The Uralic languages are well known for having a large number of grammatical cases. The two Uralic languages with the most speakers are Hungarian and Finnish. Finnish has 15 cases and Hungarian has between 17 and 27 grammatical cases, depending on how some items are analysed. In contrast, looking only at some examples in languages…… Continue reading How many cases are there in Hungarian and Finnish?
Tag: Possessive
Does English really have case?
Old English had a complex inflection system, distinguishing various morphological cases in nouns, pronouns and adjectives. Complex cases systems also existed in Latin and still exist in, for example, German and Russian. Over time, most case distinctions have vanished from English. In a 1995 paper Does English Really Have Case? in the Journal of Linguistics,…… Continue reading Does English really have case?
Scandinavian language challenge day 38
Today I worked through the last chapter (chapter 12) of Swedish in three months, covering: ‘either .. or’, ‘neither … nor’, ‘both … and”all and ‘whole’ the impersonal pronoun ‘man’ adjectives without a nounhow to translate some common English verbsspellingother words ‘either .. or’, ‘neither … nor’, ‘both … and’ Antingen … eller = either ……… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 38
Scandinavian language challenge day 23
Today I worked through chapter 7 of Swedish in three months, covering: present participlepossessive pronoun: reflexivefuture tenseconditionalother words Present participle The present participle is formed by adding the suffix -ende (-nde for verbs with an infinitive ending in -a). Used as an adjective or adverb, the present participle is indeclinable. en fängslande film (a fascinating film)en…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 23
Scandinavian language challenge day 22
Today I worked through chapter 7 of Danish in three months, covering: possessive pronounsadjectives: comparative and superlativeimpersonal pronounother words Possessive pronouns min / mit / minedin / dit / dineDereshanshendesdensdets vor / vort / vorejeresDeresderesderesderesderes As in Swedish and Norwegian, the form sin / sint / sine is used in stead of hans / hendes /…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 22
Scandinavian language challenge day 17
Today I worked through chapter 5 of Swedish in three months, covering: asking and telling the timepossessive adjectives and possessive pronounspast tense of strong verbsomitting the indefinite articlerelative pronounsother words and idioms Asking and telling the time Hur mycket är klockan? / Vad är klockan? What is the time? Klockan är ett. / Det är ett.…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 17
Scandinavian language challenge day 15
Today I worked through chapter 4 of Norwegian in three months, covering: possessive adjectivesadjective endings: exceptionsadjectives: comparativeobject forms of personal pronounstimeother words Possessive adjectives min / mitt / minedin / ditt / dineDereshanshennesdens / detssin / sitt /sinevår / vårt / vårederesderessin / sitt / sine myyour (familiar)your (formal)hisheritshis / her its ownouryourtheirtheir own The possessive…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 15
Scandinavian language challenge day 11
Today I worked through the third chapter of Swedish in three months, covering: possessivecommands and requestsmodal auxiliary verbsadjectives: indefinite suffixesit: common and neuter formsnumbers above 20other words Possessives Nouns add the suffix -s to form the possessive (genitive). Example: Sveriges huvedstad (Sweden’s capital). A definite article may be added to the possessor (first noun) but…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 11
Scandinavian language challenge day 10
Today I worked through the third chapter of Danish in three months, covering: adjectivescommands and requestspossessionnames of days, months and seasons (and holidays)other words Adjectives The following suffixes are added to attributive adjectives modifying indefinite nouns: nothing (common gender); -t (neuter), -e (plural). For definite nouns, den (common) / det (neuter) / de (plural) precedes the…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 10
Scandinavian language challenge day 9
Today I worked through the second chapter of Norwegian in three months, which introduces: the genitive;adjective endings: indefiniteadjective endings: definiteinfinitive and present tensequestions and answersother words Genitive Nouns add the suffix -s to form the possessive (genitive). Examples: naboens hage (the neighbours garden)båtens eier (the owner of the boat)landets grenser (The borders of the country)myndighetenes ansvar…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 9