colloquial swedish 1996

Colloquial Swedish The Complete Course for Beginners Second edition Philip Holmes and Gunilla Serin Contents Acknowledgements vii Using this book 1 Pronunciation, stress and accents 7 1 Vem ar det? 20 Who is it? 2 Rebecca, en student 30 Rebecca, a student 3 Att resa 43 Travelling 4 I SkBne 57 In Skhe 5 Matlagning 72 Cooking 6 Nya mobler 87 New furniture 7 Pg stan 100 In town 8 PB universitetet 114 At the university 9 Sven miidde illa 129 Sven felt sick 10 Familjen Forsberg The Forsberg family 11 Jockes kompisar Jocke's friends 12 Bills krsngliga bilresa Bill's dBcult car journey 13 Skogsvandring A walk in the forest 14 Tidningar Newspapers 15 Rebecca satter igBng och packar Rebecca starts packing 16 Hos lakaren At the doctor's 17 Tv5 skadade vid seriekrock Two injured in multiple collision 18 TvB brev och ett vykdrt Two letters and a picture postcard Key to exercises Swedish-English glossary Concise English-Swedish glossary Grammatical index Acknowledgements We extend our grateful thanks to Olle Kjellin for advice on the presentation of stress, Gunnel Clarke for many valuable suggestions notably in the section on Accents, to Roger and Taija Nyborg for help with the stress markings and for proof-reading the text, to Michael Cooper for help with the vocabulary, to Oscar Forsberg for writing the letter from @ke in Lesson 18, and to Ian HinchliiXe for allowing us to use ideas and examples from Essentials of Swedish Grammar. We thank all our students over the years for teaching us so much, and particularly Phil's first-year students who have taken such a positive interest in improving this book. Special thanks go to Wendy Davies for the user's insight. Phil Holmes and Gunilla Serin Hull and Stockholm February 1996 Using this book, We have designed this book for anyone wishing to acquire basic conversational Swedish, that is the grammar, pronunciation and intonation as well as basic vocabulary and a range of phrases necessary for communicating digerent needs. We also provide you with some background information about Sweden, its regions, history, traditions and way of life. Each of the eighteen lessons contains three passages - a 'Text', a 'Dialogue' and a 'Factual text'. In the 'Text' you learn about the lives of a group of characters: Rebecca, an English student spending a year at Stockholm University, Bill Morris, an English export representative travelling in Sweden, and the Swedish Forsberg family of Jan, Eva and Joakim holidaying in the South of Sweden and then pursuing their daily lives. Other characters appear in the story from time to time The 'Dialogue' is to provide you with a number of ways of meeting conversational needs arising in everyday situations you are likely to encounter, such as, for example, 'Asking for things' or 'Expressing likes and dislikes'. It is often followed by fbrther notes on other constructions you can use. In each lesson you will find numbered language notes which explain, for example, aspects of word order, inflexion and agreement as well as providing all kinds of colloquial constructions and other useful information. By referring to the 'Grammatical index' you can use book as a concise reference grammar, though lack of space preclud great amount of detail. More detailed sources of reference are P Holmes and Ian HinchliEe, Swedish. A Comprehensive Gra Routledge, 1993, or Philip Holmes and Ian HinchliEe, Essenha Swedish Grammar, Hull Swedish Press, 1991. Another substan of exercises are Swedish Exercises for use on PCs by the same with Chris Hall, Hull Swedish Press, 1995. You are provided with a list of vocabulary after each dialogue. You should note particularly that a word is explaine the first occasion it appears, though all the words used are to be found in the 'Swedish-English glossary' at the end of the book. A relatively large vocabulary is used in the book, and by the time you reach the end of the book you should have learned some 2,000 words in all. For these reasons it is a good idea to learn new words as they appear. About 1,000 words appear in the 'Concise English-Swedish glossary'. The 'Factual text' is primarily for reading