27 Comments
Is this an irregular word or is there something about vatten which causes that e to vanish?
When words end on ”-en” the -e- historically became so unstressed that it vanished when a suffix came after it. Therefore ”vatten” → ”vattnet”. Same thing often happens with -er and -el as well and also occurs when you add a plural suffix: ”nyckel” → ”nycklar”, ”trogen → trogna”, etc.
Thank you for the explanation, Lundgren. I feel kind of bad, because I just noticed that the whole thing was already explained by the Tips section and I just failed to read that first -_-
The tips section isn't available in the app. Only from the web version.
So those of us who use the app greatly appreciate explanations in discussions.
If you click on a lesson scroll down without clicking a mini lesson it should be under Tips and Notes.
Just in this one instance, I'm hearing "vattnet" as "nattnet". TTS error?
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Showed to two native Swedish speakers who couldn't work out wtf it was saying either. Crap like this was more forgivable when it was completely free but when you're piling on the ads and asking for paid upgrades I expect better than complete mispronunciation of basic words
I just wonder, if there is "the water", then "a water" also exists? What it could possibly mean then?
You wouldn't "a water", because it's the same meaning as "water". The water is vattnet and water is vatten.
I'm not sure in Swedish, but I can give some examples of "the water" in English.
The most common one that comes to mind: "Come on in; the water's great!"
Another possibility: three people are eating at a restaurant. They each order a different beverage. One orders orange juice, one orders apple juice, and one orders water. The waiter comes back to hand them out, but forgets who ordered which drink. Picking up one of the cups, he asks, "Who ordered the water?"
One more: "We went to the beach on our vacation, but it was too cold to go in the water."
All of those sentences would indeed use "vattnet" in Swedish too. 1) "Hoppa i, vattnet är toppen!" 2) "Vem beställde vattnet?" 3) "Vi åkte till stranden på vår semester, men det var för kallt för att gå i vattnet."
I agree it's annoying when you hear something wrong and then you get the question wrong but I don't agree that you should blame the website because you heard something wrong. If you get it wrong, you've learnt your lesson and you'll get it right the next time.
I still cant understand when I need to say vatten when vattnet :/ Are there any rules?
Neither do we, since we can't see your answer. :) What did you put?
