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: Preposition
Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian
I have just read a paper describing 16 differences between Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian. The description was in a paper that looked for the border between language varieties separated by each difference. The paper also looked at whether those borders match national borders and how close the varieties are to each other. The authors…… Continue reading Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian
Excited for
I’ve recently heard my daughter asking her children whether they are excited for things, for example about something that will be happening at school or about a friend’s forthcoming party. That usage sounds odd to my dinosaur ears. I would say I’m: excited about an event or thingexcited for a person I had a quick…… Continue reading Excited for
Scandinavian language challenge day 39
Today I worked through the last chapter (chapter 12) of Norwegian in three months, covering: more about prepositionspast participle used as an adjectivecolloquial speechgreetings and congratulationsother words More about prepositions Some verbs and adjectives with av (by): le av (laught at); lide av (suffer from); stolt av (be proud of) Some verbs and adjectives with over:…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 39
Scandinavian language challenge day 36
Today I worked through chapter 11 of Norwegian in three months, covering: more expressions of timein order to more about ‘det’ verbs of position other words More expressions of time Prepositions: for … siden (ago): for fjorten dager siden (a fortnight ago)om (in, for [yet]):om en ukes tid (in a week)først om tre dager (not for…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 36
Scandinavian language challenge day 33
Today I worked through chapter 10 of Norwegian in three months, covering: passivepresent participlecompound wordsmore about prepositions other words Passive The passive is formed using the auxiliary bli and the past participle. The agent of the action need not be mentioned, but if mentioned it is preceded by the preposition av (meaning by). Huset blir maltHuset…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 33
Scandinavian language challenge day 31
Today I worked through chapter 10 of Danish in three months, covering: passiveimpersonal formsmore on prepositionsother words Passive One version of the passive is formed by replacing the -r ending on the present tense with -s, or by adding -s to the past tense: at behandlesvi behandlesjeg behandledes to be treatedwe are treatedI was treated Den…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 31
Scandinavian language challenge day 26
Today I worked through chapter 8 of Swedish in three months, covering: numbers: ordinaltimeprepositions relating to timeletter writingother words Numbers: ordinal förste (1st)andra (2nd)tredje (3rd)fjärde (4th)femte (5th)sjätte (6th) sjunde (7th)åttonde (8th)nionde (9th)tionde (10th)elfte (11th)tolfte (12th) trettonde (13th) etctjugonde (20th):tjugoförste (21st)hundrade (100th)tusende (1,000th)miljonte (millionth) The ordinal numbers do not inflect for gender. Time Veckodag (-en, -ar, day…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 26
Scandinavian language challenge day 24
Today I worked through chapter 8 of Norwegian in three months, covering: pluperfectverbs conjugated with væreprepositionsdet erindefinite pronounsmore on numbersweatherother words Pluperfect The pluperfect is formed by combining the past tense of the auxiliary har with the past participle. Vi hadde vært på en fotballkamp(We had been to a football match) Verbs conjugated with være As…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 24
Scandinvian language challenge day 19
Today I worked through chapter 6 of Danish in three months, covering: telling the timepast tense: modal auxiliariesprepositionsother words Telling the time Danes use the 24 hour clock in writing. Havd er klokken / Hvor mange er klokken?den er (klokken) ét / klokken tretten (13.00)halv to / ét tredive (13.30) As in German, halv to is…… Continue reading Scandinvian language challenge day 19