"Flickan som äter ett äpple tycker om hästar."
Translation:The girl who is eating an apple likes horses.
30 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Is there an explanation why "The girl that eats an apple likes horses" is not an accepted answer? I mean, there is just the one relative pronoun "som", so why shouldn't I use "that" which is universal in English?
In English, when you are speaking of a person it should be "who." When you speak of a thing, then it's "that."
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Omg, now finally I understood when use "who" and when "that" in english) On swedish lessons, lol) Thank you))
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Technically you're right, but in casual language, it's mostly not observed. "that" should be accepted here.
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I read the Swedish sentence and understood the concept so I typed in "The girl that is eating an apple likes horses" twice and "The girl that eats an apple likes horses" once and neither was accepted. Duolingo seems to be a bit strict with English grammar though. I remember years ago doing one regarding cats sleeping and it was strict there as well. The sentence was "One of the cats is sleeping" but I went for "One of the cats are sleeping", the difference being that you're talking about only one cat so "is" should be used. I can understand the strictness though because, after all, Duolingo is a website to learn how to understand languages properly.
Could you not also say, "the girl eating an apple likes horses" ... less formal and arguably more current than "the girl who is eating an apple..." the "who is" is implied already (I think!)
Could somebody please explain this sentence with respect to the V2 rule? Is it that "The girl who eats an apple" is the "first part" of the sentence and tycker om is the verb? If so, does the V2 rule not apply to the first part of the sentence itself given that it too contains a verb? I am so confused!
You’re right. The first constituent of the phrase is [Flickan som äter ett äpple], then comes the verb in the 2nd position [tycker om]. The reason that the verb is not in the 2nd position in the 1st constituent is because som is a relative pronoun which introduces a new clause, so äter is in the 2nd position in the clause som äter ett äpple.
'som' is the relative pronoun which opens a new clause: "Flickan [som äter ett äpple] tycker om hästar" -> in this case, you could replace 'who' by 'that'
'vem' is an interrogative pronoun which introduces a question: "Vem tycker om hästar?" - "Flickan som äter ett äpple."
They are both 'who' in English, which is a bit confusing, but they have different functions.
Nice to notice that if you remove the phrase beginning with 'som' the sentence is straight forward .. The girl likes horses. Flickan tycker om hästar. The phrase 'som äter ett äpple' is just "breaking up" the other phrase.
With all due respect, this native speaker of English finds nothing wrong with 'the girl that is eating an apple..." While this may be considered colloquial by strict grammarians, Duolingo often accepts such phrasing. Thanks for your work on this excellent program.
Ah! Perfect explanation. Tack så mycket! Might take a while before I can regularly apply this to other sentences but that helps a lot!
Not to be picky, but to be clear : Can the word "vem" be used as "who" in this sentence, or is it only applyable to a question?,.. like this : "Flickan vem äter ett äpple..."
No, "vem" cannot be used as a relative pronoun. It can only ask for someone.
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A question for English speakers: I have never heard likeS before. Is it common to use like that? Would it be wrong if i say "the girls eats an apple like horses"? Thanks :)
"Likes" is used with "he, she and it" whereas "like" is used with "I, you, we and they" so for example: She likes it. He likes it. I like it. we like it.
The sentence "the girl eats an apple like horses" doesn't really make perfect sense and almost implies that the girl eats an apple the same way a horse would. Instead of enjoying apples.
But if you did mean to say that, you would write: "The girl eats an apple like a horse"
I still feel confused in regards to when I should use 'en' or 'ett'. Which section of the course was that in?
Hello Ian. It is something that has to be learned by heart, for each word that is a noun. Like in other languages where things can have a masculine and feminine form, Swedish has an "n" and "t" difference. Nothing can predict which it's going to be. It's a word for word exception. So each time you learn a new word, try to find out immediately if it's a "n" word, or a "t" word.
Thanks for the heads up. I had learned spanish in high school and in undergrad, so it's been interesting trying to learn to NOT differentiate things by A's and O's
In fact, there are some rules of thumb that my Swedish teacher taught us: people are usually "en"-words (except for ett barn), typical "Swedish" or Germanic words are usually "en"-words and words from other languages are usually "ett"-words.
I have completed all levels of this conjunctions section. I just went back in to do the practice - and get "som" two sentences in a row. How can it be that even after having done all lessons in all levels I have still not been introduced to all the vocab? Usually, that has happened by the time you reach level 1. Just a glitch?
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I think I get it. Any English translation that uses"who" will be marked wrong because the word for "who" dirs not appear in the Swedish original.
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I think I get it. Any English translation that uses"who" will be marked wrong because the word for "who" does not appear in the Swedish original.