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- Topic: Swedish >
- "Kvinnan sover hos mannen."
60 Comments
I believe it's useful to think of 'hos' as a translational equivalent of French 'chez', German 'bei', etc. English seems to be an outlier among European languages in not having a direct equivalent.
"Hos" is a cognate to the word "house", and chez is derived from Latin "casa" with the same meaning! Easier to memorise.
I do that with German and Portuguese. I like to link 'kennen' to 'conhecer'. It makes it easy for me.
It is weird for me, what "att känna" means to know somebody, but at the same time "att känna sig" means "to feel". Se sentir in French (PT the same writing)"
And even 'know', if you pronounce the K as sensible people (like Swedes) do!
Know, talking about know an answer or know a fact or information, I believe we have to use "jag vet", att veta"
If you speak in a Portuguese from Brazil, in European Portuguese (Portugal, which is a much more extended vocabulary and completed) you would said: Conhecer-se.
In Brazilian Portuguese "Se conhecer" have one meaning, in European Portuguese "Se conhecer" have a different meaning from "Conhecer-se".
I would recommend you to look for some Portuguese European as I believe you're gonna enjoy it a lot, there's loads of new words and meaning that you will find pretty interesting and curious and it will be even easier for you to understand the language. Have a look :)
I put this comment here because I've found pretty interesting the way you connect words between languages and you've presented us with a good but tricky example from my native language and as being a Portuguese from Portugal. (I know that this has nothing to do with Swedish anyway)
Oh thanks I cant even French but I know like chez moi chez toi this really helps thxu.
Thanks :D I was trying to make sense of this word the whole time, now I got it
Spanish also seems to be an outlier as it doesn't have a direct equivalent either.
Hos makes even more sense in this context if you think of it as being a cognate of the word "house". Granted it's not always a house, but still, it'll certainly help me remember it and I hope it helps you as well.
"Hos" implies she simply slept at his place, while "med" implied she slept in the same bed as him.
So "hos" refers to a place or being 'at' somewhere, and "med" is independent of a place or location?
Yes, that sounds like you've got it right. "Hos" is usually used for describing being at someone's place. :)
Fest hos mig! = Party at my place!
Fest med mig! = Party with me! (Party is a noun here.)
Varsågod!
Btw, your sentence would perfect with the adjective hjälpsam, meaning helpful.
I've entered 'The woman sleeps with the man' and this was accepted :-) . Though I see from comments that Kvinnan sover med mannen would be more correct in this case.
I did the same thing and was . . wondering. This discussion cleared up many things.
Excellent explanation of "hos" and "med"( which, btw, sounds like the German "mit", meaning "with".) I am discovering that the more languages I study, the clearer the connections between languages.....and so it really IS easier to learn more languages! (Except Irish. I can't get my head around that language at all.....maybe I will just speak English with an Irish accent instead...lol.)
I have noticed that about multiple languages too! (except for the 'false friends' thing) If you think of irish as similar to german I think it sort of works? At least that's how my irish teacher taught us irish grammer. :D
Thanks to the idea's of people to link hos to house! easier to remember :3
In the last lesson the man and the woman were at the restaurant, now she's sleeping at his place. There's an untold story here.
I am little confused , we have three words meaning with in Swedish. på , med , hos.
1356
The rough picture is that på is like 'on', med is like 'with', and hos is 'at someone's place'.
To get the finer nuances, you need to look at lots of examples. Just keep at it! :)
Is it not equivalent to saying "the woman sleeps at the man's" which I suppose is a sort of slang way of saying "at the man's place". the "place" is inferred by the listener.
Does Swedish work differently in this case?
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Det är möjligt att mannen bor i en lägenhet eller ett slott. :D
His place maybe not the same as his house and "in the man's house" should be "i mannens hus" .
Is the sentence Kvinnan sover vid mannen also valid? If yes would it have a similar meaning to Kvinnan sover med mannen?
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vid is used to locate one thing in relation to another. The first thing is generally something smaller and moveable while the second thing is typically a 'landmark' – something big and immobile. A very good example would be Jag bor vid floden 'I live by the river' – the river is a 'landmark'. Or like, Jag är vid statyn 'I am by the statue' – but it doesn't work so well for two people.
What if one of those people is huge? "Var är David?" "David är vid Goliath." ... "Korrektion. David är på toppen av Goliath, nu." "Hej David! Bra skytte."
When do you need and not need to include 'åt' when using the phrase 'at ... place'
So it's wrong to say "The woman sleeps at the man's house " instead of "The woman sleep at the man's place?" I got it wrong for saying the former.
