Scandinavian language challenge day 32

Today I worked through chapter 10 of Swedish in three months, covering:

• where in relative clauses
• question words in subordinate clauses
• compound verbs
• other words

Where in relative clauses

Where in question: var? (where?) / vart? (to where?)

Where in relative clause: där (where) / dit (to where);

• Han vet en restaurang, där man kan äta fransk mat
  (he knows a restuarant where you can eat French food)
• Jag vet en restaurang, dit vi can kan gå
  (I know a restaurant where we can go)

Question words in subordinate clauses

The question words vad (what), vem (who) and vilken (which) can appear alone as the object in a subordinate clause, but must be followed by som if they are the subject:

• Hon undrade, vad vi skulle göra
  She wondered what we should do)
• Jag undrar, vad som händer i Sverige
  (I wonder what is haappening in Sweden)
• Han frågade mig, vilken väg som var kortast
  (He asked me which way was the shortest

Vad som helset / vem som helst / vilken som helst means anything at all / anyone at all / any … at all:

• Du ka få vilken bok some helst
  (you can have any book at all)

Compound verbs

Some verbs with inseparable prefixes:

Examples of verbs with separable prefixes:

• Hon satte på TV-n innan han gick ut
  (She put on the TV before he went out)
• Han bröt av en gren och slog ihjäl vargen.
  (He broke off a branch and killed the wolf)

Sometimes, a prefix is separable if it has a literal meaning or is used informally, but inseparable if it is used abstractly or formally:

• pöjken bröt av grenen
• (the boy broke off the branch)
• Statsministern avbröt diskussionen
  (the prime minister broke off the discussion)
• de lade ned böckerna på bordet
  (they put the books down on the table)
• Statsministern nedlade en krans på graven
  (the prime minister laid a wreath on the grave)

The separable prefix is attached at the front of the verb in past and present participles: avbruten (broken off); omtyckt (liked, popular); förbigående (passing); igenkännende (recognising).

The separable prefix is stressed and normally goes immediately after the main verb:

• Den tyska kvinnan kände igen henne
  (the German woman recognised her)

But the separable prefix is separated from the verb:

• in main clauses in the present and imperfect tenses, by the negative particle inte and by other adverbs such as aldrig, alltid, gärna, kanske, ofta, redan, snart, sällan
  • Han kände inte igen mig
    (he didn’t recognise me)
  • Flickan gick ofta förbi
    (the girl often walked past)
• in main clauses by the subject when it has been inverted with a verb in the present or imperfect tense:
  • Tycker du om svenska mat?
    (do you like Swedish food?)
  • Kände hon igen dig?
  • (did she recognise you?)
• by the adverbs bra, mycket, illa (bad, badly)
• hon har alltid tyckt illa om honom
  (she has always disliked him)

Some of the other words in this chapter

Nouns: etlandskap (-, province); mjölk (milk); et rike (-n, realm); en stat (-er, state); et slott (-, castle); en vara (-or, ware, commodity); Nouns: et sätt (-, way, manner)

Verbs: förklara (1) (explain); låna (1) (lend); måla (1) (paint); slå sönder (smash); spara (1) (save); få tag i (get hold of)

Adjectives: stylig (stylish); stolt över (proud) of; utmärkt (excellent)

Other words and phrases visst (certainly); enda (only); hej så länge (bye for now); vid åttatiden (around 8 o’clock)

Geographical terms:

• tysk (German); rysk (Russian); engelsk (English)
• Some names of males are the same as the corresponiding adjective (dansk; svensk; tysk) but some differ (normann v norsk; engelsman v engelsk; fransman v fransk; ryss v rysk; holländare, amerikanere; finne; islänning; spanjor).
• Words for females are mostly the same as the feminine adjective, but note fransyska (v franska) and spanjorka (v spanska).
• The feminine form of the adjective is also generally the same as the name of the language: svenska (Swedish)

Some ponts about numbers:

• En gång (-ar) = time, occasion. En tid (-er) = a period of time:
  • Jag träffade henne bara en gång
    (I met her only once)
  • Det var en gång
    (once upon a time)
  • Hon bodde i Italien en tid
    (he lived in Italy for a while)
• Some cases when the first part of definite article is left out:
  • with ordinal numbers: fösta / andra/tredja gång (1st, 2nd, 3rd time)
  • in set phrases: Förenta staterna (United States); Vita huset (the White House); Kungliga slottet (Royal Place, in Stockholm); Franska revolutionen)
• Phone numbers are pronunced and written as pairs: 18 45 64 (arton fyrtiofem sextiofyra)
• Nouns can be made from the numbers 0-12 and other numbers ending in the digits 1-9, by suffixing -a (plural -or). This nouns means things like a bus number, shoe size, room number, coin or note, school year, number of rooms in a flat:
  • Göran har en trea i Göteborg
    (Göran has a 3 bedroom flat in Gothenburg)