Posts from June 2009

Hostels in Sweden

Posted by Transparent Language 7 Comments
Jun 15 2009

Yeah, it seems to be the coldest beginning of summer in Sweden in the last 50 years or so! Brrr… The calendar says one thing, but the weather – another.

Still, summer is summer, and as you’ve probably noticed (or know very well, if you’re Swedish) Swedes tend to believe the calendar more than the weather forecast. Why? The calendar is never wrong. And what about the forecasts? Well, we all know how accurate those can be…

However, we won’t let such a petty thing as weather stop us from enjoying our summer, right? But what can stop us from enjoying our summer are hotel prices in Sweden. Let’s face it, they’re high. Or very high. Even with the lower summer rates, it still can be too expensive for many people and families to go out and explore the country.

One alternative is to stay at a hostel instead.

Don’t worry, it’s not just an option for starving backpackers (though a month of exploring Sweden can turn any foreigner into a starving backpacker) anymore. Many hostels have private rooms, some with private bathrooms, even. Sometimes it’s hard to tell when a hotel ends and a hostel begins, because some full-service hotels turn part of their properties into cheaper hostel options.

If you think that as a family you can’t stay in a hostel, you’re wrong. Hostels (at least those in Sweden that I’m familiar with) know that families like to travel, too. Even families with smallish children. Therefore, don’t be surprised if you see many of the hostels here offering “family rooms”. And accepting pets (hey, some families have pets instead of children).

There are two main organizations in Sweden that run their own hostels. One is SVIF (Sveriges Vandrarhem i Förening – Organization of Swedish Youth Hostels) and the other STF (Svenska Turistföreningen – Swedish Tourist Association)

I like them both, and their hostels are pretty much of the same standard, both in terms of comfort, as well as price. Of course, in big cities you can expect to pay more than what you would in the countryside, that goes without saying. But even with that, hostels are a much more affordable option than full-service hotels.

I think that there are many hostel misconceptions, especially among Americans. But in my experience, those who were reluctant to try a Swedish hostel, but soon realized they couldn’t afford to spend every night in a hotel, very quickly came around to the idea of hostels and saw that this type of accommodation in Sweden can be of high standard, clean, safe and super friendly.

Both SVIF and STF have a list of hostels on their websites. And yes, their websites also have English versions. Which organization’s hostel you choose depends solely on you and on where you want to go. For example, in Västerbotten SVIF has only one facility, but STF – four.
And to that you still need to add a whole slew of independent hostel-type accommodation (not belonging to any association). So, in other words, pretty much anywhere you want to go in Sweden, there will be an affordable place to stay nearby.

No excuses! You CAN see Sweden on a budget. True, that budget may be a bit higher than in other European countries, but what other European country can offer you as much as Sweden, huh?

One thing you need to remember – room prices in Sweden are normally given per person, NOT per room! Keep that in mind, and there won’t be any unpleasant surprises later on.
If you plan to stay at a hostel, be sure to call and book ahead. Every year, seemingly all of Sweden and half of the world come up with exactly the same idea of cheap places to stay. This is doubly true in these tough economic times – there will be even more people competing for those affordable bunk beds, especially in the more popular areas.

What else can we do to travel in Sweden without breaking the bank? If you have any tips or suggestions, feel free to comment.

Today’s word:

  • vandrarhem (def. -hemmet, pl. -hem, pl.def. -hemmen) – enkelt ställe där man kan övernatta och laga mat, t.ex. när man är ute och reser – hostel

Passive Voice – part 1

Posted by Transparent Language 3 Comments
Jun 12 2009

Since we’ve been talking about past participles a lot lately (fortunately, we are done with them now, because I was getting bored. And if I’m getting bored, you must be fast asleep at the computer by now), getting started on the passive voice might be a good idea as well.

But first things first. What is the passive (passiv) form? And how does it differ from the regular active (aktiv) stuff? At it’s most basic, you can explain it like that:

  • I am doing something – that’s active, because I am actually sitting and doing it. I am writing this blog post right now.
  • Something is done by me – that’s passive, because all I’m telling you is that this blog post is being written by me right now.

In Swedish it works more or less like that too, except that turning an active sentence into a passive one is much easier than in English. What? You don’t believe me? Take a look:

  • Per körde bilen. – Per drove the car.
  • Bilen kördes av Per. – The car was driven by Per.

See, it wasn’t that hard. I told you!

In the first active voice sentence “bilen” is the object. This object becomes the subject of the passive voice sentence.

