Swedish Grammar - Soundfile text

This is the text used for the soundfile below. This text is a shorter version of http://www.lysator.liu.se/language/Languages/Swedish/Grammar.html made by Leif Stensson. There are also a lot of examples added to make good phrases.

(Note: this document is only intended to use for listening to the sound-file. Refer to the real document to read the English content.)

Sound-file: swedish_grammar.mp3 (8 MByte, first try, not so good quality)

A a

"en far" (father), "en pappa" (daddy)

B b

"ett bad" (bath), babbla (babble)

C c

"en circus", "och" (and), "en backe" (slope)

D d

"en dag" (day), "en färd" (journey)

E e

"ensam" (alone), "en meter" (metre)

F f

"(en)(att) fika" (to drink coffee/tea and biscuits, coffee/tea-drinking)

G g

"går" (walks), "gör" (does)

H h

"Hur?" (How?), "har" (has)

I i

"ingen" (no one), "ila" (hurry)

J j

"ett hjul" (wheel), "januari" (January, Note: Small J),

K k

"en kung" (king), "Tack!" (Thanks! Thank you!)

L l

"lilla" (little), "en lördag" (a Saturday, Note: small L!)

M m

"en mamma" (mum), "mat" (food), "maten" (the food)

N n

"några" (some, a few), "nära" (close (range) / (feed (with food)))

O o

"otrolig" (unbelievable), "onsdag" (Wednesday, still small o)

P p

"en pappa" (daddy), "på" (on)

Q q

"Sandqvist" (Sirname)

R r

"Röka" (smoke), "Mors!" (Godmorning-hello-there!)

S s

"se" (see), "skriva" (write)

T t

"Tar" (takes), "traktor" (tractor)

U u

"Uppsala" (a Swedish town), "ett ur" (clock, out from), "uttala" (pronouce), "du" (you), "nu" (now), "Mu!" (Moo! The sound a cow makes)

V v

Vem? (Who?), Var? (Where?), Vart? (Where to?)

W w,

"ett dubbel-ve" (W).

X x

"en yxa" (axe), strax (soon)

Y y

"en yta" (surface), yngre (younger), sy (sew), ty (therefore)

Z z,

"en zebra".

Å å

"en å" (small river), "åka" (travel with a vehicle)

Ä ä

"äta" (eat), "äcklig" (discusting)

Ö ö

"en ö" (island), "ett öra" (ear), öppna (open)

Sj-

"en sjö" (lake), "sjunka" (to sink), "en själ" (soul).

Sk-

"en sked" (spoon), "sköta" (to take care of, to handle), "skina" (to shine), "skinn" (skin, hide), and "ett skäl" (a cause, a reason).

Skj-

"skjuta" (push, shoot), "skjuts" (a 'ride'), and "ett skjul" (shed, shack).

Stj-

"stjäla" (steal)

Sch-

"sch!" (hush!), "schwung" (oldish slang for 'speed and/or strength in an action', 'verve', 'go', etc), "ett schack" (chess, sk-pronounciation)

Ch-

"en chock" (shock).

Sh-

"en sherry"

-sch

"en dusch" (shower), "en marsch" (marsch) [Note: mars (Mars)], "en bransch" (line of business)

-ge

"ett garage" (garage), "fromage" (blancmange, not cheese).

-rs

"en fars" (farce) [Note: "fars" (father's)], "farstu" (hallway).

Tj-

"en tjuv" (burgler), "tjata" (nag), "en tjej" (girl, woman)

k-

"en kista" (chest, coffer), "en kind" (a cheek, kinden (the cheek)

kj-

"en kjol" (skirt)

Intonation, Accents, Stress, Pitch

Examples:
"búren" (the cage) - "bùren" (carried)
"régel" (a rule) - "règel" (a latch)
"slágen" (the blows) - "slàgen" (beaten)

Inflection paradigm for the five declensions:

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
sg.indef.	flaska	buske	minut	vittne	brev
sg.def.	flaskan	busken	minuten	vittnet	brevet
pl.indef.	flaskor	buskar	minuter	vittnen	brev
pl.def.	flaskorna	buskarna	minuterna	vittnena	breven
English:	bottle	bush, shrub	minute	witness	letter (`mail')

E.g. en konstapel (3u, constable), konstapeln pl. konstaplar, ett papper (4n, paper), sg.def. pappret.

