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- Topic: Swedish >
- "You have a letter."
"You have a letter."
Translation:Du har ett brev.
90 Comments
They do mean the same thing. It's arbitrary how it's set up, so you just need to memorize them unfortunately.
In English, "a" & "an" mean the same thing, but you still have to learn which on to use.
'an' is always used for words starting with a vowel and 'a' is used for words starting with a consonant.
No, not quite. an comes before words that sound as if they start with a vowel, even if they don't. eg "He is an FBI agent".
My point remains the same though; words that mean the same thing are not necessarily interchangeable.
Ha = To have Har = (I/he/she/it/ni/dem... all forms) have. En or ett is tricky, but brev is ett (ett brev). You can see that on the ending of "the letter" (brev"et"). Another example, "the dog" (hund"en") - en hund. Did I explain clearly or is this messed up?
but why should you use "ni" and not "du"? in the sentence, "you" may be either singular r plural
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Yes, both work (and you must choose both if you get it as a multiple choice question). du for singular you and ni if 'you' refers to more than one person.
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@hpfan5 Could be some glitch or even bug, in that case if you could share a screenshot we'll report it to Duo. Most likely though the two alternatives weren't exactly that but you missed some sneaky detail. The wrong answers are computer generated and can be really tricky in unhelpful ways sometimes.
thanks for that. I'm going to try to follow your logic to guess others in future! I guess you have to know the correct word to begin with, but then "ett" or "en" becomes obvious, based on what makes it "the"?
It is "the" when it is attached to the back of the word "-et" or "-en" or "-an". It is "a" or "an" when it is separated and in front of the word: "ett" for neuter words and "en" for common words This is a combined category which includes words that are not neuter. (Originally masculine and feminine, but now one group.)
Is there any logic to which words are neuter and which are common? Or is it pretty much random?
It is rather arbitrary, but because common includes 2 genders, more often if you have to guess, try common, especially if it ends in -a. I prefer to look it up in a dictionary when I don't know. Words that are the same in singular and plural are more often neuter, but it is not likely that I know that if I don't know the gender. The following don't make it much clearer, but they use different examples which helped me memorize some. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_grammar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_gender http://blogs.transparent.com/swedish/dogs-and-houses-swedish-gender-and-articles/ http://jagfattarinte.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/swedish-language-analysis-part-i/ http://blogs.transparent.com/swedish/the-logic-behind-swedish-noun-gender/ http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t11494.htm http://www.conservapedia.com/Swedish_language http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Simplified_Grammar_of_the_Swedish_Language/Part_I/Articles http://aboutworldlanguages.com/Swedish http://www.everything2.com/title/swedish
This youtube was clear to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1p4qXO9ekI
http://ielanguages.com/swedish1.html
The following lists (n) after words that are neuter and nothing after words that are common. http://www.ielanguages.com/swedish3.html
The dictionary: http://www.ord.se/oversattning/engelska/
Because it's possible that the person speaking is talking about multiple objects owning the letter. "Ni" is "you" plural (like vosotros in Spanish) and "du" is "you" singular (like tu) (--also, can't do accents on this computer, sorry about that.)
Ni is plural. So du would be talking to one person, ni would be to two or more.
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No
vi = speaker and at least one other (speaker/s, listener/s, third person/s)
ni = listener and at least one other (listener/s, third person/s but not speaker)
Ni is like y'all, while du is like you. Most of us say you and you, instead of you and y'all :)
Du = you, a single person. Ni = you, a group of people.
I remember it like this, Du = you or thou. Ni = ye/ all of ye.
Du har ett brev or Du har en bokstav will work it is easier if you say ''en bokstav''
Ett brev = a letter you write to someone.
En bokstav = a letter of the alphabet, e.g. E P M Å Ö F.
I saw something that referred to ett words and enn words being similar to "a"or "an" in english. Like in english you would say "an apple" not "a apple" because apple starts with a vowel. Is this the same kind of thing?
Yes, but it's a little different. ett isn't only used with words that start with vowels, and you have to memorize which noun uses what.
No, en and ett have nothing to do with the first letter of the next word so they don't work at all like "a" and "an" though they have the same meaning.
En goes with common gender words like pojke (boy), apa (monkey), penna (pen). En pojke, en apa, en penna.
