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- Topic: Swedish >
- "Vad letar ni efter?"
48 Comments
2603
Not really, but they are used a bit differently. When I can't find my keys, it is 'letar'. But if I want more new friends, a partner, searching for the meaning of life, then it is 'söker'.
Leta means to look/search after something, while titta is just to look or watch in general.
Jag tittar på TV = I'm watching TV
Jag letar efter en tv = I'm looking for a TV
Hi, i m studying swedish and i m not in swedish but will be there in few months.. What can help me now to increase my swedish.. Studying language without using it seems a little difficulty and easy to forget
- 2603
No, the particle 'för' changes the question, makes it into a 'questioning' of the search itself: "Why are you searching?"
to be fair, that is an entirely acceptable way of interpreting the english sentence, "what are you looking for?"
Yes... but I'm having trouble coming up with any intonation or context where the "why" meaning of that sentence would come across unambiguously. It would have to be something like person A says, "I'm looking for a bowl," and person B says "What for?" meaning "What are you going to use it for?"
- 331
To express this, I think in (British) English you might include 'on earth' as in "What on earth are you looking for?" or simply use why "Why on earth are you looking for xyz?"
- 2603
That would give to much emphasise on the simple act of 'looking for = leta efter' something. In Swedish your sentence would be: "Vad i all världen letar du efter?"
How would one say "what is looking for you?". I imagined a monster or an animal when I originally mistranslated. Vad leter efter ni?
"Ni" is the subject form, and since "you" is the object you need the object form of the word. "Vad letar efter er?" Compare "Something is looking for me" vs. "Something is looking for I".
I tried "what are you guys looking for?" And it corrected me to "...you all..." West Coastist!
I wrote "Who looks after you ?" Obviously wrong but How would you say that in swedish ?
- 331
In another sentence - I'm looking for work - one of the MODs said you can leave out efter. Is it dependend on certain factors whether you can leave it out or not?
- 2603
Probably depends on the sentence, in this sentence 'letar' needs 'efter'. But 'Looking for work' is a special case, we have the phrase 'letar jobb' = 'söker jobb', that is not really a t hing you are looking for, but more lika a certain action/phase in your life.
- 2603
No. Look at my answer 4 years ago (below this one). Leta efter = looking for. When you are looking after a person, e.g. a child, someone sick, an animal, Swedish use other verbs, e.g. passa, titta till, ta hand om.
I can't imagine letar meaning "looking for", is there any explanation of why it's called letar or what is the ethnology of letar? Can someone give me a possible can someone give me a "donkey bridge" so that I can remember the word?
- 331
I think you mean ethymology. :D Have a look here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/leta#Swedish
Are you a native German speaker? (your use of Eselsbrücke makes me think you are) I'm German and I'm used to being able to make a connection to either German or English for any Swedish word. Unfortunately, it's not working with att leta. It seems that even though it's from Old Norse it hasn't made its way into English, German or any other Germanic language I know.
Edit: I try to remember it with the German 'nach etwas lechzen' which is not really look for or seek, but it has nach in it, so I can remember to use efter
- 2603
Because "leta efter" = "looking for". English "looking after" has a different meaning, it's when you take care of something/someone, as in 'looking after children' ... correct me if I am wrong.
As friswing already explained, to "look after" something in English is to take care of it and make sure it doesn't get into trouble. There isn't really a neat, simple translation for that in Swedish, but it would be something like "ta hand om", meaning to "take care of".
- 331
A more detailed answer would be: no, unfortunately you can't use tittar here. att titta means literally to look with your eyes at something (the at being på). If you look for something, it means you're searching for it, so the meaning changes because of the preposition. I'm not sure if this is classed as a phrasal verb but the meaning is definitely different from the simple to look - tittar. I hope this helps.
