24 Comments
Note that "We walk to the cinema" is wrong in this case since "Gå på bio" is a fixed epression in Swedish meaning "Go to the cinema" If you want to say that you walk to the cinema you'd have to change the preposition to "till".
I.e. "Vi går till bion" - "We walk to the cinema"
What makes "cinema (bio)" here definite? Why "the cinema" over "a cinema"? Tack.
It’s just a fixed expression, Swedish says ”gå på bio” just as English says ”go to the cinema”.
Is there anyway to say something like "You just have to go to a cinema" then? Or is it forever tied with "the".
I answered the same question above. English sometimes prefers the definite form where Swedish prefers the indefinite form and vice versa.
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British English also has a few similar oddities, such as "go to university" or "go to hospital."
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Wait, don't you say go to university in US English? What do you say instead?
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We're more likely to say "college" than "university" in that circumstance.
So, where does "bio" come from, etymologically?
No one I know ever says "go to university" in America. We say go to the university
"My parents suggested that I go to university" is an example of it could be used
It would be commonly used elsewhere... certainly it would seem oddly formal or awkward in New Zealand to say "I am going to THE university" if you meant you were going to head to class for a lecture. We would say "going to uni" or "going to varsity". Perhaps the difference is that in the US you might use the word college rather than university? My husband is a university professor here in the US and students here say "I am going to college" to mean either that they are going to attend a certain university or that they are heading to school for a lecture (or whatever). Would you really say "I am going to the college" if you meant you were heading to a class?
(Or even I am going to the school? Doesn't that sound odd to you?)
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It really does depend on who you are and where you've been. Some of us in America do say: 'I'm going to: school, college, seminary, university, or hospital. (without 'the')
I agree. Americans would typically say "I go to college". "Where do you go to college? Oh, I go to the University of Minnesota." However, when 'University' is not the first word in the school's name, we drop the 'the': "I go to Harvard University".
Would the sentence "Vi åker på bio" be correct, meaning that we go to the cinema by train, car, etc? Tack!
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It's something you might hear sometimes, but gå på bio is the set expression and åka på bio doesn't really sound as good.
Shouldnt it be "vi går på bioN" if you want me to translate it that way?
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gå på bio is a set expression meaning 'go to the cinema [and see a movie]'. It's like gå på bio is almost a verb in itself.
If you walk to a specific movie theater, that is går till bion 'walk to the cinema'.
We use the noun without an article like in the first sentence in some cases in Swedish where you prefer to have an article in English. For instance we can say either köpa bil or köpa en bil to mean 'buy a car'. The first version of the sentence expresses the action more in general, with no focus on the specific car. There are some more examples in this thread: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/5824774
In my part of the US, "cinema" has an artsy connotation. American English uses "movies" rather than cinema. I recommend that be the default translation for bio.
