52 Comments
Would this mean "his book" in the sense that it belongs to him, or that he himself wrote it? Or are both interpretations correct?
I think a lot of people don't know what is mean't by en words and ett words at this stage and how to determine them.
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Unfortunately the genders in Swedish are pretty unpredictable. Here's a link to a post that mentions some tendencies, but basically your best bet is just to learn the gender along with each new word.
One thing I've found that really helps me with this is to try to learn the word in the definite form, rather than in the indefinite form. For example: flicka (girl) - I learn it as 'flickan' (the girl) ... or ... hus (house) - I learn it as 'huset' (the house)
That helps me to get the gender and endings thoroughly attached to the word.
When you learn a new noun, make sure you learn the gender of it as well.
Is pronouncing the 's' in 'sin' suppose to sound like 'sh'? And if so, is there a rule to determine when it's suppose to be pronounced like that?
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The s sort of melts together with the final r of the previous word to produce this sound. This happens a lot, depending on how quickly or how carefully people speak.
I don't know what to really do, my native swede friends say that "rs" is "sh" but doesn't happen across words. How am I supposed to go on to pronounce these sentences? If it just "blends together in speech" are we supposed to be learning "colloquial" or "slang" speech versus proper enunciation? What's the true goal of this course then?
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I guess I'm a pretty normal speaker and I need to speak very slowly, maybe even make a pause between words, for this not to happen at all. It's definitely not a slang thing. The speaker sounds very Standard Swedish here. There is regional variation however. If you're from Finland or Scania, for instance, it will not happen. There is also this phenomenon that speakers often overestimate how much their speech resembles the way the language is written. Having said that though, what you should do is to make a weak sh sound here. As a foreign speaker, it is better to do too little than too much of this.
So it's alright to speak with an "open" i like the English word weak in stead of the Swedish "L"-sounding i? I can say this Swedish i sound when I say L with a very wide smile :D but not in a word. Can I stop practicing the i sound or will I always sound like a foreigner if I don't "close" my i's?
It is completely normal and most people do it all the time (also across words) even if some are not even aware of it.
Assimilation is very common in other languages too. For example, when I studied Spanish, you had to assimilate or else you wouldn't pass the oral exam.
When you hover over a word, all translations of it will be shown. That doesn't mean all of them will be correct in the given sentence. Sin must refer back to the subject, so above it can only mean his.
is the swedish /r/ near retroflex, or maybe post-alveolar, considering that it triggers palatalisation of /s/?
Han läser sin bok - He reads his book (his own)
Han läser hans bok - He reads his book (someone else's)
Han läser hennes bok - He reads her book
Hon läser sin bok - She reads her book (her own)
Hon läser hennes bok - She reads her book (someone else's)
Hon läser hans bok - She reads his book
Yes, definitely because it depends on the object. In this case Böcker is plural so it is correct :)
So what ive gathered so far is that ending in "n" goes with "en" words ends in "t" goes with "ett" words. Is this correct?
Can somebody explain to me the differences between sin sina and sitt. I'm very confused
You use "sin" för en-nouns, "sitt" for ett-nouns and "sina" for plural.
It's "sitt" before ett-nouns and "sin" before en-nouns:
Han läser sitt CV (ett CV)
Han läser sin bok (en bok)
Why the translation could not be: he reads her book? I understood that "sin" means "her" too.
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He reads her book = han läser hennes bok
The pronoun 'sin' can only be used to refer to the possession of the subject: He reads his book = han läser sin bok It means John reads the book that belongs to John.
On the other hand: He reads his book = han läser hans bok Meaning: John reads the book that belongs to Ben
You cannot use 'sin' to say that X reads Y's book, and if you have different genders, it is clear that there are two different people (at least)
When do you use: "Sin - sitt - sina" And when do you use: " Hans - Hans - Hans , Hennes - Hennes - Hennes"???
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You use 'sin, sitt, sina' in 4 cases:
1- a man called X does the verb to #, and # belongs to X. Example: X läser sin bok. 2- a woman called Y does the verb to #, and # belongs to Y. Example: Y älskar sitt barn. 3- a non-human called Z does the verb to #, and # belongs to Z. Example: Z (the name of my horse) äter sina äpplen. 4- a group called G do the verb to #, and # belongs to G. Example: X&Y tycker om sin hund.
You use 'hans' when X does the verb to #, # belong(s) to Y, Y is a male, and Y is not the same person as X. It doesn't matter whether # is singular or plural, and is doesn't matter whether it is common or neuter (en or ett). Examples: - Y är en man, X dricker hans olja. The oil belongs to Y - Y är en man, X älskar hans djur The animal belongs to Y - Y är en pojke, X äter hans äpplen The apples belong to Y
You use 'hennes' the same way as 'hans', but when Y is a female.
You use 'deras' the same way as 'hans', but when Y is a group (plural) of humans. (Not sure about a group of non-humans).
You use 'dess' the same way as 'hans', but when Y is a singular non-human. (Not sure about plural non-humans).
Hope it was useful!
Wow how long did it take you to write that lol but u seem smart thx for info :)
This is incorrect! Search up 'Swedish to English' then type "sin". It will show up has 'It's' NOT 'his'
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sin can mean 'his', 'hers', 'its', or 'theirs', depending on the subject. sin is a reflexive possessive pronoun that refers back to a subject in the third person:
han läser sin bok = 'he reads his (own) book'
hon läser sin bok = 'she reads her (own) book'
roboten läser sin bok = 'the robot reads its (own) book'
de läser sina böcker = 'they are reading their (own) books'
Don't rely on online translating services for languages, the interface doesn't understand context so it will come out as the constant or the generic term without looking at the words around it or applying it to a phrase, changing the meaning of the words/phrase and the words used
Tru dat (its like, when will humans finally learn correct grammar and spelling, right? Lol) :)
My mind is officially blown! I would kindly ask for an explanation: what the heck are sin/sitt/sina now >.< in last lessons it has ben said that, for example, 'han' uses 'hans', 'de' uses 'din/dit/dina'.... so while reading comments I came to conclusion that difference in sin/sit/sina and all the others from past 2 lessons (min/mitt/mina/din/dit/dina/vår/vårt/våra/er/ert/era/deras/hans/hennes) is in that: sin/sitt/sina 1. Can go with either jag/du/ni/vi/de/det 2. Mean that subject posses THEIR OWN stuff; and all the rest from past 2 lessons: 1. Go with each of these things (example: jag-min/mitt, de-ditt/dina...) 2. mean that subject has somebody else's possesion??? Am I right? And if i'm not, can any1 PLEASE clear this out for me <3 P.s. sorry for bad english.
