to subscribe click in the box to the right - it means that you will be getting new Swedish Blog posts by email) from countries other than Sweden. I know, I know, it doesn’t seem fair. But you guys in Sweden can just saunter down to your local library and read all summer long.

Trevlig midsommar!!!

 
Posted under Culture, Swedish Language
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