"Vi äter middag."

Translation: We eat dinner.

[Arnauti]

I wrote about the Swedish system for lunch and dinner etc here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/6176753

[jacob_sangi]

Thanks you, Arnauti! Very good guide for meal times :D.

[gibbano]

So 'i ate my dog' was wrong. .. :-)

[amuzulo]

Now there's a nice false friend. :)

[MarkHopman]

Being Dutch myself, I find this very confusing.

[amuzulo]

Precies! I was also confused because of Dutch.

[17000days]

What's the false friend?

[uncle_sam123]

Middag means afternoon in Dutch but dinner in Swedish

[Gray_Roze]

Also, middageten is lunch, which makes it even more confusing.

[Franzi361415]

In german nearly the same. "Mittag" means in german lunch

[4oYBIxtO]

Yes, "middag" would literally mean "middle of the day". Maybe a long time ago you had your main meal in the middle of the day, but now you have it in the evening but you still call it "middag".

[rfgiusti]

Isn't eftermiddag good afternoon in swedish?

[tieitsch]

And Mittag also means noon in German

[skyjo77]

And "zu Mittag essen" = "har lunch" in Swedish, f. i.

[Ungewitig_Wiht]

Stupid German got me confused! Mittagessen in German is lunch so i put lunch for middag. Oops

[22decembre]

As said elsewhere, it is logical, since Middag means "noon", as time of the day, but refer to dinner, when talking about meals.

[GreenThimble]

When is middag eaten? Dinner usually refers to the evening meal (in the US) but I have read books that refer to the midday meal as dinner.

[NormanAllanson]

Dinner in English has always meant the large meal of the day. Go back 100 years and dinner in North America was at midday. Now it is usually at end of afternoon. Swedes weren't thinking ahead when they named their big meal. :-)

[Zmrzlina]

Middag is eaten in the evening.

[DagamoStyle]

(native speaker) The pronunciation is often good, but not here. I am thinking about the world "Vi". If the emphasis is on the letter "i" , the word would be easier to recognize. First time I heard the sentence it sounded to me as "De äter middag".

[fidel.gonz1]

THANK YOU! TAK!!!

[devalanteriel]

Just FYI, "thank you" is tack. The word tak means "roof". :)

[Kagabati]

In Midwestern-ish America, people used to (some still do) refer to lunch as 'dinner' and dinner was called 'supper', so I've been told. That's how I remember that middag means dinner.

[paulovictormc]

What is 'middag' an ett or en word?

[JeroenVA]

En middag

[3SfVXnZ0]

In England we have lunch then dinner, or dinner then tea depending where you live. Dinner is a confusing translation ..

[devalanteriel]

I propose we just eat breakfast all day long.

[HayleyLuxt1]

Damn these comments are aggressive and the downvotes are strong

[ShiningAsSheFell]

I forgot the to capitalise the 'V' in 'Vi'. Apparently wrong.

[DanielODon19]

Why is lunch wrong?

[devalanteriel]

Please refer to the top comment by Arnauti.

[Mona125066]

Shouldn't this be 'we eat during the day' or alone thing like that

[devalanteriel]

No, why? :)

[Mona125066]

It's more of, why, middag is time of day and not lunch

[devalanteriel]

middag is the name of the evening meal. For an explanation of why, please check Arnauti's comment at the very top.

[PureVanilla18]

How can I tell if it's "we EAT dinner" or "we ATE" dinner. I put we ATE dinner and it was wrong.

[devalanteriel]

• we eat = vi äter
• we ate = vi åt

[RasmusHenr6]

The voice says "De äter middag" but the answer is "vi äter middag", the slow voice is correct however

[evanmulryan]

Do you pronounce the G

[devalanteriel]

No, it's usually quiet.

[MrRenma]

No! Don't eat me dog!