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- Topic: Swedish >
- "Det är kockens kniv."
54 Comments
Actually, if you google duolingo.com instead of using the app, you can go in and see the rules, all on your phone. I do it all the time.
1448
… or det här är kockens kniv – there's no difference in meaning between det här and detta.
Det doesn't refer to the knife here. Instead, it's the same kind of det used in det regnar ("it rains"). It is there because any Swedish sentence requires a subject. And in constructions like this, det regnar and det finns ("there is"), it's always det.
Maybe it could be compared to French il y a always being il even if you'd say il y a une pomme.
Does that make it a little bit clearer?
1448
We use various prepositions for those. In this case, we'd say eggen på kniven. på is used in many cases, but there are many other cases where other prepositions are used. Like 'a map of Sweden' is en karta över Sverige. If you have to guess, go for på. It's only very rarely av.
1448
Det är kockens knivar. – plural knives, but the sentence above only has one singular knife.
1448
Yes. (and I sure wish I had my own personal cook). [it's min kocks because the cook is an en gender word, so you'd also say Det är min kocks jobb where jobb is an ett word.]
1448
Det finns means 'there is' as in 'it exists, we have it'. E.g. Det finns mjölk i kylskåpet 'There is milk in the fridge'.
Där är means 'there is' as in 'it is there'. E.g. Där är du! 'There you are!' (as in, 'now I spotted you!')
Wow this was a while ago, tbh I never really understood the difference until now, was mainly wondering if där är was a possible combination of words, since they are both pronounced almost identically and it would be slightly awkward to say, there's a few English word combinations like that, can't think of any but I know there are. So basically one is existential and the other is more superficial.
1502
I actually thought I heard 'De har kockens kniv', instead of 'Det är kockens kniv'. Is it me, or is that difference in pronunciation very small?
1502
Thanks, you're right off course. I was confused because of 'har' vs 'är', but 'Det har' would mean nothing!
1448
Yup, there's a bug with apostrophes. Nothing we as course contributors can do about it I'm afraid (it's been reported to developers).
110
Always pronounced in Swedish. If you would say "niv" you would probably get a surprised frown at first and then a "oh, you mean 'kniv'!" look... Some people from Finland would probably say "niv" instead of "kniv" though.