comprehension and to provide you with some background on Sweden and its culture. You should not normally need to translate the text. It is sufficient for you to get the gist of the meaning and guess some of the words. Only the most dficult vocabulary is, therefore, provided after these texts. In the lessons there are exercises of many different kinds. Some 120 short exercises are to be found in the book which make use of the vocabulary employed in the texts. A 'Key to exercises' is found at the end of the book so that you can check your answers. In Lessons 1 to 9 there are 'Pronunciation' exercises, which are also found on the cassette so you can compare your pronunciation with that of native speakers. A feature of Swedish that makes it relatively easy to learn is its vocabulary. There is a core vocabulary of Germanic words that are familiar to us (arm, fot, finger, knf, son, lamm, etc.) as well as many loanwords from German (fru, krig, betala, Gnster, spegel, sprik), English Cjobb, potatis, babh cykel, jeans) and French (trottoar, fitiilj, paraply, scen, frisiir). There are also a number of grammatical similarities with English: e.g. adjectives are placed before the noun: en kall vinter, den kalla vintern (a cold winter, the cold winter). Adjectives compare by adding an ending: rik - rikare - riltast (rich - richer - richest) or by using mer, mest: mer typisk, mest typisk (more typical, most typical). Verbs have a -dl-t ending in the past tense: vi badade, jag kysste Eva (we bathed, I kissed Eva), or change the stem vowel: de sitter, de satt (they sit, they sat). Swedish verbs are, incidentally, much simpler than those in most European languages in that they have the same form throughout each tense: jagldu/hanlhonlvi/ni/de simmar (I/yo~e/she/we/you/they swim). Some of the apparent problems in learning Swedish are: Pronunciation - initially this appears difficult, but it is in fact very regular once you have learned a few rules. The difference between short and long vowels is crucial to accurate pronunciation. Use the account at the beginning of the book for reference. You will find that pronunciation is also practised systematically in the early lessons. Stress - which words are stressed in the sentence - and accent - Swedish has two word accents - are the keys to your being clearly understood. There is a general account of stress and accent at the beginning of the book, not all of which you will need to assimilate immediately, but which should prove useful to refer back to later. In the text and dialogue in the first five lessons we have also marked the length of the vowels and consonants in those words in the sentence that receive stress. Note that in the vocabulary lists to these lessons on the contrary the pronunciation of the new words is shown as if these were pronounced individually (i.e. not in a sentence). Word order and sentence structure - it is possible to learn to speak Swedish and make oneself understood without paying any great attention to word order and different ways of constructing sentences. But if you wish to continue beyond a very basic level, and perhaps even ultimately to learn to write Swedish, then it is necessary to devote some time to the problems of word order right from the start. It will then avoid real difXculties later. The teaching of Swedish word order is nowadays often based on a positional scheme originally produced by the Danish linguist Paul Diderichsen which breaks the sentence dawn into seven positions for diierent sentence elements (subject, object, etc.). This book is no exception, though we have adopted a rather more user-friendly approach. See the 'Note on grammatical terms' for a quick 'brush-up' on the basic terms used. Lycka till! (Good luck!) Note on grammatical terms Most of the grammatical terms used in this book should be familiar to anyone who has learned the rudiments of a modem foreign language (or even English) at school, but for those who feel the need of a quick 'brush-up' we provide some English examples marked with terms found in the book. These include only one new term. Parts of the sentence John searched the room with great care. SUBJECT VERB OBJECT MPT-EXPRESSION (MANNER) MPT-expressions are words or phrases denoting Manner, Place or Time, i.e. how, where or when the action takes place. The girl is a student at the university. She is young. SUBJECT VERB COMPLEMENT m-EXPRESSION (PLACE) A complement is an adjective or noun, often describing the subject, which is necessaly to complete the sense of the sentence after an 'empty' verb, e.g. 