46 Comments
What an awesome response. Thanks for the laugh. Greetings from Finland!
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.
39
the clothes = kläderna.
-na is what you put at the end of a definite plural noun
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.
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"
- 691
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."
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 :).
- 125
So, "jag tar av kläderna." means I take someone's(not myself) clothes off, isn't it?
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).
- 981
Is it wrong if av is at the end of the sentence ? What's the reason av is after tar ?
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".
I replied "I take my clothes off" and it is flagged incorrect. I don't understand why, can someone help?
Could you translate this as "I undress", or is the another way to say that?
So apparently "I take my clothes off" is not correct and only "I am taking my clothes off" is correct. What is then the Swedish translation for "I take my clothes off"? I would translate "I am taking my clothes off" into Swedish as "Jag håller på att ta av kläderna" or "Jag står/ligger och tar av kläderna"
