"According to her, the horse is white."
Translation:Enligt henne är hästen vit.
51 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
The verb always has to be the second position in the sentence like in German. So, if the first part of the sentence is a phrase, then the verb comes before the subject.
883
Yes! If you know german it helps a lot to think "how would it be in german" - so: Nach ihr ist das Pferd weiß".
Even if the "According to her" in this case is a bit difficult to translate into everday german. Or I can't think of a propper way (me being german)
It helps too if you know Dutch. This "V2" fenomenon is typically germanic. "Volgens haar is het paard wit."
I'm native Dutch, and I get it wrong every time because I translate from English when using Duolingo hahaha
- 848
Almost. but while this sentence is grammatically correct, it sounds unnatural, and you would never hear a native German speaker say it like this. What would work better is “Ihr zufolge ist das Pferd weiß”. It means the same and would be translated the same way in both, Swedish and English, as presented in this phrase, but you also sound more natural in German, then.
- 740
I'm a native German speaker (Austrian) and at least in Austria the sentence "Laut ihr ist das Pferd weiß" like ennadenk has written, would be completely normal in a daily conversation. -> well, beside that we don't discuss the colour of the horses on a daily basis obviously
Yes, I would also say that "Laut ihr ..." sounds more natural, at least from where I come from. The other option sounds more formal to me, but I guess that's just semantics.
- 848
I would translate it more naturally, translating it as: „Ihr zufolge ist das Pferd weiß.” I'm being petty, of course, but meant no offence against you. :-)
Because of the V2 rule, I believe. "enligt henne" is in first position as the fundament, so second position has to be the verb, "är".
It's a rule that states that the verb wants to go in second position in the main clause. All Germanic languages have it to some extent, except for English.
As an English teacher I would like to inform you that English is indeed a V2 language. In English "according to him" is treated as a prepositional phrase, but it appears to be a noun phrase and the subject here.
Swedish does not have grammatical punctuation (such as with German, Danish and English), but rather tydlighetskommatering, meaning something like "clarity punctuation". It means that Swedish uses commas to help readability and understanding of a sentence rather than to separate main clause and subclauses. Thus, Swedish does not want commas between two clauses that intimately belong together thematically, but rather between two relatively free-standing parts of the same sentence.
"tydlighetskommatering"... I love Germanic languages and their ridiculously long words hahaha
I have subscribed to The New Yorker for decades. I battle with their editor constantly on commas! Commas formerly removed are now inserted everywhere grammatically possible. I cannot stand it! Fewer commas are better in this area, so long as grammar rules are followed. :-)
Okay Swedish. I call your bluff. How would one say "According to her, is the horse white?" If starting with "Enligt henne..."
Checkmate, Swedish.
Is the sentence : "Enligt henne, hästan är vit" could be accepted ? If not, could anyone point me out to an article that describes why?,.. Tack !
It's been explained twice in this thread. For a longer text about Swedish word order, see my post here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/8970470
Tack så mycket Arnauti ! This "word order" thing is really, really driving me nuts. I am currently stuck in my learning process because of it.
It's probably the hardest part of Swedish grammar, so no wonder. Just keep at it and keep doing the exercises and you'll get a feel for it. :)
This is amazing, thank you! But it does truly mess with me head after a while!
am i undrestand ? if enligt comes first verb should come before subject so, is the sentence ( hästen är vit enligt henne ) is true?
why not hennes? Does 'hennes' mean 'she' and that's why I got it wrong? Also in what situations does inversion happen?
No, hennes is possessive. You would use it to say the horse is hers, meaning the horse belongs to her.
- 12
I find this inversion so awkward. It's hard to guess when it is needed because Swedish is otherwise so easy to grasp.
It's a pity a lightbulb on word order hasn't appeared before...unless I've missed it.
Many thanks for the explanations/links though!
English is even worse about that, like, "According to her, the horse is white.", vs, "Only according to her, is the horse white."
This makes little sense to me...
I think as a German it's really easy because it seems that 99% of the time the word order is the same :)
Does anyone else see "enlighten" in this Swedish word as a memnonic? Enlighten me? Well, according to her this is how it is. :-)
So is 'Is the horse white', 'ar hasten vit'? I understand the v2 rules but this then is confusing with the question.
Yes, that's correct: Är hästen vit?
The v2 rule doesn't apply to direct questions!
Why is there no vocabulary with these words in the explanation? How can you learn these words when they are not explaned...
'Hästen är vit enligt henne' makes this sentence a little more palatable for sure.
- 848
If I remember correctly, and I certainly don't, vit is male singular, and vitt is neutral, singular. But please wait for someone to correct me before taking this comment as right on point.