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Would someone care to explain the difference between 'dig' and 'er'? I'm assuming that it's like 'du' vs. 'ihr' in German, or 'tu' vs. 'vous' in French. Or something along those lines.
There's a whole debate on this in the general Swedish discussion... :-)
Ni can mean you (plural, as in "y'all", ihr in German) or you (formal, referring to one or several people, Sie in German). Er is the objective form of ni (euch or Sie).
I cannot access the forums because I am on mobile, but I did read somewhere that people do not use ni anymore in a singular, respectful way à la German Sie. Is that true?
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It's a long story, but to be practical, it's OK to use it that way in Finland (although not necessary), but not advisable in Sweden (although not grammatically wrong).
I do not know german, but yes, i would say it's exactly as 'tu' vs. 'vous' in French! Though in Sweden we are not as formal and usually use 'du'/'dig' when talking to one person.
Du/dig = one person
Ni/er = more than one person
It's just like tu/vous in French in the sense of how many you speak to, but using ni is not more polite than du! There's a thread in the forums about politeness if you'd like further reading.
Du/Ni = Subject
Dig/Er = Object
It works like I/me or we/us in English, where I/we are the subject forms and me/us are the object forms. It depends on who's performs the verb and who's the recipient of action.
Actually I like it more: simple and no extra formalities :) It's interesting to compare how in English the same formal word is used for singular, plural, formal and informal you.
But that would mean 'you' as in one person. While 'jag tycker om er' means I like y'all (more than one person). Hope that helps.
Not to confuse anyone further, but since you use German for comparison: do Swedish object pronouns distinguish between direct/accusative and indirect/dative?
Using "ni" or "er" as singular is not recommended. It's normally not used in Sweden and is an old way of speaking that can be perceived as confusing for the person och cause missunderstandings. It is an old way of being polite but using it now can be be perceived as you are making fun of that person - kind of implying that the person thinks he/she/hen is better or more worth than you or others in some way, like higher class, and you looking down on that person beacuse of it. So and old way of being polite can now be used for being rude.
So we cant tell if this sentence is you all or just you, not from context anyway
I have been browsing through the Swedish pronoun courses and get really surprised that nobody has ever explained the fundamentals of them. 1. The pronunciation of "de". Today the wast majority pronounce it "dom" the others pronounce it "di" (compare it with ni). Di was the only correct pronunciation for hundreds of years. "dom" was considered quite vulgar and was only used in northern Sweden. However, in Stockholm people started to use "dom" so now it is the accepted pronunciation. 1970-1980 "di" was still very common, especially in the south. Note, it has never been pronounced as "de"
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Dem. Here you hear dom/dem. In Finland only dem, I think. In writing? Always use de/dem. Personally I find it hard to read texts with "dom".
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Ni/ni - Er/er - The polite singular pronoun is always capitalized. It is getting more and custom to use the polite form again. It has been more or less dead for some decades but now it is rather common.
The pronoun ni means you in English but in the plural form.. so er is related to ni
There's no equivalant word in english, as it is being said 'you' for all forms. Du : you ( singular-subject) Ni: you ( plural-subject) Dig: you (singular-object) Er: you ( plural-object )
