"Eating fermented herring makes me thirsty."
Translation:Att äta surströmming gör mig törstig.
18 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
It's an adjective (just like in English), and as a person, jag gets N-gender adjectives. Jag är glad I am happy. (Du är glad, hon är glad, but Vi är glada, Ni är glada, De är glada in plural).
People when referred to with personal pronouns are never neuter. Words denoting people can be neuter in a few cases, notably ett barn, but those are definitely exceptions.
The list of such exceptions I have in my head is: ett barn, ett biträde (assistant), ett syskon (sibling), ett geni (genius).
You can almost guarantee that if a word for a person is not one of those words, it will be an en-word.
Yes. Another one is ett fruntimmer, and of course ett snille is almost like ett geni. But those words are few.
You could say "Att äta surströmming gör mig törstig." (To eat feremented herring makes me thirsty.) but it wouldn't work without the infinitive mark (att). I would personally say "Jag blir törstig av att äta surströmming." (I get thirsty by eating ferremented herring.)
Sure, that works as well, but I think I'd rather say "jag blir törstig av att äta surströmming".
I guess that works too, but it sounds better to see jag blir törstig av att äta surströmming, I think that is what most swedes would say without really thinking about it, while having a conversation
However... now it sounds more like, it makes me thirsty to eat surströmming. Like.. it is part of another sentence. For example, doing something makes you thirsty to eat surströmming. So it doesn't mean the same thing.
1025
Because the literal translation is “To eat fermented herring makes me thirsty” (If I'm not mistaken). Hence the infinitive case.