23 Comments
Reading from the possible answers, Swedish doesn't have a difference between effective and efficient. Is that correct? If so, can the difference be made with other adjective words?
I asked the same question on another thread, and the vibe I got was that Swedes think of the two concepts as inextricably linked. Which, if true, is an interesting cultural insight.
I dont really get why effektivt has the ending -t. Tolkarna is used in definite plural and i expect to come with effektiva. What have I missed?
It is an adverb here (they are working efficiently), as such it has the ending -t. If the sentence had been The interpreters are efficient, then "Tolkarna är effektiva" would have been correct.
It's unfortunate that this ended up here, but there is a logical explanation since many Swedish adverbs simply are the t-gender adjectives. We are looking into this to see what we can do about it.
Ohh that's the point. Adverbs is the next skill right after the adjectives, that's why I got confused. Tack!
1721
Swedish and English (and German, Danish, Dutch etc.) both are Germanic languages. You will find tons of words that are obviously related to each other. Yes, chances are that "effektiv" and "effective" are related, taken from Latin "effectiv|us, -a, -um".
- 1385
I tried "translators" and it told me that was incorrect, is this a different meaning of interpreter in Swedish than the equivalent of translator?
- 894
Yes, an interpreter is en tolk and a translator is en översättare. (Actually there is also a Swedish job title en translator, used by authorized translators).
sorry, but seems that i forget a rule! can someone let me know why effectivt, and not effektiva. i dont remember why should the T is added at the end
- 1385
I believe it is because you are modifying the verb arbetar and not the noun tolkarna and adverbs are most often the neuter form of the adjective.
tack för din svar. does it mean effektivt is an adverb here not an adjective? if yes, do all the adverbs get T? seems that still is do not understand it properly
- 1385
A native Swede can come in and correct me if I am wrong, but if a word has an adjective and an adverb form, the adverb form is usually the neuter form (there are some words that have their own adverb form and some that exist only as an adverb). IE "en långsam man" is "a slow man" but "en man springer långsamt" is "a man runs slowly." (I adjusted it so they both have en man)
A general rule of thumb that has helped me is that when not using a noun, Swedes tend to default to the neuter form. For example the sentence "it is raining" is "det regnar" or "it is cold" is "det är kallt." Notice that the "it" in these sentences are "det" and in the latter I used kallt instead of kall. As far as I can tell, this extends to adverbs as well.
Since tolkarna is plural why isn't it effektiva instead of effektivt?
It's used as an adverb in this sentence, not as an adjective. See one of the other comments