'is', 'becomes'. It never rained in summer. SUBJECT ADVERB VERB MPT-EXPRESSION (TIME) fitting the adverb into this sentence changes the meaning of the entire sentence. Try taking it out! The football hit him. SUBJECT VERB OBJECT Not all grammatical subjects,are people. Not all grammatical objects are things. Both subjects and objects can be pronouns. In example 4 the verb has no object; in example 5 the verb must have an object. Main clauses and sub(ordinate) clauses Main clauses are groups of words (usually containing a minimum of a subject and verb) that may stand on their own as a sentence: She walked. SUBJECT VERB Yesterday Eva walked quickly to school. MPT-EXPR. SUBJECT VERB h@T-EXPR. MPT-EXPR. (TIME) (MANNER) (PLACE) Examples 1-5 above are also main clause sentences. Subordinate (sub) clauses are groups of words (which also usually contain a subject and verb) which form part of a main clause sentence: She walked faster when she saw the headmistress. SUB CLAUSE MAIN CLAUSE SENTENCE When she saw the headmistress she walked faster. SUB CLAUSE Some sub clauses, such as the one in examples 8 and 9 which is itself an h4PT-expression (time), can be placed at the beginning or end of the main clause sentence. She saw the headmistress who was standing by the gym. SUB CLAUSE The headmistress, who was standing by the gym, saw her. SUB CLAUSE Some sub clauses describe part of the main clause sentence (often its subject or object) and may therefore come in the middle of the sentence. Note on forms used in vocabulary lists The vocabulary lists after the texts and dialogues provide key information about the different forms of the Swedish words: Nouns In vocabulary Indefinite Singular Indefinite lists: singular + end article plural (definite) klocka -n -or en klocka klockan klockor bil -en -ar en bil bilen bilar tipple -t -n ett apple applet ipplen hus -et - ett hus huset hus (no pl. ending) fhgel -n fhglar en figel figeln fliglar man, mannen, man For irregular nouns all forms are given. w Adjectives In vocabulary Indefinite Indefinite Plural & lists: with N-wordr with T-words definite rolig -t -a rolig roligt roliga gratis - gratis gratis gratis (indeclinable) bred, brett, breda For irregular adjectives all forms are given hotald -t -de For past participle forms: stem + ending inskrivlen -et -na For past participle forms: stem + ending Verbs The verb stem (= imperative form) is indicated with I and the infinitive, present and past tense endings are given, from which it is possible to predict the remaining forms, e.g. In vocabulary lists: InJinitive Present Past Supine for perfect, pluperfect) (to call) (calVs) (called) (has, had called) kallal -r -de kalla kallar kallade kallat biijla er -de biija biijer blijde blijt kiipla er -te k8pa kiiper kiipte kiipt trol -r -dde tro tror trodde trott skrivla er skrev skriva skriver skrev skrivit gY -r gick gPtt For irregular verbs the supine is also given. Note on the second edition (1 996) A number of alterations have been made to the texts and dialogues which include updating of facts in the factual texts and inclusion of a new exercise on nouns with end articles in Lesson 5. An index is now included, and the tapes have been re-recorded with new material. [...]