Learning Swedish

Medlem
Learning Swedish

I am trying to learn Swedish. If it is not problem for you, I want to ask some questions.

I read that, names take "en" or "ett" in front of them.
It reminded me "a/an" in English grammar. In english, it depends on the sound that begins the word. For "car", "cat", "door"; it is "a", for "hour", elephant", "agent", it is "an".
But I don't see regular rule for Swedish.
En man (a man), en kvinna (a woman); but ett barn (a child);
en hund (a dog); but ett lejon (a lion).
Is there a reason of this?
Or will it be just memorized according to word?

Another question for the "bestämd singularis";
For "en" words:
If the word has "en" in the end, we remove the "e" of word -> en sägen - sägnen
If the word has "el" or "er" in the end, we just add "n" as suffix -> en nyckel - nyckeln
For "ett" words:
If the word has "en", "el" or "er" in the end, we remove the "e" of word -> ett exempel - exemplet
If the word has "eum" or "ium" in the end, we remove the "um" of the word -> ett museum - museet.
Again, is there a reason of this?
Or will it be just memorized, too?

Can someone explain me those rules?

Medlem

En/ ett is easy, its all in the definite form : En man= mannen, En kvinna= kvinnan, ett barn= barnet.
En hund= hunden, ett lejon= lejonet


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"I believe whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you... stranger." Jokern

Medlem
Skrivet av Thumba:

En/ ett is easy, its all in the definite form : En man= mannen, En kvinna= kvinnan, ett barn= barnet.
En hund= hunden, ett lejon= lejonet

Den bestämda formen är bara "mannen".
"En man" kan vara vilken man som helst.

"A man" is the same as "en man".
"The man" however is "mannen"


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dom förnedrar hela Gamer-world!!!

Inaktiv

As Thumba said, there is a rule for en/ett.

If the definite form of a word ends with an N, you use the word "en"

For example the definite form for "barn" is "barnet",
the last letter is a T, thus we use "ett"

school = skola
the school = skolan <- (ends with the letter N!)
a school = en skola <- (thus we used N here in "en")

äpple
äpplet <- steal that last letter and use it for "ett"
= ett äpple


signatur

Ajebaje: I vanlig ordning handlar "debatten" mer om att hävda sig själv än att diskutera frågan.

Medlem

Hehe, I didn't think there was a method for the madness.. good to know.


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Life is like a shit-sandwich; the more bread you have the less shit you eat.

Avstängd
Skrivet av Sipmo:

As Thumba said, there is a rule for en/ett.

If the definite form of a word ends with an N, you use the word "en"

For example the definite form for "barn" is "barnet",
the last letter is a T, thus we use "ett"

school = skola
the school = skolan <- (ends with the letter N!)
a school = en skola <- (thus we used N here in "en")

äpple
äpplet <- steal that last letter and use it for "ett"
= ett äpple

... but there is no definite rule for which words ends with N and which ends with T.

When to put en and ett is mostly depending on what the word "feels" like.

Medlem

There is "EN" and "ETT" before other things, such as

Ett hus ( A house)
En bil ( A car)
En båt ( A boat )
Ett träd ( A tree)

And in such case there is no rule for "En" or "Ett".
But i've got a little trick there.

Ett = Things you cant move
En = Things you can move.

Ett Hus = A house = cant move = Ett hus
En bil = A car = Can move = En bil
Ett träd = A tree = Cant move = Ett träd
En båt = A boat = Can move = En båt

This is no rule, and it is not always like this, but nearly...

Medlem
Skrivet av Shisuke:

There is "EN" and "ETT" before other things, such as

Ett hus ( A house)
En bil ( A car)
En båt ( A boat )
Ett träd ( A tree)

And in such case there is no rule for "En" or "Ett".
But i've got a little trick there.

Ett = Things you cant move
En = Things you can move.

Ett Hus = A house = cant move = Ett hus
En bil = A car = Can move = En bil
Ett träd = A tree = Cant move = Ett träd
En båt = A boat = Can move = En båt

This is no rule, and it is not always like this, but nearly...

I'm sure he appreciates the help but i would not recommend it since even basic words like the following ones don't work very well with this "trick".

"a plane" = "ett plan" can move.
"a speaker" = "en högtalare" can't move
"a bee" = "ett bi" can move
"a phone" = "en telefon" can't move (unless you pick it up)

Avstängd

But a rule which you cannot apply in every cases (except for the exceptions) is quite useless, don't you think?

As far as I know, it is possible to move a candle (ett ljus) and a locker (ett skåp). ^^

Alas, you have to memorize when to use en and ett (or get the feeling for the words, but that isn't very easy when you haven't been learning the language since your birth) like in german, with der, das and die.

By the way, may I ask you why you want to learn swedish? Do you plan to move here or something?

Medlem
Skrivet av Shisuke:

There is "EN" and "ETT" before other things, such as

Ett hus ( A house)
En bil ( A car)
En båt ( A boat )
Ett träd ( A tree)

And in such case there is no rule for "En" or "Ett".
But i've got a little trick there.

Hus -> Huset -> Ett hus
Bil -> Bilen -> En bil

So the ending of the word works as a rule (I believe). How you know how the word ends is another story.
You are using the unspecific form (I don't know the real words for this, so I make up my own/use words other have used before me), when you should use the specific form of the word ("Ett hus" = unspecific, "Huset" = specific).

