55 Comments
I'm so impressed with how much I've improved on listening to spoken Swedish since I began learning (with just a little bit of previous experience in Swedish). I absolutely love this website.
I've never spoken or heard Swedish before 2 days ago. Now I can actually understand what they are saying and it's really awesome!
That's actually super cool! Duolingo makes learning languages so easy! Aside from the fact that you can only read the rules about grammar and such when you're on a computer, so mobile users get very confused.
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.
So if cook and chef are the same word in Swedish how do you determine if someone is a cook or a chef?
I wrote " this is the cooks knife " and it didn't accept. If det är means that is, how will be this is?
"Det är kockens kniv" can mean either "It is the cooks knife" or " That is the cooks knife". "This is the cooks knife" would be "Detta är kockens kniv."
895
… or det här är kockens kniv – there's no difference in meaning between det här and detta.
It should be "cook's" not "cooks".could be reason for the rejection (but this course is apparently full of bugs where this distinction isn't made)
I translated "it is cook's knife" (wrong) because I don't see where "the knife" is.
it's "det är kockens kniv" and it means "it is THE cook's knife" because kocken means the cook (en kock = a cook, kocken = the cook). So it's not "the knife" but "the cook" :) Hope it's clear. :)
Why is it det, I though den is supposed to be used with -en words such as kniv?
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?
Just like in English, though. Every english sentence requires a subject. Nothing special.
How would you say ''It is the edge of the knife'' and such sentences where both of the nouns are objects? We have learned how to say ''The X's Y'', but how to say ''The X of the Y'', if it exists in Swedish language too?
Thank you very much!
- 895
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.
You have helped me so much while studying Swedish! Please accept my Lingot!
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I usually say "Det är knivseggen", but that's just an alternative way of saying it.
- 895
Det är kockens knivar. – plural knives, but the sentence above only has one singular knife.
No. It matters which one you use:
Kockarnas = The cooks' (plural definite possessive)
Kockens = The cook's (singular definite possessive)
Thank you. So does that mean for every singular definite possessive you just add the en or et ending followed by an 's'.
If I want to say "it is my cook's knife" (I have my own personal cook in this example), do I shift the "en" part to min? Do I say "Det är min kocks kniv"?
- 895
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.]
No. Because it specifically says "Det är" (which means "it is") before "kockens kniv" which means the cook's knife.
- 895
It can (especially if you stress det), and that seems to be an accepted answer.
- 895
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.
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?
Thanks, you're right off course. I was confused because of 'har' vs 'är', but 'Det har' would mean nothing!
Well if you're referring to a random object possessing something, it would work, but yeah it wouldn't if you're referring to a specific object 'here'.
Why does it use an apostrophe befor the "s" here and you does it come after in other terms
it keeps saying I'm wrong because i don't put "It is the cook s knife" with a space between the cook and the s. Does anyone else have that problem?
- 895
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).
Why not this is the cooks knife vs it is the cooks knife. English language has a lot of variety too.
I think you can say "that is the cook's knife", no? It only lets you enter "this" & "it"
