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- "Jag hittade en igelkott i tr…
"Jag hittade en igelkott i trädgården."
Translation:I found a hedgehog in the garden.
12 Comments
Just for your knowledge, the word 'igelkott' should be pronounced like this: http://www.forvo.com/word/igelkott/#sv
So, this is actually happened to me, in another Germanic language country, and it confused the heck out of me. I was in Germany, and the family I was with started looking at something under a hedge, and they said to me "Guckmal! Igel..." (which sounds like "eagle"). So, my German being poor, I was thinking "How can there be an eagle under a hedge... it'd have to be a baby." and I look under there and I'm like "That's a hedgehog." and they go "Igel!" SO... ok. This was long before smart phones, so back inside, I get a German-English dictionary... and voila...
I always thought igelkott was a porcupine and not a hedgehog. Turns out porcupine is a piggsvin according to google translate. Now I know.
Could this sentence, depending on context, not be accurately translated as "... in my garden"? If you were at home and wanted to show your housemates the animal you found, I think the most idiomatic English usage would be "... in the garden." If you were at work though, telling your coworkers about what happened over the weekend, I think that "... i trädgården" would more more generally understood as "... in my garden [at home]" than "in the garden [in the office courtyard]", though not unambiguously. Is this an accurate interpretation of this sentence and it's meaning?
282
The way its pronounced it sounds a little bit like "needles cat" in Polish :D lit. igieł (needles) kot (cat). Although a hedgehog in Polish is "jeż".
- 513
I`ve just switched to my desktop computer to raise a question as I cannot on my ipad. In a Pippi Longstocking question later in this section the word TJEJEN is translated as girl which I know that technically it is but in my own mind I like to keep a differentiation between TJEJEN and FLICKAN so I use LASS and GIRL respectively. It would appear that Lass is not accepted. Is this because it is not common American English?
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I would expect "lass" to be used in Scotland, not Anerica. Yes, the word is in the dictionary, but not used colloquially.
"tjej" is definitely better translated as "girl", since it is easily the most often used word for any female under about the age of... 24 (even older, depending on the context). "Lass" would probably be more like "tös" which is not so common but still used every now and then. Basically, you just have to get used to the idea that where in English we would normally say "girl", in Swedish you can say either "tjej" or "flicka" and neither of them really sound odd. There are two words where we have one... in other things Swedes will use one word where we will use 7... like "jobbigt".
