"He is not drinking the beer."
Translation:Han dricker inte ölet.
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What is best between ölen and ölet, both being suggested as a correct answer? (as you can tell, I left off the definite article)
"Ett öl" is the actual liquid/beer itself and "en öl" is like regarding it as a unit, so you order "en öl" and that's correct but what you're drinking is "ett öl." The same thing applies to coffee: you order "en kaffe" but you drink "ett kaffe."
You can also mean you are drinking "one beer" instead of two or three :D
I think in English when you are meaning the liquid you most commonly would say "He is not drinking beer".
Jag dricker ölen / I am drinking the beer (I've ordered)
Jag dricker ölet / I am drinking beer
Does it makes sense?
It's hard to think of a direct English equivalent since Swedes are so much more direct in what they say. For instance, in English it would be sufficient to say "This morning I had a coffee." In Swedish, you never HAVE a coffee or HAVE a beer, you DRINK a coffee, DRINK a beer, EAT a sandwich, etc. They are very particular, so it makes perfect sense that they would differentiate between drinking beer and ordering a unit of beer. :)
It's the same in Swedish as in English – öl/beer if you're speaking about beer in general, ölet/ölen/the beer if you're speaking of some specific beer, which is the case in this sentence.
813
Is it accurate to say that "Ett öl" is treating "beer" as a mass noun and "En öl" is referring to it as a typical, singular noun?
En öl/kaffe/(insert drink here) is like saying "I want a coffee" at Starbucks, a shortening of "a cup of koffee/beer/whatever"
ehhhh I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. I think the best thing to keep in mind as the difference is "en öl" is a unit of beer and "ett öl" is the liquid itself.
- 813
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_noun
For example, "rope", "string", "water", "oil", "beer", "paper" and so on refer to the general concept or an unspecified quantity of the substance, while "a rope", "the oil" and so on refer to a specific item thereof, a "count noun".
I would prefer ölen any day. I'd only use ölet if spoken about a specific brand of beer.
Gillar du Guinness? (Do you like Guinness?) Ja, jag gillar det ölet (said every person ever)
I prefer ölen, especially when referring to a glass or bottle of beer. However, I would say "ölet flödar" which means the beer is flowing.
I would prefer to say "ölen", and i guess it is more common in spoken Swedish. But I tend to mix it a bit, not sure if there's a rule.
I put in Han ar dricker inte olet. Is that wrong because it told me to remove the ar but wouldn't it make sense or am I brain farting right now Lol
"dricker" can translate to "drinks" or "is drinking"
"är dricker" is repetitive and unnecessary :)
Swedish doesn't have a gerund form (I think it's called). Just like German and Danish, but unlike English and the latin languages.
Han dricker = he drinks // he is drinking
What is the difference between inter and ej? It does not explain ej and only accepts ej as answer
They're both the same! However "inte" is a bit more casual and used when speaking to others. "Ej" is a bit more formal and mostly used on signs and things.
Why is ej used instead of inte it doesnt make any sense why you would replace both is and not with ej
ej is a formal word that means the same as inte. It's used quite a bit on signs, but basically never in speech.
When you type something that is not a correct answer, the machine tries to match your input to the closest accepted answer. Because of this, you can sometimes get shown words that are only accepted, not taught.
Since I don't know what you put, I can't explain to you why it wasn't accepted.
I put "Han inte dricker ölet" and told it was wrong? Why is "Han dricker ej ölet" better?
The verb needs to go in second place in the sentence (in main clauses that are not questions).
inte is the word normally used, ej is a more formal version that is rarely used.
drycker is the plural of the noun dryck, which means 'drink' as in 'beverage'
dricker is the verb 'drinks'
as a girl born and raised in sweden i can confirm that ölet sounds really weird and is something i would never say...
Okay. It's very common in Sweden, though. A quick googling on ölet gives results on Wikipedia, Systembolaget, several large breweries, newspapers, etc.