parti, partiet, partier, partierna.
ett parti schack

Umlaut plurals

Some Swedish words with umlaut plurals are:
en man - män (man)
en fot - fötter (foot)
en hand - händer (hand)
en tand - tänder (tooth)
en rand - ränder (stripe, edge)
ett land - länder (land, country)
en strand - stränder (shore, beach)
en brand - bränder (fire, conflagration)
en fader - fäder (father)
en broder - bröder (brother)
en moder - mödrar (mother)
en son - söner (son)
en dotter - döttrar (daughter)
en bok - böcker (book)
en rot - rötter (root)
en gås - gäss (goose)
en and - änder (a kind of duck)
en mus - möss (mouse)

Additionally:
en nöt - nötter (nut)

fader (father), moder (mother) och broder (brother) =
far, mor och bror =
farsa, morsa och brorsa

Shifting stress

véktor - vektórer(na)
lektor (university teacher)
dator (computer)
pastor (priest, pastor)
resistor
termistor (thermal resistor)
varistor (variable resistor)
kondensator (capacitor)
induktor (inducer, inductor)
transduktor (transducer)
motor (motor, engine)
stator (non-moving active part in electrical motor)
donator (donor)
sektor
mentor
rotor
promotor
reaktor
extraktor
gladiator
generator
senator
doktor

Examples:

	`grön' (green)	`vit' (white)	`vid' (wide)	`svart' (red)	`liten' (little)
u.sg.indef.	grön	vit	vid	svart	liten
n.sg.indef.	grönt	vitt	vitt	svart	litet
sg.def.	gröna	vita	vida	svarta	lilla
pl.	gröna	vita	vida	svarta	små

Comparatives and superlatives

mer (more) and mest (most).

röd-rödare-rödast (red)
våt-våtare-våtast (wet)
sen-senare-senast (late)
vid-vidare-vidast (wide)

bekväm (comfortable)
intressant (interesting)

Oregelbundna adjektiv (Irregular): få-färre-- (few, fewer, -)
stor-större-störst (large)
liten-mindre-minst (small)
hög-högre-högst (high, tall (about objects))
lång-längre-längst (long, tall (about people))
låg-lägre-lägst (low)
bra-bättre-bäst (good)
dålig-sämre-sämst (bad)

Some basic adverbs are:
igen (again)
tillbaka (back in the sense of returning)
fram(åt) (at/in the front, forward)
bak(åt) (at/in the back, backward)
in (inwards, inside).

på (on)
av (preposition: of, from; adverb: off)
ur (out of)
från (preposition: from, adverb: a wide and vague sense of away, out of reach, ahead of, etc)
i (preposition: in, adverb: into).

iväg (away)
isär (apart in a sense of drifting apart)
itu (apart, in the sense of cutting or breaking, especially into two parts).

komma ihåg (remember)

här (here)
hit (hither)
där (there)
dit (thither)

Numeral	Cardinal	Ordinal
	Numeral	Cardinal	Ordinal
1	en/ett	första		0	noll	(nollte)
2	två	andra		20	tjugo	tjugonde
3	tre	tredje		30	trettio	trettionde
4	fyra	fjärde		40	fyrtio	fyrtionde
5	fem	femte		50	femtio	trettionde
6	sex	sjätte		60	sextio	sextionde
7	sju	sjunde		70	sjutio	sjuttionde
8	åtta	åttonde		80	åttio	åttionde
9	nio	nionde		90	nittio	nittionde
10	tio	tionde		100	(ett)hundra	(ett)hundrade
11	elva	elfte		200	tvåhundra	tvåhundrade
12	tolv	tolfte		500	femhundra	femhundrade
13	tretton	trettonde		1 000	(ett)tusen	(ett)tusende
14	fjorton	fjortonde		2 000	tvåtusen	tvåtusende
15	femton	femtonde		5 000	femtusen	femtusende
16	sexton	sextonde		10 000	tiotusen	tiotusende
17	sjutton	sjuttonde
	20 000	tjugotusen	tjugotusende
18	arton	artonde
	50 000	femtiotusen	femtiotusende
19	nitton	nittonde		1 000 000	en miljon	miljonte

42 =	fyrtiotvå (40+2)
123 =	(ett)hundratjugotre (100+20+3)
4 711 =	fyratusensjuhundraelva (4000+700+11)
262 144 =	tvåhundrasextiotvåtusenetthundrafyrtiofyra ((200+60+2)*1000+100+40+4)

531 243 385 = "femhundratrettioen miljoner tvåhundrafyrtiotretusentrehundraåttiofem".

