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If Duolingo just gives you the word "djur" without context, then you should be able to translate it either way for a correct answer. But in context, you can usually tell, just as with English words whose singular and plural are the same. (In fact, the English cognate of "djur" is one of those words: "deer".)
Does the pronunciation of djur change from plural to singular? I notice that the audio does sound different. Is it supposed to sound the same or not? Also, I have a hard time trying to pronounce this word. It is supposed to have more of a Y sound, or a J sound at the beginning?
Has anyone noticed the odd way djur is pronounced at the end of a sentence or phrase? The "djur" of Ett djur sounds as expected, but the "djur" at the end of the phrase is something like djurija, even though they are spelled the same. It seems not to have anything to do with the fact that the second one is a plural as it does the place in the phrase -- I've seen this problem elsewhere.
Native here, it obviously sounds like the TTS software is messing up at the end. The first djur sounds better. This woman pronounce it correctly too:
http://lexin.nada.kth.se/sound/djur.mp3
If you are unsure of a word, you can use this link below and replace "djur" with whatever word you'd like to hear pronounced.
1709
The audio you linked sounds like "jövere" to me. I understand that the d- is silent, but where does the -v- sound come from?
That's the Swedish rolling R. :) There's no V in there, that'd require you to touch your lips together but I assure you that's not the case.
There's also just a touch of the rolling R though, you kinda flick the tongue against the roof of your mouth once. That gives the abrupt ending so I think it might sound like a V to foreign ears.
The Swedish long U-sound moves the lips very close to making a V-sound, but not entirely there. That is why the untrained ear may hear a V in there, and why it may in some rare circumstances become a V-sound in speech. That's is why € is pronounced in Swedish as /evro/.
Is there a difference between "one animal, several animals" and "the animal, several animals?" I mean, obviously one makes more sense, but is there any linguistic difference?
it won't let me say 'an animal' instead of 'one animal' can someone please tell me why that is?
why is A animal counted as wrong? I know its AN animal but thats a mistake in english and not in swedish
Some people use these courses in reverse, or to brush up a language they don't know very well. For that reason the correct answers should be pointed out in both languages.
I thought djur was a pet like a house animal or something. All these years have been lies
The word "several" has a slightly formal feel about it, but at the same time it's rather vague. "A few", "a number of", even just "some" seem to cover it, but I haven't got any of these past DL. Of course, in some places they also say, "only a few, not many, a good few," etc and I once got "Several - or more" when I asked how many people had been at Church on a Sunday when I was on holiday.