Ett goes with neuter gender words like barn (child), äpple (apple). Ett barn, ett äpple
Ni har ett brev, du har ett brev- both mean "you have a letter" so why i am false?
If you got a multiple-choice question, it instructs you to choose all correct answers. Try selecting both "Du har ett brev." and "Ni har ett brev." at the same time if you see both choices are exactly correct.
Ofo why here is it giving something completely oppodsite, the previous time it gave me the same thing but my answer was wrong as "ni har ett brev" then why is "du har ett brev" wrong when they asked the same question???
It depends on which type of question it gave you. If it's multiple choice, you must select both correct answers. English you translates to both du and ni because we don't know if it's singular (du) or plural (ni). If it's not a multiple choice type of question, it will accept either answer (if you don't make a typing mistake). If it's asking you to translate either of the Swedish words, you will be accepted.
Am I right in thinking Ni is a "formal singular you" but not used very often and it usually means "plurual you" ?
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Ni is a "plural you". Sometimes it used as "formal singular you", mainly by Swedish speakers in Finland. In Sweden many people against it.
A letter that you write, consisting of many lines across a page, and then seal in an envelope to mail is a brev. However, a bokstav is a written character ie a symbol. For example, the "letter" A or the "letter" B are bokstäver, not brev.
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du = thou, only one you - (one person)
ni = you all, you+other(s) (he/she/they but not I) - (more than one person)
I'm a little confused about when we use "du" and when we use "ni". Please help.
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Use "du" to one person, "ni" for more than one person or you are a salesperson try to speak politely with your customer.
They are irregular and have to be remembered with the noun. Compare their use to la/el in Spanish, der/die/das in German or la/le in French.
"Du har ett brev." is exactly the translation listed at the top of this discussion page.
But i got "ni har ett brev" as the wrong answer why, is he asking that why can't it be "du har ett brev" ???
If it's a multiple-choice question, you have to select both. Otherwise, either one would be accepted as correct.
The app wants to see brev in all the exercises I've seen. bokstav is a different word, with a different meaning.
My problem was that I entered "Du har en brev." The app proposed the correction "Du har en bokstav." I think it's more reasonable when the app proposes the correct article instead of introducing a new noun. I'm german, I know the difference between bokstav (Buchstabe in German) and brev (Brief in German). That's why I was puzzled.
Ah, yes I see. Well, the program tries to guess a close match when it sees your typos. It sometimes does a bad job and guesses wrong. It doesn't actually prefer bokstav over brev. It just was confused on which accepted answer it should suggest to you based on that particular typo. The algorithm is imperfect.
Why is it you(plural) have a letter not you you(singular) have letter, if i am not mistaken "du" is for you(plural), and "ni" is for you(singular)
You could at least put if you is plural or not, I already know the difference between Ni and Du but I can't know when to use it if you're not putting whether it's plural or not XD
It says clicking anything is wrong for me. Though I got it correct the second time, and then again when it reappeared as a question. :/
If it was multiple choice, you must select both correct answers. Selecting any one by itself is marked incorrect.
Take a look at the other comments and you'll find that answered several times. :)
In all the exercises before this, the word "brev" was used. In this one, it was incorrect, the correct one being "en bokstav"
No, I don't think so. Brev is in the primary accepted answer. It probably accepts the other as an alternate answer. If it suggested bokstav, it's probably just because it thought your answer looked more similar to that accepted answer than the other accepted answer. The other comments have talked about this.
Well, Zmrzlina talked about that already on this page a couple times but you can also read the very first lesson in this course found here. It takes practice but there's also more detail found here.
You need to work on the "Du" "Ni" issue i'm not sure if it true or not but it needs some explaining
du is singular; ni is plural. See other comments. Also, if both are correct translations and you see both as options on a multiple-choice exercise, you are required to select both.
You used the wrong word. Du har en bokstav.
pretty sure thatäs Norwegian . . .
Du har en bokstav is an accepted translation, so perhaps there was something else amiss.
This "about" writes correctly Du for You. The answers provided in the question has NI for You. This is not wrong in Swedish but Ni is not used in this form anymore. Ni tends to be the plural for a singular form Du. Using Ni in its singular form is seen as old fashion.