42 751 = "fyrtiotvåtusen sjuhundrafemtioett",

42nd =	fyrtioandra (40+2nd)
123rd =	(ett)hundratjugotredje (100+20+3rd)
4711th =	fyratusensjuhundraelfte (4000+700+11th)
262 144th =	tvåhundrasextiotvåtusenetthundrafyrtiofjärde ((200+60+2)*1000+100+40+4th)

1 000 000	miljon
1 000 000 000	miljard
1 000 000 000 000	biljon
1 000 000 000 000 000	biljard
1 000 000 000 000 000 000	triljon
1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000	triljard(*)
1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000	kvadriljon(*)
1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000	kvadriljard(*)
1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000	kvintriljon(*)
1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000	kvintriljard(*)

The personal and possessive pronouns in Swedish are

meaning	nominative form	object form	possessive
I	jag	mig	min/mitt/mina
you (singular)	du	dig	din/ditt/dina
he	han	honom	hans
she	hon	henne	hennes
it (uter)	den	den	dess
it (neuter)	det	det	dess
we	vi	oss	vår/vårt/våra
you (plural)	ni	er	er/ert/era
they	de	dem	deras
(reflexive)	-	sig	sin/sitt/sina

The reflexive pronoun refers to the agent of the sentence. It is used where "himself", "herself", "itself" or "themselves" would be used in English.

The masculine and feminine pronouns are used when talking about people, and sometimes metaphorically about objects.

Some of the possessives have three forms, corresponding to the three forms of adjectives. The first form is the uter singular, the second is the neuter singular, and the third is the common plural.

Example paradigms of the verb "vara" (to be), "ha(va)" (to have), and "visa" (to show):

infinitiv	vara	ha(va)	visa
presens	är	har	visar
imperfekt	var	hade	visade
supinum	varit	haft	visat
perfekt	har varit	har haft	har visat
pluskvamperfekt	hade varit	hade haft	hade visat
presens particip	varande	havande	visande
perfekt particip	-	havd/haft/havda	visad/visat/visade
imperativ	var!	ha(v)!	visa!

The tema for a few of the most common irregular verbs are: att vara(to be)-är-var-varit, att se(to see)-ser-såg-sett, att göra(to do/make)-gör-gjorde-gjort, att veta(to know)-vet-visste-vetat, att vilja(to want)-vill-ville-velat, att tåla(to endure/`stand')-tål-tålde-tålt, att kunna(to be able to)-kan-kunde-kunnat.

Note also the regular verb att vara(to last)-varar-varade-varat

The most common conjunctions in Swedish are:

Exempel (Examples): Löven föll ner på marken (the leaves fell down on the ground), Föll löven ner på marken? (did the leaves fall down on the ground?), Ner på marken föll löven (down on the ground fell the leaves), Faller lövet ner på marken så är det nog höst (if/when the leaves fall on the ground, it is probably autumn).

öga, ögat, ögon, ögonen
öra, örat, öron, öronen

Present participle used as a noun

gå (go, walk)
gående (walking)

en gående = a walking [@13157]
ett gående = a "walking", the act of walking

en gående, den gående, två gående, de två gående
ett gående, det gåendet, två gåenden, de två gåendena.

Other nouns

en lår (a crate)
ett lår (a thigh)

Compounds with `ta' (take)

Ta på vantarna = put on the mittens
Ta på vantarna = Non-compound use: touch the mittens.

Ta med x = bring x; about persons: bring x along.

`Ta av vantarna' = take off the mittens
Ta av kakorna! = Take from the biscuits!

`Ta till storsläggan' = Resort to the big sledge!. Vinden tilltar = The wind gets stronger.

Ta till sig x = absorb/accept/embrace x (about abstract matters, teachings, opinions, etc).

`Ta sig till x' = resort to x, with a sense of urgency, confusion or desperation. More common in questions than statements:
Vad ska vi ta oss till? = `What(ever) shall we do?'.
Vi tänker ta oss till Stockholm i helgen = `We mean to take ourselves to Stockholm this weekend'

Compounds with `sätta' (set, put)

`Sätta på x' = switch something on. (This phrase is also used in slang for `have (fast mindless) sex with'.)

Compounds with `tala' (speak)

`Tala om x (för y)' = inform y of x. Note non-compound use: tala om x = speak about x.

Jag har talat om tentasvaren för Kalle. I've told Kalle the exam-answers
Jag har talat om min lön med direktören. I've spoken about my wage with the manager. More used: Jag har pratat om min lön med direktören.

`Talas vid' = have a talk/discussion, typically about some specific topic. The prefixed form `vidtalas' sounds formal, serious, or bureaucratic. Note that the verb itself is takes on the passive form, and that the subject is typically plural.

`Avtala x' = agree on x, make an agreement about x, make a contract to the effect of x.

`Intala y x' = make y believe x, convince y of x (usually implying that x is not completely believable by itself and that the belief has to be forced). Often used reflexively `intala sig x' = make oneself believe x, tell oneself x.

Jag intalar mig att jag fått med det viktigaste i denna ljudfil.
I tell myself that I have gotten the most important things included in this sound-file.