Posts under Swedish Language

What Time Is It?

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Aug
7
2009

About an hour ago I was struggling to explain to someone how to say what time it is. In Swedish naturally.

You see, again, it’s one of those things that is deceptively easy on the surface and so similar to English that we tend to forget that there are a couple of bits that are different. Very different in fact.

First of all, what started this whole discussion was when my husband asked me what “Hur dags?” meant. He thought it had something to do with how the day was going. (Yes, shame on me, the guy speaks only two words of Swedish and relies on me for the rest).

But no, “hur dags?” simply means – “at what time?” And then the guy got all stressed out that the word “time” –“tid” wasn’t even in this phrase. To placate him, I said there is another expression, which starts with “vilken tid” and means something like “when”.

And then, very surprisingly, the guy announced that he decided to master telling the time. In Swedish naturally. So we sat down and I very patiently started to explain:

To ask what time it is, you say this:

  • Hur mycket är klockan?

or

  • Vad är klockan?

And here are some possible answers:

  • klockan 9 (kl. 9:00) – 9 o’clock.
  • halv nio – half past eight – 8:30 (yeah, it gets goofy here)
  • tio över nio – ten past nine – 9:10
  • tio i nio – ten till/to nine – 8:50

and here it gets really fun:

  • fem över halv nio – twenty five till/to nine – 8:35, but in Swedish it’s more like “five past half to nine”
  • fem i halv nio – twenty five past eight – 8:25, but again, Swedish it’s literally “five till half to nine”

Fun, isn’t it?
Personally, I hate this way of saying what time it is and normally stick with the military style of 9:10, 8:50, 8:30 and so on. It works just as well and people understand you just fine.

Here are some other handy time-related phrases:

  • Klockan går fem minuter före. – the clock/watch is five minutes fast.
  • Klockan går fem minuter efter. – the clock/watch is five minutes slow.
  • Min klocka går fel. – my watch is wrong (shows wrong time)
  • Klockan slår tolv. – the clock strikes twelve (noon/midnight)

And now that you know how to tell the time in Swedish, you have no more excuses to be late. And that I suspect is the secret reason why my guy will give up on learning these useful phrases in about 3 minutes. :)

 
Posted under Swedish Language, Vocabulary
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Ordinal Numbers - Ordningstal

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jul
25
2009

Let’s talk about numbers today.

I know, I know, another boring topic. But unfortunately, an important topic. And judging from the number of mistakes I hear when it comes to numbers (yes, I’m trying to be clever here), also a necessary one.

You see, Swedish numbers appear to be deceptively similar to English. So similar, in fact, that some people think they can just follow the English pattern and all will be fine. Well, in reality, it’s not quite that simple – and I’m talking here about ordinal numbers, of course.

But since I’ve been asked to explain some of the terms I use on this blog as I go along, let’s cover the basics first.
Cardinal numbers (grundtal) are used for counting – they show quantity. In other words, they are your garden variety numbers you most likely learned first:

  • 1-    ett, en
  • 2-    två
  • 3-    tre
  • 4-    fyra

and so on.

And then come ordinal numbers (ordningstal)– they are those pesky little things that show the order of things, as in:

  • 1st – första
  • 2nd – andra
  • 3rd – tredje
  • 4th – fjärde
  • 5th - femte
  • 6th - sjätte
  • 7th - sjunde
  • 8th - åttonde
  • 9th - nionde
  • 10th – tionde

Seems very basic, isn’t it? But you need to look at them carefully. What’s a more or less regular ordinal number in English, such as 4th, is a goofy irregular-looking “fjärde” in Swedish. Now, how did they come up with this one from “fyra”, huh?

It gets even goofier when you reach 6 – “sex” in Swedish (get your mind out of the gutter, OK? This is numbers we’re talking about here). The ordinal version of “sex” is “sjätte” (sixth), NOT sexte.

Now you see that Swedish ordinals are a bit more irregular than their English equivalents – a fact that many beginning learners tend to forget. Add to that the sometimes difficult pronunciation of sjätte and sjunde (though that depends on the region) and you can understand why ordinal numbers can be a bit frustrating. But remember – the more you use them, the easier they become!

