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- "Det tar ett halvår."
28 Comments
241
"And the question is: How long does it take to complete the the first two sections of the Swedish tree?"
41
Like in school? Or any given period of six months? By the way thanks for answering so fast! I really appreciate it
24
Where do you live that semester means 6 months? I don't believe I've ever heard it used that way? (I've lived in Florida, Tennessee, and Wisconsin in the US) Although I see other comments with the same question so it can't be too uncommon.
- You can't add halv- to all nouns, but to a few words it is possible! When you speak to a Swede you could try and see if they understand ;) For example circle (cirkel) and moon (måne) are possible words; "halvcirkel" and "halvmåne", respectively.
- Yes, it's countable. But in Sweden we don't count halvår! In plural it would be "halvåren" as "the years" would be "åren".
2283
half of a year is what any English grammar teacher would prescribe, so should be an accepted answer.
312
Instead of "ett halvår", can I say "ett halvt år"? Is it incorrect, or does it sound unnatural or unusual?
118
There are plenty of similarities between English and Swedish, especially when the English words aren't of Latin/French origin. The Old English version of year was "gear" (possibly pronounced /ɪea:r/ or /ɪeɑ:r/) and the Old Norse version was "jãra" (possibly pronounced /ɪea:ra/, /ɪa:ra/, /ɪeɑ:ra/ or /ɪɑ:ra/), so indeed these versions were very close. The Old Norse version eventually lost its initial /ɪ/ and became "ar", "aar" or "ār" (/ɑ:r/) in ancient Swedish (1250), which transformed into "år" in Old Swedish (1500).