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- Topic: Swedish >
- "Jag äter er citron."
83 Comments
sigh another lemon, I'm going to get heartburn with the amount I'm eating...
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Er is for -en word when the subject is a plural "you" (as opposed to din or ditt where "you" is one single person)
...so this lemon belonged to multiple people, before the speaker began eating it?
Yes, but the plural you is also often used for you as institutions - meaning that it could belong to e.g. a store.
now i imagine a kid admitting to the store manager that he ate a lemon
i guess, it's the combination of r+s sounds put together (eR Citron) that gives "sh".
Maybe my audio is just bad but on Google translate and http://forvo.com/search/citron/sv/ I only hear the S sound like "SIH-tron." While I do hear "SHI-tron" here.
Well, as Ichimoku explained above, the combination R + S makes the sh-like sound.
Why is there din, dina, ditt, ert, and er for "your" in Swedish? I can understand "en" and "ett". Is there more for plurals and describing like "your red apple"? Please tell me this gets easier.
You get the hang of it later on. I am much further in the lessons and I have no problem at all. Din is for en words, ditt is for ett, and dina is for plural or definate words. Era is for multiple people owning multiple things.
Have you checked the different Tips and Notes sections on the website version?
It helps me to think of them and "you" and "you all." That's how my Spanish teacher taught us in grade school. Du = you & Ni = you all (ya'll).
Someone please help me with du vs. ni. I seem to remember some old Swedish friends telling me that "ni" can mean you all OR you in a formal sense of the word. Is that true? Does Swedish have formal vs. informal speech like that? Is it like the Spanish/French/ etc informal versus formal "you?" Or am I completely off and it is only singular vs. plural "you?" Please help! Tack!
You are right. Ni written with "big letter" means you in a formal sense of the word. This "Ni" is the word from 1940th. Right now it's almost disappear from the landuage but you still can hear it from the young people when they want to show older people extra respect. For example you can hear this word from the workes in McDonald's in Stockholm when you are ordering something ))))
Why is it "I eat your lemon" and not using ate? It just seems like it would make more sense to say I ate someones lemon instead of saying I eat your lemon.
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It's because 'ate' in English is past tense. In Swedish, it would be åt, or in this case maybe even åt upp, if you ate all of it.
But äter only means 'eat' or 'am eating'.
It is happening currently. I am eating your lemon. I eat your lemon (right now).
Why? Because in this lesson we're learning possessive. They're using the words we've been taught to create grammatically correct sentences. Like "he does not drink oil" in earlier lessons.
- er = en-words in the singular
- ert = ett-words in the singular
- era = plurals
Din/ditt/dina is you in singular and er/ert/era is you in plural. Er/ert/era can also be an extra respectful form of singular you when you are addressing a person who you are not on a first name basis with, but that's pretty old fashioned nowadays.
"I drink your coffee", "I eat your lemon" - I'm in love with your food ;)
Hey, I understand that! I feel like I'm starting to kinda know Swedish.
If you said this in english with that exact grammar people would look at you like you're weird. Is there a way of saying i ate your lemon in Swedish instead of i eat your lemon?
Of course. That would be Jag åt din citron. You'll encounter past tense constructions later in the tree.
Is "er" supposed to sound like English "ear?" just trying to tune in properly
It's probably the most decent approximation in English at least. :)
I understand how to use din and ditt but when er comes out i am totally in panic. I need easy example sentense for these three words. Could you help me with this please?
How do we know "er" rather than "din" is the correct choice? Din mat is your food, is not lemon a food? And er katt, for your own previous exsmple, certainly isn't considered a food so why would I choose er rather than din?
din is for the singular you, and er is for the plural you. So it depends on whether the lemon, or the food, or the cat - etc. - belong to one person or more than one.
Without context, it could be either. In those cases, like here, both options are accepted.
- er = en-words in the singular
- ert = ett-words in the singular
- era = plurals
I'm not getting any audio when this question comes around. I can only guess without audio.
If it's a "type what you hear" exercise, you can click a button to skip it if you don't hear any audio.
Swedish nouns have different grammatical genders - common and neuter. Since common-gender nouns use en to mean "a/an", we call them en-words. And since neuter-gender nouns use ett to mean "a/an", we call them ett-words.
You can read a little more about it e.g. here: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/26420394
