"Vi är flera syskon i familjen."
Translation:We are several siblings in my family.
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First link: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/6014446
Second link: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/6094128
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In Spanish the literall translation is fine, so the use of "There are" was confusing to me. Learning some English too! Thanks.
From my own experience, it is actually becoming more common in Swedish to refer to your own family members and partner in the definite form, especially among male speakers, and not use a possessive pronoun. I'd bet there are a lot more guys other there who refer to their girlfriend as "tjejen", than there are girls who call their boyfriend "killen". The definite is also more common when using colloquial terms, e.g. "syrran, tjejen, farsan" vs. "systern, flickvännen, fadern" (c.f. "min syster, min flickvän/tjej, min far"). I believe "familjen" enjoys a much wider usage though, when the fact that it is my family is implied by the context.
I have an idea about what could be confusing!
The Swedish sentence says: Vi är flera syskon i familjen". Since we don't use the possessive pronoun before family (it would have been min familj), we have to say "vi är" or else it could be any family. (compare to : "Det är flera syskon i familjen" which could be any family).
Now to the default English translation: Here, the possessive pronoun "my" is used with family, so we already know which family we are talking about. Then, it is okey to use the neutral "There are" in the beginning.
So there are just two different ways to specify that it's my family:
Vi är... blablabla... i familjen
There are... blahblahblah... in my family
Come on now! Swedish is fun. And easy :)!
I am coming back to Swedish now that I have more time & now I find it easier :3 But I just read your explanation again... Could you also say "Det finns blablablabla i familjen"? Because in English it sounds unnatural to say "We are several siblings in the family" -- that is different from "There are several siblings in our family" o_O
Is this just a Swedish thing to say?
"Det finns många syskon i familjen" is a perfectly normal sentence, but it sounds as if you are talking about another family (there is no "vi" and there is no "vår").
If you really want to say "Det finns många syskon i min/vår familj", people will of course understand what you mean :). It just sounds a bit unnatural in Swedish.
To me, the Swedish sentence doesn't sound difficult or unnatural at all. The one in English, though, is confusing. "There are several siblings in my family" So, you have several siblings? Or does it mean there are several people in the same generation, and they all have siblings? (So, no cousins who are only children) ❤❤❤. It just sounds bizarre in English. I think if it was supposed to mean "I have several siblings", that's how it should've been translated, instead of making a calque from Swedish.
No, "There are spoons in the kitchen" would be "Det finns skedar i köket".
The reason why the sentence above looks the way it does is because it is not possible to make a direct translation between Swedish in English.
A direct transltaion would be "We (Vi) are (är) several (flera) siblings (syskon) in (i) the family (familjen)".
So "vi är" only means "We are", nothing else.
Oh okay, thanks I understand that. I understand the "We are several siblings of a family" part, but there was a second correct translation suggestion that said "THERE ARE several siblings of a family" which confused me a lot because vi är wouldn't make sense to be "there are"...
Thanks, I kinda understand it now
The official answer to this one reminds me of one reason why I am so grateful to the contributors for the Swedish course. I want to thank you for allowing the literal English answer to this and many other phrases in the course. I'm in several courses and this is my favorite because it is the only one I know that consistently accepts the literal english rather than insisting on a paraphrase that is typically how it MIGHT be worded in English. Thank you for trusting us to understand what the paraphrased English might normally be while accepting the literal translation. In this question, you allow me to answer using the literal, "We are many siblings in the family." THANK YOU!
Allowing me to answer with the literal translation helps me to practice the Swedish word order in my head. And that, in turn. helps me to understand MUCH better how a native Swedish speaker might word another sentence that is not covered in Duolingo and helps orient my brain to thinking in Swedish, which is the key to being able to speak the language with someone else.
I wish the Czech course was as forgiving about this because Czech has some difficult to remember word order rules that would be easier to remember if my English answer could be literal rather than paraphrased, especially when the literal English is often quite acceptable (even though it might be rare to hear). Great job, Swedish contributors! You've made this course a joy to me.
Yes! Scrolled a long way to find this thread. A professional translator would surely rephrase the thought and say "I have several siblings". This exercise is one of those cases where different languages express the same thought differently and no translation is going to please everybody. But in this case the Swedish and English sentences proposed by Duolingo do not mean the same thing.
I thought it was clear that the Swedish sentence implies that the speaker is one of the siblings. But an earlier comment said to think of the Swedish sentence as "We are WITH several siblings in the family". That suggests to me that the speaker is just saying there are several siblings, without implying that they are one of them.
I am very confused now.
I understand the logic behind saying it like this, altough it is confusing when you compare it to english. I am wondering, if these sentences would also be correct: "Det är flera syskon i min familjen" "Jag har flera syskon i (min) familjen" ( Now that I type it I suppose this way you're not mentioning clearly that they are Your siblings)
Even though Balder94 suggests adding "min"? I.e. does it still sounds unnatural to Swede's ears and in that exact case we should really stick to "vi är"? Also, are there any similar cases where we should use "vi är"? For example "there are several of us in the garden". Should it also be "vi är" here?
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It does. See HelenCarlsson's comment from 5 years ago for a good explanation of why vi is used here.
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Why "Vi är flera syskon i familjen" instead of "Det finns flera syskon i familjen"?
Or perhaps swedes more commonly say "we are many siblings" instead of "there are many siblings"?
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See HelenCarlsson's comment from 5 years ago for a good explanation of why vi is translated as there in this specfic use.
For the avoidance of doubt, can this be said by a member of the family who is not one of the siblings, or does the use of 'vi' imply that I am included in the siblings?
i.e. as a man, if I wanted to say that there are several sisters in my family, could I/would I/should I say "Vi är flera systrar i familjen."?
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I honestly dont care about the liguistics here, the english sentence just sounds illogical and isnt the right translation
1696
- ett syskon... a sibling
- syskonet... the sibling
- syskon... siblings
- syskonen... the siblings
1696
As per HelenCarlsson earlier on this page...
"Det finns många syskon i familjen" is a perfectly normal sentence, but it sounds as if you are talking about another family (there is no "vi" and there is no "vår").
If you really want to say "Det finns många syskon i min/vår familj", people will of course understand what you mean :). It just sounds a bit unnatural in Swedish.