Edit: A good thing about being Swedish is that you don't need to know these rules

Medlem

http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatiskt_genus har förklaring till fenomenet, och eftersom jag är lat samt kass på engelska kan väl någon som är min raka motsats dra en snabb översättning till vår utländske vän.

Edit: Kan ej skriva på svenska ens

Medlem

Gender is a division of the noun in the grammar.

Regular uppdelningskriterier of the genus are:

* Live / dead (used for example in indianspråket Ojibwa)
* Rational / irrational
* Human against inhuman
* Maskulint / feminine / neutral
* Strong / weak

It is estimated that one the Indo-urspråket had three genus: masculine, feminine and neuter, as yet is the case, for example, German, Icelandic and Russian. In several of dotterspråken later genus You have reached the masculine gender, with a masculine-feminine tvågenussystem were raised. This applies, for example, French and Spanish.

In modern Swedish and Danish, however, has masculine and feminine sammanflutit to a common genus, contrasting with neuter. Today, most Swedish linguists agree to call it an IPA, which means approximately "one (of the two)", while neuter means "neither" or "either or" (Norwegian language bokmål used from the start only Audio / neuter. Today you can choose if you want to split up within the masculine and feminine. Nynorska language has finally combination of masculine / feminine / neuter.). Within known in English grammar sometimes for n-genus, including because bestämdhetssuffixet is - (e) n, while it calls for t-neuter gender, including because its bestämdhetssuffix is - (e) t.

The many well-known concept reale or realgenus is now used most of person who wishes genusklassificera words after Which personal pronouns (in the third person singular), which is usually used when tillbakasyftning in a word, that is to say 'he,' 'this,' 'the' or "It". Reale will then designate the-word.

The Big speaking you could say that it is a male and female and the words-that have grammatical gender within, men There are a number of specific cases that may complicate such a generalization.

Sometimes using the Swedish linguists term sexus or semantic gender of the BIOLOGICAL or attributed sex, which may be related more or less quickly Samman, in a word, and steer pronomenvalet. Sexus for the word "actress" is the feminine. Sexus for non-BIOLOGICAL objects can be called inanimatum.

Class

In some languages grouped all nouns grammatically after the type of items they call in a way that does not really resemble genussystemet contained in our language and our most common skolspråk. There is a language with the sex of such classes. Such klassystem sometimes regarded as a system within the category of the genus and turns that system within one's own category that is missing among us. This is usually called class or sort and govern as well as "normal" family choice of articles and pronouns. The border between genusbegreppet and klassbegreppet is vague. A common assumption is that a genus term should be reserved for systems in which the categories in whole or in part, has no semantic roots.

Generation

Theories about the formation of genussystem that the indo-European usually like to explain it with besjälning of nature in bygone days religion and culture. This is considered to have led to the use of male and female pronouns, even if non-living things.

//Wiki //Google Translate


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hejsanhejsanhejsan

Medlem

prata om att hamna på fel ställe.

Medlem
Skrivet av boneless:

prata om att hamna på fel ställe.


signatur

My goal in life is to be the person my dog thinks I am.

Medlem

Uhm... If we are to shorten the huge amount of text from mosoloa, we could say there was rules for En and Ett once, but nowadays they have melted together så that people who are not native swedes won't have a chans learning when to use them correctly?

From my point of wiew, I'm really confused about this. As I have been speaking swedish my entire life, I know by instinct when there should be Ett or En, but I can't explain why. I guess you would have to ask some kind of expert, like a linguist. Try contacting Svenska Akademien ( http://www.svenskaakademien.se/web/hem.aspx ), or the linguistic institution at Stockholm university ( http://www.nordiska.su.se/ ).


signatur

Allt i ovanstående post är självklart endast min åsikt, och bör läsas som rättstavat även om så inte är fallet.

Inaktiv

Jag slår vad om att han sitter och skrattar åt er där hem ifrån i sin svenska lägenhet


signatur

Game of the Year FZ. Du har väl inte glömt rösta?

Medlem

Oavsett vilket är det en intressant frågeställning. Användandet av genus i svenskan är en fråga jag själv har funderat en del på, och försökt formulera regler för många gånger, men aldrig lyckats.

Dessutom är grammatik roligt


signatur

Allt i ovanstående post är självklart endast min åsikt, och bör läsas som rättstavat även om så inte är fallet.

Medlem
Skrivet av EliasN:
Skrivet av Sipmo:

As Thumba said, there is a rule for en/ett.

If the definite form of a word ends with an N, you use the word "en"

For example the definite form for "barn" is "barnet",
the last letter is a T, thus we use "ett"

school = skola
the school = skolan <- (ends with the letter N!)
a school = en skola <- (thus we used N here in "en")

äpple
äpplet <- steal that last letter and use it for "ett"
= ett äpple

... but there is no definite rule for which words ends with N and which ends with T.

When to put en and ett is mostly depending on what the word "feels" like.

Yea. One need to learn it by heart.

Medlem
Skrivet av mosoloa1:

"......"

Excellent example of svenglish!

One thing that you must learn is en stol (a chair) and ett bord (a table). It is frequently used by Swedish people as a joke about foreign people who doesn't speak good swedish.:)


signatur

To boldly go where everyone's been before.

Medlem

Good question, i have the same problem when teaching Swedish here in Japan. I've said that there is no rule and you need to learn them by heart.


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[size="15"]Ugh!?[/size]

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