64 Comments
I know what you mean! While some people love the sounds of French or Italian, I can't get enough of the melodic sounds of Swedish. Plus, Swedes are usually so nice with a good sense of humor. Good luck!
Yes, I think Swedish is the most beautiful language in the world. Tack! Good luck as well!
If I remember correctly, the "hejdå" version is accepted in the course. I have never seen it before, so I decided to do some googling. I am in shock! "Hejdå" is considered to be a colloquial form of "Hej då". They compare to "goddag" which is now accepted for "god dag" which litterary means "good day".
"Hej då" = "Hello then", so it's rather stupid anyway :).
Lost my reply. Trying again~
I appreciate knowing the difference between the formal or "proper" form versus colloquial. Thank you.
I did test the colloquial form when I saw it in the drop down list; my answer was marked wrong. So it is suggested but not accepted. Curious. Perhaps an explanation is due.
Both versions should be accepted and if you get marked wrong when typing "hejdå" you should report it.
One problem that arises here is that if you omit the diacritics, i.e. the ring over the a, you get a completely different Swedish word; "hejda" which means to "stop". So, hejdå is correct, but not hejda.
Until the keyboard for special characters is provided, I cannot type the diacritics.
What is your comment about HelenCarlsson's opinion as stated below?
I do not share the aversion. Actually I would personally use "hejdå" since it looks more friendly to me. It is also faster to type. I made a quick check on google and "Hejdå" seems to be slightly more popular than "hej då", however, the Swedish Language Council recommends "hej då" so that is why we teach that as the best version.
On my phone's keyboard (SwiftKey on an Android) I can get all the diacritic variations for a letter simply by pressing and holding on the letter. On a PC, there are easier shortcuts than Alt plus a four digit code on the number pad - see https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Keyboard-shortcuts-for-international-characters-108fa0c1-fb8e-4aae-9db1-d60407d13c35 Although these are MS office shortcuts, I find they work in most browsers too.
You can, if you have a mac, input special characters by holding down the key for the base character, as in holding down "a" will give you the option for à á â ä æ ã å and ā, and while still holding the key, you can press the corresponding numeral key that will input the chosen character in place of "a".
Alternatively, and the only thing I can almost guarantee for PC users, is changing the regional setting on your computer. This can be done, on mac, through the settings, and then later changed quite efficiently through the top utilities bar, which also houses the battery display, volume, and time. A drop-down menu will display which region, and new characters will be assigned to the keys when you change them.
They have all you need for Swedish characters, and something similar should be available for PC's, or hopefully.
A Mac answer to typing the diacritics was answered, but if you are using Windows it provides a character map if you don't want to alter the keyboard layout. All of them I've seen so far are on the first page of that, and if you have a good memory provide keyboard shortcuts when selected. Alt+0228 = ä, alt+0229 = å, alt+0246 = ö.
One more for the record. On an Android device with a Bluetooth keyboard, you can get ä and ö by hitting Option-U followed by the normal letter. Haven't figured out an Android keyboard shortcut for å, so my only solution so far is copy-and-paste.
I am happy to hear that it is not accepted :)! To me "hejdå" is not even colloquial, just weird.
It's a contradiction perhaps as I used it because it was in the drop down menu.
You keep saying it's colloquial... But is there any difference in pronuncing it? Or is it only in writing?
I kept accidentally mousing over Hej and Duovoice sounded offended. It was funny!
275
It's easier to pronounce fast if you make it silent, especially if there's another consonant right after. We swedes are lazy!
- 884
thank you is tack, but tack så mycket is more … more like thanks a lot or thank you very much.
I tried that out too as "tack så mycket " is so common in Swedish, but you would only say Thank you in English in most of these cases. In Swedish we are simply making up for the lack of please lol
So "hej" means "hi" or "hello" and "då" means "bye" and if you combine those you get goodbye?
- 884
No, då on its own means 'then', you can't use it as a standalone greeting at all.
But if you add då to 'hej', you get goodbye
Is there a liason with "och" with certain words? I know the word by itself is lik (ock) but in this case, all i hear is "mycket (oo) hej då"
- 884
It's usually said like just a short [o] sound in normal speech, but the [k] sometimes appears if we're trying to speak a little more slowly and clearly. There also seems to be a small tendency that it's more likely that the [k] will be heard before a vowel. But basically it's usually not heard.
So is this a common phrase in Swedish or does it sound as awkward as it does in English?
I'm wondering if this could be seen as a sarcastic thing to say in Sweden like it could be in England?
- 884
tack så mycket is stronger than just thank you. You can do the same thing in English by saying thanks a lot or thank you very much instead, those are also not exactly on the same level as just thank you or thanks.
- 884
Try to stick a little closer to how the sentence is written. When it says och in the Swedish sentence, it probably should in the English translation, too. thank you so much is fine, but there's no reason to skip and in the translation.
i am from sweden but moved to australia when i was little now moving back at age 14 and i need to practise i know the basics by parents but this was really fast for me.
I think Swedish is the funnest language I've ever pushed myself to learn so far. It is quite challenging, but very pretty.
did you all know a secret- if you don't know the meaning of a word on duolingo, just hover and make your mouse stay there- you will see the answer of the question
a question before tack was shown as "please"... now does it mean "thanks" or "please"?
This sentence seems awkward. What makes it strange for me is the use of 'and'. In my language (Dutch), if i want to say something like this in a store for example, i would make it 2 sentences. Like 'Thank you so much. Goodbye.' So is that just me? Is it Dutch or have more people the same problem with this?
- 368
så = "so" / "so (much)" / "that (much)" (in English)
så = "so" / "ganz" (in German), depending on context
"Det gjorde så ont, så jag kunde inte stå upp" = "Es hat so viel Weh getan, dass ich nicht stehen konnte" (så = "so viel" in the first part and "dass" in the second part). Same example in English would be "It hurt so much, that I couldn't stand" (så = "so much" in the first part and "that" in the second part).
- 368
Hej dä???
ä is not the same vowel as å, so that's probably the reason why you're told that you're wrong. "Hej dä" wouldn't really mean anything at all to most Swedes I suppose - but where I grew up it would actually mean "Hello there" (i.e. a phrase you use when seeing someone or greeting someone, not something you'd use when saying goodbye).
ä is pronounced somewhat like the vowel sound in "there" (before the 'r').
å is pronounced somewhat like the vowel sound in "door" (before the 'r').
"thank you" and "please", respectively.
But how to use them can differ idiomatically.
- 368
"Tack" can be used for "thank you", "thanks" and "please", whereas I would personally only use "snälla" when begging (like "Snälla, kan du stänga fönstret?" - "Oh please, could you shut the window?"). Not sure if every Swede would have that distinction though.
Snälla, kan du stänga fönstret? - Oh please, could you shut the window?
Kan du vänligen stänga fönstret? - Could you please shut the window?
Kan du stänga fönstret, tack? - Would you mind shutting the window, please?
Skulle du kunna stänga fönstret? - Would you please shut the window?
Kan du stänga fönstret? - Would you shut the window?
(Note that I wouldn't normally use anything to express the "please" in the 4th version.)
Sorry if I confused you.
