Lesson 7

Vocabulary

kunna (i) [*kuna]	inf. of can - to be able to
vilja (i) [*vilja]	inf. of want to
få (i) [få:]	to be allowed to / get
skola (i) [*sko:la]	inf. of shall, will
måste [*måste] (present tense)	have to / must
mörk [mörk]	dark
ljus [ju:s]	light, bright
extrem [eks'tre:m]	extreme
titta på (1)	to look at
säga (i) [säja]	to say
alltid [*alti:d]	always
aldrig [*aldrig]	never
ingen(t,a) [*igen]	no
noggran [*no:gran]	careful
måndag ['månda]	Monday
tisdag ['ti:sda]	Tuesday
onsdag ['onsda]	Wednesday
torsdag ['tosda]	Thursday
fredag ['fre:da]	Friday
lördag ['löda]	Saturday
söndag ['sönda]	Sunday

Modal Auxiliary Verbs

Modal verbs are verbs who tell in what way a certain action is carried out. Some examples of modal verbs are shall, must, want to. In Swedish, the modal verbs conjugate very irregularly:

Infinitive	Present tense	Imperfect	Supine
kunna	kan	kunde	kunnat
vilja	vill	ville	velat
skola	ska(ll)	skulle	skolat
få	får	fick	fått

Adverbs

An adverb is a word that tells in what way an action is performed. It can hence be an indicator to a verb, an adjective or another adverb. In English, adverbs have the suffix -ly. In Swedish, the suffix is -t.

She walks slowly	- Hon går långsamt
She walks extremely slowly	- Hon går extremt långsamt
She is extremely beautiful	- Hon är extremt vacker

Word order, advanced phrases

Some conjunctions:

att [at]	that
som [såm]	who(m), that, which
eftersom [efter'såm] därför att ['därför]	since
fastän ['fastän]	although
för att	in order to
så att	so that
innan [*inan]	before
om [åm]	if
då [då:]	as
medan [*me:dan]	while

The Swedish word order differs in some way from that of the English language. In English, the word order is straight, except for phrases like "I want to leave", said John. In Swedish, the word order is straight too, as long as the subject + verb aren't preceded by anything in the sentence. But as soon as an expression precedes the subject + verb, the word order gets reversed. It could be any word, an indication of time or place or anything.

Jag kom igår	- Igår kom jag
Jag bor där	- Där bor jag
Man talar svenska i Sverige	- I Sverige talar man svenska

Subordinate clauses

• In normal clauses the modifier is placed after its verb.

I never come - Jag kommer aldrig
I don't come - Jag kommer inte

• But in a subordinate clause, the modifier is placed before its verb.

He says, that I never come - Han säger, att jag aldrig kommer
He says, that I don't come - Han säger, att jag inte kommer

• The conjunction som is used as English that, who, which

The ball that I look at - Bollen som jag tittar på
The person who helped me - Personen som hjälpte mig
The person by whom I was helped - Personen som jag hjälptes av
That's the house at which we were looking - Det är huset som vi tittade på

Reflexive verbs / pronouns

Reflexive verbs are verbs like to wash oneself. They require a reflexive pronoun. In Swedish they are:

Jag	mig
Du	dig
Han/Hon Den/Det	sig
Vi	oss
Ni	er
De	sig

• In Swedish, to wash oneself is tvätta sig. Thus, I wash myself would be - Jag tvättar mig etc.

The Imperative

The imperative is used to give orders, like be quiet, come here. It is very easily formed in Swedish. You just take the stem of the verb. The only irregular form is vara whose imperative form is var.

Come here - Kom hit
Help me - Hjälp mig
Be happy - Var glad

Exercise - Translate the following sentences into Swedish

1 - Yesterday, he washed his big hands, since they were dirty.
2 - Yesterday, he washed himself carefully.
3 - In two days, she will see her brothers and sisters.
4 - If she intend to come, I will help her.
5 - Go there, in order to help your mother.
6 - Buy the big house, although you don't like it.

Click here for answers

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