In the first sentence “Per” is the subject. This subject becomes something called the “agent” in the passive voice sentence.

And what happened to the verb? A single “s” grew at the end of it. And voila, now you know how to turn active sentences into passive ones in Swedish.

But you know what? Many Swedish passive voice sentences have no agent whatsoever. And I dare say that those “agentless” sentences are the most common ones. Why is that? Because the agent is not really all that important. We are more interested in WHAT is being done, not in who does it.

Here are some examples:

  • Frukost serveras kl. 9 – Breakfast is served at 9AM.
    I couldn’t care less who serves this breakfast, I only want to know what time
  • Öppnas här. – To be opened here (or “Open here” as we would say in English)
    You see this one on packages a lot, telling you how to open them.
  • Bör förbrukas senast (and date here) – Should be used by (and date here)
    You see this one on almost all food and medicine packages, right?

This is probably the most common way in which Swedish passive voice is normally used: to give instructions, to post notices, or to tell you not to do something, like:

  • Får ej vidröras. – Not to be touched (or “Do not touch” as we would say in English).

I’m sure you’ve seen countless examples of this type of passive voice in official correspondence, for example. Letters from Migrationsverket are full of it. So are notices from just about any other governmental agency. They love this type of passive, impersonal voice, especially when telling you what to do.

This is just one way in which the passive form is used in Swedish. We will discuss the rest, along with how to form “s” forms of verbs after midsommar. I think we all deserve a little break from all this recent grammar overload, right?

And yes, it’s MIDSOMMAR next week!!!

Past Participles – Definite Forms

Posted by Transparent Language No Comments
Jun 9 2009

Good news! Our friends at Transparent say that the problem with uploading images and other files has been fixed! Yay! That means that I can go back to writing more interesting posts again! Sometimes, it’s hard to describe a particular feature or place without any photos – I’m sire you know what I mean, right?

But in the meantime, we still have two boring grammar topics to wrap up. So, let’s get started! The sooner we get done with them, the sooner I can show you such exciting places as the longest rope-way in the world, or the world’s largest cheese slicer. :)

OK, so today, we’re tackling the last installment of past participles. Yes, I know, I know, you must be sick of them by now. But like I said, it’s the LAST installment, and then we are done!!!

The one thing that we need to cover to complete this subject is the definite form of past participles. It’s not really that complicated, but I suppose it all depends on how you look at it.

I told you before that past participles behave just like adjectives. You can even say they are adjectives of sorts – verbs modified to describe nouns.

And all adjectives in Swedish have both indefinite and definite forms, even though sometimes it may look otherwise. So don’t let those adjectives trick you!!!

And don’t let those past participles trick you either, OK?

This is how it looks in practice:
Let’s say your car was filthy (mine frequently is) and you’ve just washed it.
Then you can say that you have:

  • en nytvättad bil – a newly washed car

and since “bil” is an “en” noun that’s why you have “en” in front of this phrase.
This is the indefinite form.

Then let’s say you have more than one car, and only one of them is freshly washed. And you partner asks you which car you’ll be taking to visit grandma Ingrid in Uppsala, and you say that:

  • den nytvättade bilen – the newly washed car

Since “bil” is an “en” noun that’s why in its definite form you have “en” (or for some nouns – “n”) attached to the end of it. And that’s why you have “den” instead of “en” opening this phrase.
This is the definite form.

Now let’s talk about houses. I’m not going to paint anything, because we’re moving soon anyway, so who cares. But you might want to paint yours this summer.
In that case you can say you will have:

  • ett nymålat hus – a newly painted house

Since “hus” is an “ett” noun that’s why you have “ett” in front of this phrase.
This is the indefinite form.
But then you are driving around the neighborhood (presumably on your way to see mormor in Uppsala) and you see a house for sale that you like much better than your own. You tell your partner, as it frequently happens with partners they haven’t been paying any attention, so you have to repeat which house in the street you like:

  • det nymålade huset – the newly painted house

Since “hus” is an “ett” noun that’s why in its definite form you have “et” attached to the end of it. And that’s why you have “det” instead of “ett” opening this phrase.
This is the definite form.

Something else happens with past participles that end in “t”, regardless of whether the noun they describe is “en” or “ett”.

For example:

  • en nyköpt lampa – a newly bought lamp (which reminds me I need to go to IKEA and buy one!!!)