 
Posted under Grammar, Swedish Language
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Svenska för invandrare - Swedish for Immigrants Program

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jul
18
2009

So, how’s your summer coming along? Having fun? I know that quite a few of you are contemplating a post-summer move to Sweden and have many questions regarding this process. I’ve already started covering some of the most basic issues, most recently – how to read apartment ads, and a while back there was a post about getting personnummer.

But the question that keeps coming back time and time again is “Once in Sweden how do I sign up for Swedish classes?”

Well, that depends on in which kommun you are going to live. Why? Different kommuner have different ways of managing their SFI programs. What’s SFI, I hear you ask? Svenska För Invandrare – Swedish for immigrants program.

So, how does it work and where do I sign up, I hear you ask?

OK, let’s take it one by one.

It works like this – All legal immigrants who have personnummer and are registered (folkbokföring) in their kommun are eligible for free Swedish classes in that kommun.

Now, because SFI works differently in different kommuner, you have to get all the details regarding those classes directly from your city office.

In some towns, SFI is a separate school and has its own teachers. In some cities the SFI program is run by Folkuniversitetet (and here you have to be careful not to get confused, because in many cities FU offers its own Swedish language classes for which you have to pay, quite much, actually), and in some places SFI is handled by Komvux (adult education school). So yeah, I can’t really tell you how it is where you’re going to live.

The quality of Swedish language instruction you will get at SFI also varies greatly from kommun to kommun. It might be excellent in one place and beyond dismal somewhere else. There are many foreigners who praise SFI and just as many who have nothing good to say about the system. So it all depends. And as in most schools, it depends on two main factors: funding and teachers. And of those two, I’d say that funding is the most important one. You can have the best teachers in the world, but they can only do so much without any money.

At some SFI schools you might be asked to buy your own books, and at others you will get a daily xeroxed handout. At some SFI schools you will have a library and a computer lab, and at others – zip, zilch, nada.

But in general, what can you expect when signing up for SFI? First, someone should check your current Swedish ability and based on that assign you to the appropriate class. Second, you’ll get put on a waiting list for that class and go home. Then, when a space becomes available, you’ll get either a letter or a phone call telling you to show up for school. But don’t trust the system, that phone call or letter may never come, if you are not being persistent. I’ve heard of people waiting patiently, only to be told months later that “Well, you never contacted us, so we thought you were no longer interested.”

In some SFIs there might not be any initial division between the levels – everybody gets more or less dumped into one big class. So you might have people who don’t know how to read and write in their mother language and people with master’s degrees from their home countries. After a few weeks, the teachers usually sort out who needs to go where.

Basically, SFI has four levels: A, B, C and D. In reality, most moderately intelligent people who know how to spell their own name start at level B, then very quickly move to level C. There is, or at least – should be, a test between levels C and D. And level D ends with a “big” national test. Don’t worry, it’s not all that hard to get to level D and pass that test. It’s not meant to get you fluent in Swedish, but merely - functional. After completing level D and passing that test, you should be able to communicate in Swedish, that’s it. It gives you the sort of communicative skills required to hold down a simple job.

If you want to, for example go to university and study in Swedish, you need to continue with your Swedish education. But we’ll cover that subject another time.

Now, if any of you have any interesting SFI stories, please, by all means, share them in the comments section!

 
Posted under Swedish Language
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To Learn Grammar or Not? That is the Question!

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jul
15
2009

Recently I’ve been having quite a lot of discussions about grammar. I don’t know why – it just simply started to come up in conversations all of a sudden. And you’d think that grammar would be a sure conversation killer, right? After all, who wants to discuss the finer points of subordinate clauses in a social setting? But guess what? People don’t really mind talking about grammar and such conversations can get quite heated actually. Especially so when it comes to foreign languages.

Lately, I’ve participated in several such discussion, and inevitably the topic, regardless of what it was at the beginning of the conversation, always morphs into something like: “Why do we need to learn all this stupid grammar when studying foreign languages?” and “Do babies learn grammar when THEY learn to speak?” and “Speaking is more important than proper grammatical constructions.” And so on… You get the idea.

Such discussions are giving me a headache. Really. You see, I’m not a fan of grammar. In fact, I quite despise the whole issue, and frankly, if I could I would never even open a single grammar textbook in my life.

