Posts tagged w/ Grammar

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!!!

 
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Passive Voice - part 1

Posted by Anna Ikeda
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!!!

 
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Past Participles - Definite Forms

Posted by Anna Ikeda
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!

 
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More Past Participle Goodness - Irregular (a.k.a. strong) Verbs

Posted by Anna Ikeda
May
28
2009

So let’s finish those past participles today and get on with more pleasant things in our lives, shall we?

I promised you we’d save the best for last and talk about past participles of irregular verbs in this blog post. Irregular? Sounds scary? No worries, it’s not!
Actually, it’s very easy.

You see, if you know what the Swedish supine is and you memorized them for those pesky irregular (also known as “strong”) verbs, forming past participles is so straightforward, it’s almost suspicious.

You don’t believe me? Just wait and you’ll see.

But let’s backtrack for a sec to make sure we remember what this mysterious Swedish supine is. Though by now it shouldn’t be mysterious at all.

Swedish supine is different from what we call “supine” in English. In Swedish this is the verb form that is used in perfect tenses. In other words, it’s the bit that follows har (present perfect) or hade (past perfect) in normal sentences.

So, here are some very handsome irregular Swedish supines:

  • bjudit - from “bjuda” (to invite)
  • försvunnit - from “försvunna” (to disappear)
  • bundit – from “binda” (to bind, to tie)
  • skurit – from “skära” (to cut, to carve)

OK, so now we have those supines. Now see how easy it is to make their past participles. And you do it like this: you grab that supine, chop off that “it” ending and then add “en” instead.

  • bjudit → bjud + en → bjuden – invited
  • försvunnit → försvunn + en → försvunnen – disappeared
  • bundit → bund + en → bunden – bound (tied)
  • skurit → skur + en → skuren – cut, carved

So, even though the initial verb might be “irregular” the way we create those past participles is very regular indeed.

PS. Just a reminder - it’s Mother’s Day (Mors dag) this Sunday in Sweden. Don’t forget about your moms, or moms-in-law! :)

 
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Past Participles of Regular Verbs

Posted by Anna Ikeda
May
25
2009

Last time when we talked about Swedish supines (in Swedish it’s the verb form that’s used in perfect tenses,) and past participles (in Swedish, it’s the verb form that’s used as an adjective), I picked a really tough example – “skriva” (to write).

Of course, since “skriva” is an irregular verb (just like in English), things got a bit complicated when I tried to explain what Swedish past participles are and how they are used.

But at least we got the hard bit out of the way and today you can breathe easy, because past participles of regular verbs are very straightforward. Don’t you just love regular verbs?

You see, with regular verbs, you just stick some letters to the end of the word, or add something to the verb’s basic form.

1. For example, “d” is added to longish verbs that end in “a” or to those that have a voiced consonant in the basic form, like this:

  • intressera + d → intresserad – interested
  • öka + d → ökad – increased

glömma – first you remove the ending and you get “glöm”, then you add “d”

  • glöm + d → glömd – forgotten

stänga – first you remove the ending and you get “stäng”, then you add “d”

  • stäng + d → stängd – closed

2. Ok, how about verbs that in their basic form (when you remove the ending “a”) end in a voiceless consonant, such as p, t, k, and s? To form past participles of those guys, you add “t” to the basic form:

  • köp + t → köpt – bought
  • tänk + t → tänkt – thought
  • läs + t → läst – read

Then sometimes “dd” is added to certain verbs. Those are normally verbs that end in a loooooong, stressed vowel, in other words, very short verbs such as:

  • tro + dd → trod – believed
  • klä + dd → klädd – dressed

See? That wasn’t so bad now, was it?
Unfortunately, when it comes to Swedish past participles, you have to remember that they are not like English past participles, but rather like adjectives that are used to describe nouns. It may seem complicated and difficult at first, but as one of the readers very aptly pointed out, it’s still nothing when compared with romance languages.

Still, too much grammar in one sitting is not good for anyone, so we will stop here for now. Next time we’ll tackle those irregular past participles in greater detail. Because when you look at them carefully, you’ll notice that they’re not all that irregular after all.

 
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