Posts tagged w/ Grammar

Particles of Position and Direction

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Sep
5
2009

Uhuh, I knew this day would come. I knew that sooner or later someone would email me asking about the difference between “hemma” and “hem” and “hemifrån”. “Ute” and “ut”, and “inne” and “in”. Yeah, you get the picture…

It’s not very exciting stuff (hey, I’d much rather write about the lovely city of Lund), I know, I know, but essential nonetheless.

So what’s the deal with those particles?
Well, just like in English, in Swedish there’s a whole bunch of little words that are used to denote position (“where?”) and direction (“where to?” and “where from?”).

The two bits that often get confused by people learning Swedish are the ones that describe “where?” and “where to?” Why? They translate into English more or less as the same words.

So let’s take a closer look at them.

Position    –       Direction:
Where? –        Where to?        –         Where from?

  • hemma (at home) – hem (home) – hemifrån (from home)
  • borta (away) – bort (away) – bortifrån (from a long way away)
  • inne (inside, indoors) – in (in, inside, indoors) – inifrån (from inside)
  • ute (outside, outdoors) – ut (out, outside, outdoors) – utifrån (from outside)
  • uppe (up [there]) – upp (up) – uppifrån (from above)
  • nere (down [there]) – ner, ned (down) – nerifrån (from below)
  • frame (in front [here]) – fram (forward, on) – framifrån (from the front)

Sven är hemma nu. – Sven is at home now.
Åsa måste gå hemifrån kl. 8 varje morgon. – Åsa has to leave home at 8 every morning.
Jag kommer hem kl. 7. – I get home at 7.

But wait, that’s not all.
Let’s say you are talking about places on a map. Then, just like you would in English, you use uppe (up) and nere (down) to describe places north and south of where you are (unless of course, you’re talking about Maine, which is always “down east” no matter where you are).

De bor nere i Lund. - They live down in Lund.
Sommaren tillbringar de uppe i Kiruna. – They spend the summer up in Kiruna.

PS. And I have no clue where my recent obsession with Lund came from. :)

 
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Dem Pesky Personal Pronouns

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Aug
26
2009

The other day I got an email asking me to clarify which form of the third person plural personal pronoun (that would be the Swedish equivalent of “they” in English) was correct. The question, of course, was about “de” and “dom”.

Hmmm… it’s an interesting question. Both of those words are pronounced the same – as ”dom” and mean exactly the same. In fact, the explanation that you can see in many grammar books for foreigners is that we write “de” and pronounce it “dom”.

Hmmm… then what about those not so infrequent times when you can see “dom” actually written as “dom”? Though personally it rubs me the wrong way, you can find plenty of “dom” in less formal written Swedish. And that’s one thing I really don’t understand. After all it’s so much faster and more efficient to write “de” instead of “dom”. And I don’t know if it’s just me, but “de” just LOOKS more sophisticated, too.

So yes, we say “dom” and write it mostly as “de”, except for the times when we write it as “dom”. Easy!

But then there’s “dem” which also sounds like “dom”.

“Dem” is the object pronoun of “de”. “What’s that?”, I hear you ask. That’s when a personal pronoun acts as an object in a sentence. Like that:

  • Jag ser dem. – I can see them.

So basically, you have two different words: “de” and “dem”, which are both pronounced as “dom”. And sometimes written as “dom” as well.

See? That wasn’t confusing at all, now, was it? :)

 
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What’s the deal with själv?

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Aug
16
2009

I was talking to an American gal who teaches Swedish (in the US) the other day and there was one thing she said that just stopped me dead in my tracks. And that was “själv is a reflexive pronoun.” What? Please don’t tell me this is what teachers of Swedish in the US tell their students!

While “själv” may indeed look like a reflexive pronoun, especially when it’s translated into English, it most definitely is not. It’s just a word used for emphasis that someone performed a certain action all by him/herself. Unfortunately, because of this “himself, herself, myself, etc” bit, it frequently gets mistaken for a reflexive pronoun.

So how does this “själv” work in Swedish? Like this:

  • Jag kan göra det själv. - I can do it myself.

And now for a real reflexive pronoun:

  • Jag har skurit mig. – I have cut myself.

The first one simply emphasizes that I can do whatever it is that I’m supposed to do all by myself, just like a big girl should.

This example is a little bit different, but it also shows you what this “själv” is all about:

  • Han älskar bara sig själv. – He only loves himself.

There you have both “sig” and “själv” and yes, I know it can be confusing, but it’s really very logical, especially when you see “själv” as part of compound words.

Actually, I think it’s the easiest way to figure out what “själv” is all about - by seeing how it’s translated when used in compound words, like these:

  • självbetjäning – self-service
  • självdisciplin – self-discipline
  • självkritik – self-criticism

and

  • självförtroende – self-confidence

Can you see the difference now between “själv” and a real reflexive pronoun?

And oh yeah, I almost forgot. When talking about plural, then “själv” becomes “själva”, like this:

  • Studenterna själva ordnade festen. – The students themselves arranged the party.
 
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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?

 
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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.

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