"I like a girl."
Translation:Jag tycker om en flicka.
28 Comments
824
Read more about the verb tycker om here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/5892480
With the notable exceptions of ett barn and ett djur (same as in German and Dutch).
En and ett are grammatical genders (like der, die, and das in German or de and het in Dutch), you just have to learn them with the word.
Yeah and ”ett svin” and ”ett lejon” etc. There are no rules for gender in Swedish and therefore you could list many counter-examples. I was merely giving a rule of thumb.
You just have to know it by heart. It's one of the hard things about Swedish. However, as stated already, there somewhat of an animate/inanimate dimension to en/ett, with countless exceptions.
I'm not sure if this is just me but when you scroll on the translation for like "Gillar" it shows "Gilla" instead. Either are translations but it corrects to say "gillar" is the right choice yet the main option is "gilla".
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The hints are a bit tricky sometimes. You need to learn to pick the right one. :)
Tycka om is the basic form: to like.
When someone likes or is liking something, it's tycker om.
Is "om" only used with "tycker"? Eg. Jag tycker om en flika. Why no "om" in: Jag älskar en flicka?
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I guess "phrasal verb" is the correct English translation of "löst sammansatt verb", which is what my German teacher back in 7th grade told me that these verbs were called in Swedish (she even used "tycker om" as a Swedish example, since none of us knew any Swedish grammar terms). Thanks. I'll try to remember...
You're right - tycker om is indeed a löst sammansatt verb. There's a slight problem with that term, though - it's a little hard and serves little practical purpose to teach. It doesn't cover all multi-word verbs, after all, and it can be very confusing to separate them from particle verbs - with virtually no benefit to the learner. So we tend to use "phrasal verb" because it works as a cover-all term. :)
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Thanks for the clarification! Good idea to use a more universal term as well, even though it was new to me! :-D
So, let me undedrstand this... when we say "I like a girl (or somebody)" we need to say this "om" and when we say "I love a girl" we don't need the "om"? it is correct?
Yes - many Swedish verbs are so-called phrasal ones, which consist of more than one word.
tycker om is one such verb. The om is part of the verb. But älskar is not a phrasal verb, it's just one word.
Swedish has many verbs that consist of multiple words. One of them is tycker om. Both words are required for the meaning, so you can ignore what each word means in isolation.
