Many western European languages have a perfect tense, formed by combining an auxiliary verb (meaning ‘have’ or ‘be’) with a past participle. Different languages use this verb form in different ways. A recent paper used translations of a well-known French novel to explore those differences. The aim was to see which tense the translators used…… Continue reading Using translation to show how the perfect differs across languages
Tag: Swedish
A difficulty for Danes learning English
Some Danes often make errors in inflecting English verbs, even though the same people speak English very fluently and, in almost every other respect, very accurately. Their error is that they don’t add the suffix -s in the 3rd person singular of the present tense. For example, they might say she give instead of she…… Continue reading A difficulty for Danes learning English
Test your languages online
The University of Westminster runs language courses in about 20 languages. In fact I did 3 of their evening courses in the mid 90s. For some languages they have a brief online diagnostic quiz. This tests how much you know so you can enrol at the right level. The quiz contains 50 questions, in a…… Continue reading Test your languages online
Scandinavian challenge: how did it go?
In June and July, I set myself a challenge of working through introductory language courses on Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. I planned to work each day on one of the languages. I finished the challenge in late July. I worked on these similar languages in parallel and more systematically than in earlier intermittent and brief…… Continue reading Scandinavian challenge: how did it go?
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 35
Today I worked through chapter 11 of Swedish in three months, covering: transitive and intransitive verbscreating verbs from adjectivepast participle as adjective passiveother words Transitive and intransitive verbs Pairs of related transitive and intransitive verbs: Transitivebränna (2) (burn)dränka (2) (drown)röka (2) (smoke)väcka (2) (wake)lämna (1) (leave)kyla (2) (chilll)ställa (2) (put, stand)lägga (4) (put, lay) Intransitivebrinna (4)…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 35
Scandinavian language challenge day 32
Today I worked through chapter 10 of Swedish in three months, covering: where in relative clausesquestion 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…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 32
Scandinavian language challenge day 29
Today I worked through chapter 9 of Swedish in three months, covering: indefinite and negative pronouns and adjectivesformation of adverbscomparative and superlativeinfinitive with and without attother words Indefinite and negative pronouns and adjectives The following are both pronouns and adjectives: någon (neuter: något, plural: några): something, someone, some, anything, anyone, anyingen (inget, inga): nothing, no-one, no…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 29
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 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