This is the indefinite form.
and

  • den nyköpta lampan – the newly bought lamp

This is the definite form.

But it would be foolish to go to IKEA to buy only a lamp, and as it happens, I need a new kitchen table, too. And “bord” as we all well know is an “ett” noun, right?

  • ett nyköpt bord – a newly bought table

This is the indefinite form.
and

  • det nyköpta bordet – the newly bought table.

This is the definite form.

And finally, those pesky irregular past participles, which behave just like your normal garden variety adjectives.
For “en” nouns, it goes like this:

  • en omskriven bok – a rewritten book (indefinite)

and

  • den omskrivna boken – the rewritten book (definite)

And for “ett” nouns:

  • ett omskrivet brev – a rewritten letter (indefinite)

and

  • det omskrivna brevet – the rewritten letter (definite)

And I think this finally concludes our past participle session. (Yay!!!)
Next time we will cover the Swedish passive voice and then we’ll be done with grammar for a long, long while. After all, it’s almost summer (even though you couldn’t tell by the weather outside) and we need to relax and talk about fun, summer things!

You Know You’re From Sweden When… (part 1)

Posted by Transparent Language 8 Comments
Jun 6 2009

Because it is Sveriges nationaldag (Swedish National Day) today, let’s celebrate it with a light-hearted look at “swedishness” at its finest.

This installment is about one Swedish institution we all love and cherish – IKEA.

So, you know you’re from Sweden when…

1. You trust IKEA more than your government.
2. IKEA is your home away from home.
3. You grew up in a house looking exactly as if it would have been in the IKEA catalogue.
4. You fear beyond death not getting the IKEA catalogue if you put up a sign for the postman saying that you don’t want any adverts.
5. You know the names of a multitude of IKEA items.
6. You know how to pronounce these names and sigh when non-Swedes don’t.
7. You live abroad and virtually all your furniture is from IKEA, even if there are still no IKEA stores in the country. (Note the word “still” as in: you are expecting IKEA to one day be found in every single country in the world.)
8. You rarely visited IKEA when you lived back in Sweden but once you are abroad you think visiting IKEA is a small trip back home, which makes your eyes damp and feel even more homesick than before.
9. Going to IKEA abroad, you end up loitering in the Swedish Food Market and buying more food than furniture.
10. While on the one hand you praise the Swedish Food Market, you feel betrayed since the “svenska bullar” they sell are clearly not anything like what you had back home.
11. In addition, you just have to stop and explain to the locals shopping in the Swedish Food Market what they are buying and exactly how delicious it is.
12. When living outside the borders of Sweden you panic when IKEA has sold out of “julmust” before Christmas.

Now it’s your turn – feel free to add your own IKEA points to the list. :)

And tomorrow, if you are eligible to vote in the European parliamentary election, please go and cast your vote – you CAN make a difference.

Happy National Day!!!

Sweden’s National Day – June 6th

Posted by Transparent Language 2 Comments
Jun 3 2009

I’m really tired of all this grammar we’ve been talking about lately. I know we still need to cover a few things regarding past participles, but I’m also sure those buggers must be giving you nightmares by now. So let’s take a little break from grammar this week, shall we?

We have a very fun week coming up in Sweden. Well, it could have been even more fun, but unfortunately the National Day falls on a Saturday this year. Meh, like it’s going to stop us from taking this Friday off too, right?

And on Sunday there’s the election to the European Parliament. Sadly, most people I know have no intention of voting. Personally, I think that’s just wrong. Because a couple of months down the road the same people will be complaining about their European representatives.

But, I wanted to talk about the National Day today. The election can wait.

National Day of Sweden, or the Swedish Flag’s Day (Sveriges nationaldag or svenska flaggans dag) is a national holiday observed in Sweden on June 6th every year. And while it had been observed, more or less, since 1910, the day itself was made a bank holiday only in 2005.

You see, before then it was Annandag Pingst (Pentecost Monday) that was a bank holiday. But on December 14th, 2004 the government decided that enough was enough. People should work on Mondays. And voila, the National Day Holiday was born. The thinking behind it was that June 6th was going to fall on a Saturday or Sunday once in a while thus effectively limiting the number of days off. This of course upset certain unions and many people.

But come June 6th 2009 and those people realized that nobody’s going to stop them from taking the Friday before off too and having a long weekend anyway. One way or another, the delicate balance of the days off has to be preserved, right?

So, do you have any special plans for this weekend? And if you are in Europe, are you going to vote on Sunday?

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