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- "Mannen och kvinnan pratar."
40 Comments
Here's something to check out to answer your question: http://blogs.transparent.com/swedish/to-speak-in-swedish-tala-prata-snack/
230
I read that talar is more formal and pratar is casual (among friends). Talar would probably be used in business. Just a guess, though.
1445
Yes it would, if it's not accepted, please report it using Report an error -> My answer should be accepted, thank you!
1445
Yes, I think you're right. In English you can probably say both "the man and the woman talk" and "the man and woman talk", where the first "the" would sort of cover them both, but in Swedish, since the article is included in the word, it would of course be impossible to say "mannen och kvinna pratar".
Oh... So this is like close (nearby) and close (shut) in English? There's a tiny tiny difference that non-natives usually don't pick up?
But since there are so many accent in Sweden I can pronounce it slightly wrong and they'll just assume I'm from some random town in the middle of nowhere that can't speak proper Swedish? :D
That sounds crucial. What vowels are those in the IPA? http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Swedish I can see the å one...
131
When are we going to learn about the Swedish pitch accent? I think the pitch accent and the pronunciation of letter combinations like sk and sj should have been covered at the beginning.
'Prater' is not a verb in English, although it could mean someone who prates. "Prattle' is a moderately common word meaning to talk on and on about nothing much. 'Prate' means about the same thing, but is not used commonly, and in fact most native English speakers probably wouldn't know what it means. It also tends to have a negative connotation, as in the expression 'a prating fool'.
1445
I think there's a difference between talk and speak on the one hand and converse on the other hand. pratar means the former. converse has two better translations into Swedish, samtalar and konverserar.
I always have difficulties with the difference in pronunciation of 'mannen' vs 'männen'. Am I right in thinking ä=e?
Also, why does this course not include pronunciation exercises (using the microphone) like the French and German ones do? I think this would make me much more confident and help my memory.
2110
I wonder why this sentence can't be translated as "The man and the woman converse." Converse seemed a perfectly reasonable English synonym.