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- Topic: Swedish >
- "Han sover när som helst."
82 Comments
What is the literal translation of this? He sleeps when which prefers?
When people ask for a literal translation, it usually means a breakdown of the sentence one word at a time, which is what I was looking for, anyway. In case you were still wondering, "när som helst" does indeed mean "any time," but broken down doesn't translate very well (close to 'when which prefers' like you said, but not quite). It might help to know that "som helst" basically means "any-" in the context of:
när som helst = (at) any time
vem som helst = anyone
vad som helst = anything
hur som helst = anyhow
perhaps in old English this would be when so ever whom so ever what so ever how so ever Eg, "Whatsoever you do, in word or deed, do it unto me." The words are run together I believe, in old literature, such as in the Authorised Bible.
when somebody asks me what to drink can i use "vad som helst" as an answer ?
Yeah, it's for direction/end location.
- Han vill åka på semester. = He wants to go on vacation.
- Vart? = Where (to)?
- Vart som helst, bara det är soligt. = Anywhere, as long as it's sunny.
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So could I say, "Min hund springer vart som helst" for "My dog runs (to) anywhere" and "Barnen är inte var som helst" for "The children are not anywhere"?
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The negation does not work the same way in English as in Swedish. I wrote about this here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/5562715
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OK, so I tried to run before I could walk with negation and fell flat on my face. ;-) But - did I figure out that "vart som helst" = (to) "anywhere" and "var som helst" = "anywhere"?
OMG @spanishbionerd I just screen-shotted that. THANK YOU. if I wasn't on the app I'd give you a lingot (it's not an option on the app, at least the android one)
A literal translation would be "he sleeps whenever" or the one specified: "he sleeps at any time".
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And the implication is he's about to go to sleep any minute now, that he's just about to go to bed, right?
Not really. It's more like that he will sleep whenever he feels like it kind of.
Funny story, when I "graduated" school. On my certificate it read "Congratulations for sleeping through the years and getting good marks!" To this day, I can't remember any teacher's name. ahaha. /random cool story over
With the audio, I noticed that "när som" has a "sh" sound within it. Is this correct?
Am I correct in saying that the "rs" combination in a word in Swedish does create a "sh" should like with "eftersom". If so, and the audio is correct, is this similar to liaison in French, where certain final consonants sounds are pronounced before vowels? Are we to carry out "liaison" in Swedish like we do in French? If so when?
I love this course but the lack of information on sounds and rules along with dodgy audio is killing me!
The rs-combination is pronounced as "sh" and we pronounce it that way even if the r and the s are in separate words.
I guess you could see it as similar to the liaison in French, but these "tricks" to make the pronounciation easier is found in most if not all languages.
Hej! regardless of literal meaning of När (or any other word such as var) Som helst. I'd like to know do they pronounce När Som like "NärSHom"? is it common in svenska to pronounce these words like this?
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Yes, most native speakers create a sh sound wherever r and s meet, even over word borders.
All the "som helst" combinations would be translated to the "sea" combinations in Spanish? I mean:
när som helst cuando sea | at any time vem " quien sea | anybody vad " lo que sea | anything hur " como sea | anyhow var " donde sea | anywhere vart " a donde sea
Thank you!
Does "at any time" in the translation imply that he sleeps when he wants, or (less willfully) that he might be asleep at any given moment? Are we talking about a narcoleptic, an infant, or someone who is just really defiant in the face of bedtime?
I thought so too, but my answer "He's sleeping whenever" was marked wrong
allenfrang, isn't that because 'he's sleeping' refers to a certain moment/period of time (like 'he's sleeping at the moment'), whereas 'whenever' means the opposite? (Could be now, could be in 2 minutes, could be right after lunch, who knows) So you're right about the translation of sover, but it doesn't work in this context.
Hmm yeah interesting, to me it could mean something like "he has the habit of sleeping whenever", like for instance "he's waking up whenever lately" would mean the subject has recently taken up the habit of waking up at random times?
Right, I see what you mean. It does make more sense to me if you add something like 'lately', but it still doesn't feel entirely natural to me, although I can't pinpoint why exactly.
Actually, a more accurate answer in Swedish would be "Jo, det gör det" since StevoSully's sentence was negative.
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The question from StevoSully was Doesn't … translate as …?, so the answer in Swedish would be Jo det gör det, because the question is not about what you do, it's about how the sentence translates.
I get the slurred r-s, but I don't quite hear the "t" in "helst". Is the TTS accurate here?
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I hear it clearly in both TTS:es, I'd say they're both good here. (can't hear the slow version though)
My Pad keyboard is not capable putting enunciation marks over letters, which makes it impossible to correctly type those words. So when I get graded I get much lower grades that I cannot correct.
Translating it almost literally to Portuguese, I got "ele dorme quando que de preferência", which could be better phrased as "ele dorme quando quer", which means "he sleeps when he wants". So, I wrote that, and Duo accepted it! LOL
So när on its own means that, but when used with the words 'som helst' it means whenever?
If you know Russian, it's helpful to think of the word helst as the Russian угодно. They function in a similar way, and they could both be literally translated as preferably.
thank you so much for the supprt, it really helps, since I need to translate english into german as well.
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Han sover när som helst is a sentence in the conjunctions group. Isn't när som helst an adverb?
It's an adverb in the sense of "at which time?" and a conjunction in the sense of "at any time".
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I saw närsomhelst ass a single word in subtitles recently. Is this also allowed, or is this a colloquialism / typo?
A common misspelling - so common that it's considered correct nowadays, by virtue of being its own fixed phrase anyway. But the separated spelling is usually considered better. :)
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This sentence doesn't feel like a valid one. I cannot figure out anytime that it would be used...
"Tack du" sounds pretty weird. Anyways, when the person you're thanking needs to be clarified, isn't it because it's not the person you're talking to?
