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- "På fredag äter vi kyckling."
61 Comments
No, in Swedish, you need to have the verb in the second place. This is called the verb second (V2) rule.
what exactly is the verb second rule? does that mean verb always comes second no matter what kind of sentence it is????
It means that if you have a typical declarative sentence (not a question), it can look like this, the finite verb in bold:
- Jag vill gärna åka till Paris. (I gladly want to go to Paris.)
We have a subject (jag), an adverb (gärna), a place (till Paris) etc. Now we can move around these parts as we like to create different emphasis and focus, but the V2-rule means that the ”vill” has to stay where it is.
- Till Paris vill jag gärna åka.
- Gärna vill jag åka till Paris.
- Åka till Paris vill jag gärna. ([Åka till Paris] is the entire first element here)
It’s different in questions obviously:
- Vill jag åka till Paris?
And in subordinate clauses the adverb moves to before the verb.
- Han är ledsen, eftersom jag inte vill åka till Paris. (He is sad, because I don’t want to go to Paris.
"på onsdag vi har på rosa" PLEASE TELL ME THIS SENTENCE IS PROPER SWEDISH SO I CAN DIE HAPPY.
It is not correct, take a look at the explanation above. They talk about the V2 rule that says the verb must be placed, if it is not a question, always in the second position. In your phrase you have På onsdag (which is the first unit), therefore the verb must come after it. Your phrase will be (I think): på onsdag har vi på rosa.
By the way, what does your phrase mean?, I don't understand it. You want to say that on Friday we wear pink?
Like Pushkin6 says, that's not very good Swedish. A better translation would be e.g. På onsdagar har vi rosa på oss.
In English, I would either say On Fridays... (if it's every Friday) or On Friday, we are going to eat chicken (just this Friday). The verb tense in the example doesn't work.
Does this swedish sentence mean that we always eat chicken on friday or that we shall eat chicken next friday? Or can it mean either of those?
I agree, Martinspiegel! I translated it 'On Fridays' thinking this was a family tradition, but this was not accepted.
No, it's not used like that in Swedish. It's just på fredag äter vi kyckling.
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In English we would never say this because it is a repetitive action 'we eat' so it would only be 'we are eating' 'on Friday ',ie.one specific event
That's actually a mutual default, but I agree it would be better as the only default. I'll remove "eat" as a default option.
why does 'ater' and 'vi' change places ( orders; ''På fredag ATER VI kyckling chicken.'')?
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Definitely not, the idea comes from a 2010 ad campaign. (you can probably find videos of it on YouTube, search for kyckling på fredag) – the link someone posted above has rotted.
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På fredagar tycker jag om kyckling / Jag tycker om kyckling på fredagar
På fredagar har jag rosa på mig / Jag har rosa på mig på fredagar
På fredagar tycker jag om att ha rosa på mig / Jag tycker om att ha rosa på mig på fredagar
It is possible to swap "rosa på mig" to "på mig rosa" in all examples.
That would be på fredagar, so it's the same but in the plural form.
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In all main clauses that are not questions, the verb needs to be in second place. You can put either the subject or an adverbial first, that doesn't matter, but the verb must be second. More about word order here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/8970470
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Nope, we don't do that. We also don't capitalize the words for months, languages, or nationalitites. Only names.
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^ also scroll up to Lundgren8:s first two comments on this page to see why the verb has to go in second place in the sentence: På onsdagar bär vi rosa is a possible Swedish sentence.
In older Swedish this sentence would actually be correct. This is from a time when verbs had different forms depending on plurals or singulars.
"På onsdagar bär jag rosa." - On Wednesdays, I wear pink. "På onsdagar bära vi rosa." - On Wednesdays, we wear pink.
Though in today's Swedish, the verbs have the same inflection regardless of singular or plural.
When does "Vi" come before the verb? In other sentences I've read, it's always been first.
You probably mean AFTER the verb (äter)? That question has been answered in a previous reply.
I agree with Martin Spiegel and Bobod. If you mean we eat chicken on more than one Friday, in a recurting sense, then in English we wouldn't use "On Friday..."
The sentence means on this specific upcoming Friday. For recurring Fridays, we'd use på fredagarna instead.
Det är en konstig mening. På fredag kommer vi att äta kyckling. På fredagar äter vi kyckling. På en veckodag (singular) tycker jag låter som att det är i framtiden.
That's my bad. I removed it as a default translation a week ago but apparently forgot to save it as a non-default translation. Sorry about that - will fix this now.
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Should either present and/or progresive present be accepted? Why Duo consitently prefers the progressive form? This is a general sentence so present is more correct. Progressive as the name also indicates we are in the process of eating.
