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- Topic: Swedish >
- "Alla flickor utom jag"
44 Comments
This is also correct. It depends on whether "all girls" are subject or object in the sentence. Since we don't know in this case, it could be any of the two.
Alla flickor utom jag springer - All girls except me are running. Han ser alla flickor utom mig - He sees all girls except me.
In English it's the same as Swedish, and there's another thread where it's discussed. Used as a subject "All the girls except I are going to the movie" vs object "Annika's mom took all the girls except me to the movie." All that said, it didn't accept "All the girls except I" ... so I've reported it.
I am replying mainly to Bill Kelly here; it's more acceptable in English to say "all girls but I," rather than "except I" as stated above. I've made the report and seeing as it's more of a direct translation, I can't see why it wouldn't be acceptable.
ion1122 is right. Because "except" is a preposition and "me" is the object of the preposition, "except I" is never correct, regardless whether the prepositional phrase qualifies the subject or the object.
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I would say 'except I' is always wrong in English, so it is not the same in English as in Swedish!
Can you explain why you mean by this? I don't understand. Are all and alla interchangable when refering to people?
I'm not talking about "alla" in the entry above.
Alla - means "all" when talking about several things or people.
Allt - means "all" when talking about t-gender words as a mass.
All - means "all" when talking abot n-gender words as a mass.
Some examples:
Hon har alla böckerna - She has all of the books
Hon har allt vatten - She has all of the water
Hon har all juice - She has all of the juice
It is important to add here that alla and allt have additional meanings.
Alla - Everybody
Allt - Everything (Short for allting)
Examples:
Alla kom på festen - Everybody came to the party
Allt är borta - Everything is gone
When would one use "alla flickor" and "alla flickorna"? When I was in Stockholm, I always heard alla + bestämda ord (alla böckerna, alla studenterna, etc.) Hearing "all girls except me" seems kind of clunky. (As opposed to "all of the girls except for me".) Thoughts?
Well, don't you normally use "alla flickor" (all girls) when you're speaking of girls generally and "alla flickorna" (all the girls) when you refer to a known group of girls?
No not really! We do tend to use the definite in English here. It isn't wrong to skip it but it does sound slightly odd.
Actually I would agree with HelenCarlsson. In the indefinite it would sound more like you're saying All the girls in the world, as opposed to a specific group of girls.
Normally, "utan" is a prepostion and means without:
Med eller utan socker? - With or without sugar?
I read some of the above comments, but did not understand why if it says jag, it is translated me. does that means that sometimes we use jag to mean me_? If the writer of the line does not know which it means, how are we supupose to interrrrrrrpet it?
This has to do with how English works. In Swedish this distinction is made, but not in English, where both subject and object would be "me" after except.
Does all only refer to people and other living objects while allt refers to non-living things? And can alla refer to either?
Anrui answered this question better than I ever could, I'm just gonna quote them:
Alla - means "all" when talking about several things or people. Allt - means "all" when talking about t-gender words as a mass. All - means "all" when talking about n-gender words as a mass.
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You are asking a question about English, not Swedish, right? As a native English speaker, my answer is yes, you can say 'besides me' as well as 'except me'. There is also the old fashioned 'All girls save me', where 'save' is not a verb but a preposition.
Thanks :) For some reason, "besides" was the first word that came to mind instead of "except"
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Well, you have to draw the line somewhere. I think that when teaching a language it's good not to be too permissive. A reasonable rule is that if a literal translation would result in an undiomatic text, then some paraphrasing should be allowed.
But that is not the case here. Here there is an exact English translation for the Swedish, and it is 'all girls'. Furthermore, there is also an exact Swedish translation for 'every girl', and it is (I believe) 'varje flicka'.
So I think that in this case, Duo is right to insist on the literal translation.
Please refer to Innuli's comment above, and specifically to ion1122's reply.