... stress (jou can hear it in English as spoken in Wales) Listen for this rise when you hear Swedes speak a Y a Y gamal old fli&a girl svezska Swedish Z ya Y tgla speak stglar chairs X The rise on the unstressed syllable makes the words sound Swedish, but often learners of Swedish make the mistake of thinking that every stressed word should have this word melody Many words of two syllables do, it is true,... yes or no (Swedish jafnej) The other kind of question also changes the order of subject and verb, but begins with an interrogative pronoun or v-word (most of them begin with a v in Swedish) These are called v-questions: Vad What lir is det? it? Vad What V-WORD VERB V-WORD VERB SUBJECT Vem Who lir is VERB du? you called? det? it? V-WORD heter are SUBJECT SUBJECT Exercise 7 Translate into Swedish: 1... Notice that there is no continuo1s tense in Swedish: i She is studying (= She studies) What is he doing? Hon studerar Vad giir han? I Exercise 2 Make these statements into yedno questions: 1De studerar 2 Hon kommer 3 Ni har ett piiron 4 Det iir Sven 5 Det & en stor hugskola Exercise 3 Translate into Swedish: 1 They are reading 2 We are studying 3 She is living in (Swedish: i) Stockholm 4 Are you (sing.)... accents The Alphabet m The Swedish alphabet has 29 letters, three more letters than the English alphabet, and these different letters all come at the end Notice the order: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1a8 Of these, the letter w (pronounced as v) is found only in names and foreign loan words: Wasa, wellpapp, WC Words beginning with w are found under v in dictionaries Pronunciation Vowels Swedish has a large number... dgensm611gAg Notice that de (they) is pronounced d d g but det is pronounced dg Notice also pronunciation of giir where the g sounds like an English 'y' or Swedish j (cf ja): Vad g6r Rebecca? (What is Rebecca doing?, va yer ?) Verbs and pronouns Swedish verbs are the same throughout each tense and do not change for person or number: Singular jagir du i r han Ir hon i r den i r det i r man i r Plural... in the question is not the verb 'to be' (vara), 'to have' (ha) or a modal verb (e.g ska, vill) then the short answer uses a form of giira: Talar du svenska? Do you speak Swedish? Ja, det g6r jag Yes, I do Exercise 4 Translate into Swedish: 1 Yes, you are 2 No, they're not 3 Yes, I have 4 No, she hasn't 5 Yes, it is 6 No, we haven't 7 Yes, he is 8 No, Im not ' Pronunciation 1 Vowels Practise saying... Varslgod ock giir som jag sflger! Do as I say! Exercise 6 Ask politely in Swedish for: a ham sandwich and a glass of beer, a cup of tea and a bun, a cup of coffee and a cake, a cheese sandwich and a glass of beer Say 'Here you are' and 'Thank you very much' No genitive 'of' with quantities With quantities English has 'of, but Swedish has no genitive: a cup of coffee a glass of wine a bottle of beer... -ar, Swede tala/ -r -de, speak mest, mostly svenska -n, Swedish (language) drottning -en -ar, queen huvudstad -en -stPder, capital kung -en -ar, king hetta -er hette hetat, be called mycket, a lot, much skog -en -ar, forest ganska, rather, quite siillan, rarely, seldom (en) sol, sun ibland, sometimes b i d e och ,both and Exercise 7 Answer in Swedish (using, where applicable, short answers): 1h... Present tense har laser hatar €!fir Infinitive Present tense komma heta Aka skriva Exercise 2 What is the Swedish for: 1 He's reading 2 He's a student 3 They're travelling 4 We live in Stockholm 5 I live in England 6 I'm travelling to London 7 We have a flat 8 I'm studying Swedish 9 They come from London 10 The alarm clock rings at eight o'clock 11 She starts at six o'clock in the morning... en-gender), and nouns that take ett have T-gender (also called neuter gender or ett-gender) The gender, N or T, determines other grammatical forms we will look at later Three-quarters of all nouns in Swedish are N-gender, as are most nouns describing people, higher animals, days and parts of the day But nouns describing things may be of either gender, and their gender is unpredictable from their meaning . HinchliEe, Swedish. A Comprehensive Gra Routledge, 1993, or Philip Holmes and Ian HinchliEe, Essenha Swedish Grammar, Hull Swedish Press, 1991. Another substan of exercises are Swedish Exercises. brev och ett vykdrt Two letters and a picture postcard Key to exercises Swedish- English glossary Concise English -Swedish glossary Grammatical index Acknowledgements We extend our grateful. Gunilla Serin Hull and Stockholm February 1996 Using this book, We have designed this book for anyone wishing to acquire basic conversational Swedish, that is the grammar, pronunciation