- Forum >
- Topic: Swedish >
- "Yes, he does."
"Yes, he does."
Translation:Ja, det gör han.
37 Comments
2164
Perhaps it would be helpful for English speakers to equate this phrase with "Yes, that he does/is".
Eg: Does he like it? - Yes, that he does.
Is he sleeping? -Yes, that he is.
I don't know that it is terribly common these days, but I tend to use it quite a bit.
this was answered a year ago, but thank you, nevertheless!! Kinda put things in perspective for me :)
I have the same question; would you need to know the question being asked in order to use "jo"?
Because we don't know the question, both "ja" and "jo" are potentially correct, and are thus accepted answers.
- 1447
The reason you can't say "ja han gör" is that gör requires an object. So if you compare to 'make' instead it might get clearer – you wouldn't say "Yes, he makes" in English.
gör is not quite like 'does' in the English translation – 'does' is an auxiliary verb, but gör is a normal verb that can be used as a replacement verb instead of repeating the main verb. In English, you could say 'Yes, he does sing', but in Swedish, you cannot use gör together with another verb. Also of course you use 'do' in English to create questions, like 'Does he sing?', but gör is not used like that in Swedish.
This is exactly what I thought: the grammar in the answer seems to be, "yes, it does he". I wrote, "Ja, han gör", attempting to mean, "Yes, he does". Any further help here?
"Ja, det gör han" is the way we Swedes say "Yes, he does". " Ja, han gör" doesn't really mean anything in Swedish, it's not a full sentence. In this case, the question could be "Äter han?" meaning "Is he eating?" and the answer then "Ja, det gör han" with "det" pointing at "äter" = "eats", as in "Yes, (that) he does". "Det" could mean both "it" and "that", depending on context.
I'm not getting the difference between jo and ja. Apparently both mean yes.
Ja answers a positive question, jo answers a negative question.
"Äter du?"
"Ja"
and
"Äter du inte?"
"Jo"
See?
Could we use "Ja, han gör." without det, like in English "Does he do that? -Yes, he does (do that)."
why ? we already have the verb here ( gör ) and we have the subject ( han ) so what is the wrong with ( ja,han gör ) ?
- 1447
'Yes, he does' is the answer to a question like 'Does he …?' For instance: 'Does he speak Swedish? - Yes, he does'. In Swedish, we say this as Talar han svenska? - Ja, det gör han. This is the standard, idiomatic short answer to questions of this kind.
Ja, han gör det should normally be translated as 'Yes, he does it/that'. But it can also work if you want to say 'Yes, he does' (implying perhaps that someone else does not). It can actually have a third use too, if you stress gör a little bit, it sort of means 'Yes he does do that'. So I've added it as an accepted answer, but don't use it as the standard answer to short questions, because it will sound broken.
Can one say, "Ja, han gör det?"
Edit: Just found that Arnauti answered my question below.
No. If that's the question, the answer will be just "ja, jag äter" or "ja, det gör jag".
It just sounds strange to use gör without an object, I suppose.
I would like to add an observation here: the pronunciation of the English 'yes, HE does' suggests and invites a perfectly valid Swedish 'ja, HAN gör' - as if it is a question of who actually does 'it'. But yes, this is marked, emphasized, use.