But I also understand that grammar is important. Whether we like it or not, having at least some basic idea of the quirks and rules of the foreign language one is learning is essential. Otherwise, we end up speaking that language like a bunch of idiots.

And the questions of: “what is more important – speaking or grammar?” and “why should we study grammar if babies learning to speak never have to deal with stuff like possessive pronouns or passive voice?” are quite pointless. At least they are to me.

I’m no linguist, but even I have enough common sense to see that we, as adults, are do not learn foreign languages the way babies learn their native language. And hence, speaking without any grammatical backbone whatsoever can only get us so far (and it won’t be very far - trust me, I’ve been there and done that). I think the post about “sin, sitt, sina” kind of illustrates what I’m talking about here.

So yes, if you are just interested in the most basic communication skills, then sure - you can survive those two weeks in a foreign country while butchering the local lingo. But if you want to get to know the language and the whole mentality that comes with speaking it on a daily basis, then unfortunately, you have no choice but to grab a grammar book and study it every so often.

Otherwise how would you know that a possessive pronoun in English often corresponds to the definite article in Swedish, huh?

  • Jag måste tavätta håret. - I must wash my hair.
  • Han stoppade handen i fickan. - He put his hand in his pocket.
  • Hon tappade balansen. - She lost her balance.

Now that you know what I think about it, please tell me your opinion – is grammar important or not? And what are some of your best ways to learn Swedish grammar?

 
Posted under Swedish Language
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How to Read Apartment Rental Ads

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jul
7
2009

I haven’t forgotten about the book contest! Don’t worry. I am just waiting for the weekend – I think it will be more festive to announce the winner then.

In the meantime, I want to talk about something that seemed very puzzling to one of my friends. And because it also happens to be a very practical bit of information, I thought it would be a good idea to go over it in a special blog entry.

You see, my friend is not in Sweden right now, but that is not stopping her from looking for an apartment in the town she is going to live (I don’t remember where exactly she’s moving to, all I know is that she’s looking for a place somewhere down south). Long-distance apartment hunting is never easy. Heck, it’s not easy when you are doing it right there and then in person! Now imagine trying to do it in a language that you have just started to learn very recently. Not fun at all.

So, let’s go over some points that might make this process a bit less confusing.

One thing that my friend wanted to know was: “Anna, what’s a second-hand apartment? Does that mean that the apartment is not new? That it has been lived in before?”

Hmmm… I can see how someone might have gotten this idea, because the literal translation of “andra hand lägenhet” is indeed a “second hand apartment”. But when talking about apartments, “andra hand” simply means “a sublet”. So, someone owns an apartment and wants to sublet it. This is called “hyra ut i andra hand”, or “andra hand” for short.

So, are there “första hand” apartments? Sure there are! This type of apartment is when you rent (or buy) directly from a housing company.

Another thing that you may notice when reading Swedish rental ads is something like this “1 rok” or “2 rok”.
“Rok” simply means “rum och kök” – room and kitchen.

So, if you see an ad listing “2 rok”, you know the apartment will have 2 rooms and a kitchen. This would most likely be what in the US we call a “1 bdr”. A one bedroom apartment that has a living room and a kitchen. In Sweden, we just count the total number of rooms, regardless of whether they are living rooms, dining rooms or bedrooms. This is something worth remembering, because there is nothing worse than finding out later on that what you thought was a two-bedroom apartment is actually a one bedroom plus living room type of place. I actually know of at least one foreign expat who made that mistake. That lady also had two kids, so you can imagine how unhappy she was when she saw what “2 rok” actually meant.

Frequently, you will also see it abbreviated to “2:an” – that also means that the place has two rooms plus a kitchen.

And finally the most important word of them all (just so you’ll know what you’re renting):

  • lägenhet (def. lägenheten, pl. lägenheter, pl. def. lägenheterna) – apartment (or flat as they call it in some parts of the world).

I am no expert when it comes to renting apartments, but if you remember these basics you should manage to get by just fine. And I hope this short explanation will be useful to those of you, who like my friend, are trying to sort out a place to live in Sweden BEFORE actually moving to the country. Good luck! I know it’s not easy. Especially in Stockholm.

 
Posted under Swedish Language, Vocabulary
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