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- Topic: Swedish >
- "Jag tar av mig kläderna."
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Could you take someone elses clothes off? "Jag tar av honom kläderna."?
Why "mig" and not "mina"? I thought the former meant "me", while the latter meant "my" (plural).
mig has to be used since it's a reflexive verb. You could also say "Jag tar av mig mina kläder". "Jag tar av mig kläderna" is more common, though.
Also, the definite form of regularly occurring nouns can also be used as a possessed noun, as something someone is supposed to have. "Jag borstar tänderna" (I brush my teeth) is a good example of this, since teeth are something that people generally have, you can replace it (mina tänder) with the definite form :).
So a literal translation would be, "I myself take off the clothes"? And "Jag tar av mig mina kläder," would be "I take off my clothes myself?"
The entire verb here is ”ta av sig” which literally means ”take off oneself” so you have to include all parts of the verb. That’s why you say ”jag tar av mig kläderna” which is literally something like ”I take off myself the clothes”. It’s not that you do it yourself, but rather that you do it from yourself rather than from someone else.
Literal translations, word for word.
"Jag tar av mig kläderna." = "I take off myself the clothes"
"Jag tar av mig mina kläder" = "I take off myself my clothes"
The first one is similar to Spanish and Italian. They use a reflexive verb and then the definite article when referring to clothing or parts of the body. E.g. Mi sono rotto il braccio It, "I broke my arm." Me quité la chaqueta Sp, "I took my jacket off."
Understood, but shouldn't the translation be "I'm taking off the clothes" with the use of "kläderna"?
No. Your proposed translation leaves out the important me/my/myself part.
True, the Swedish uses the definite article "kläderNA". But what the Swedish actually means in English is that I am taking off my clothes, not "the" clothes.
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So far I can tell people what I'm wearing (har på mig) and that I'm taking my clothes off (tar av mig), but how do I actually get dressed in Swedish?
I replied "I take my clothes off" and it is flagged incorrect. I don't understand why, can someone help?
You might have had a typo that changed the meaning of your sentence.
Could you translate this as "I undress", or is the another way to say that?
That's because it's actually of, not off. ”The taking of one's clothes.” uses of but it's too hard to try and force of into this translation to reflect that. "I will partake of some wine" uses of this way but nobody is going to say "I will take of my clothes". Another swedish phrase "ta livet av sig” would not make sense with off instead of of. It refers to the taking of one's life. So you can see it's not really off.
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I am supporting this statement 100%, ^_^ But, I am unclear about AV. Does it represent both 'of' and 'off'?
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I got dinged for "I am taking off my clothes" instead of "I am taking my clothes off" surely that should be correct, right?
I was just reading another comment section about how Swedish prefers not to have possessives in these kinds of situations, like "Var har du i fickorna?" rather than "Var har du i dina fickorna?". Would it be better without "mig" in this case, or about the same?
To start with, it should be "vad har du i fickorna?" (var = where) and "vad har du i dina fickor?" respectively.
In this case, it sounds a little bit off not including a possessive pronoun. It's like what NattKullav was asking, it could mean both.
The reason is mainly because this is a verb with a possessive pronoun in it, "att ta av sig kläderna" (to take off your clothes).
Because it's a phrasal verb ta av sig, it has to keep that structure.
Can you split this phrasal verb? Like this:
"Jag tar inte av mig kläderna."
"Jag tar mina kläderna av mig ."?
You can! And inte goes after the actual verb in a main clause. But:
"Jag tar inte av mig kläderna" is fully correct.
Your second sentence has to be constructed "Jag tar av mig mina kläder".
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Us Germans are weeping because in German 'to get undressed' is both separable and reflexive (a superverb, as I sell it to my students). So, we naturally want to put 'av' at the end. Thank you for your explanation!
I may have missed a beat, why is 'kläderna' used and not just 'kläder'. Also, how does the differance between the two change the sentence?
With "kläder" it's a very general statement about taking of clothes, not even necessarily one's own clothes.
With "kläderna", it's a specific statement about certain clothes, in this case the speaker's.
It's definite clothes. "My" clothes are specific enough to be definite, without needing "the" in English but makes you want to use the definite form in Swedish.
the clothes = kläderna.
-na is what you put at the end of a definite plural noun
If "tar av mig" is reflexive as is "har på mig", shouldn't the translation be "I'm taking off the clothes"? "Kläderna" also is "the clothes" after all.
Your proposed translation leaves out the important me/my/myself part.
True, the Swedish uses the definite article "kläderNA". But what the Swedish actually means in English is that I am taking off my clothes, not "the" clothes.
I think I understand the concept, it’s just a peculiarity to get used to. For me this sounds literally like „I take off my the clothes.“
It's more like "I take the clothes off myself".
I'm worried that you are creating difficulties where none exist.
Don’t worry, it’s all good - this translation actually makes more sense, thank you.
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Try also the Norwegian course, a favorite sentence there is “The wolf is eating me”. Could be useful in Sweden.
Kan jag säger "jag tar av barnet kläderna, jag har på barnet kläderna?
Why it isn't the clothes? The hint gives that to you but it's the wrong answer??
The Swedish literally says "I take off myself the clothes". But English does not say that. English says "I take off my clothes".
So, to answer your question, it would be wrong to use "the "in the English translation, because English does not say it that way.
