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- Topic: Swedish >
- "Pojken pratar."
32 Comments
To me the TTS sounds like it's saying 'pråtar' - anyone else hear what I mean? And, is the TTS correct on this one?
1331
Non-native speakers often feel that the long a sounds like å, but native speakers don't agree. The thing is that we have more different vowel sounds in Swedish than you have in English, so it takes some time to get used to the unfamiliar sounds.
We're in an A/B test at the moment and I can only hear the new voice, which definitely gets it right.
Tack. I'll try to train my ears - usually with a bit of study they're pretty good at distinguishing sounds.
To me, the first 'a' sounds different than the second 'a'. I mispelled my answer as "protar". I think I hear /prɔtɑr/ or at least /prɑːtar/. Maybe I have the old TTS voice. However, I am not hearing two different 'a' sounds with this alternate pronounciation with unknown dialect: http://forvo.com/word/pratar/#sv
- 1331
The A/B test is over so everyone has the new voice. Of course the first, stressed, long a sounds very different from the second, short, unstressed one. I hear the first a as a clear long a, but it's a known phenomenon that learners often have trouble hearing the difference between that and the long å sound.
Tack så mycket! So, the long vowel is always the stressed syllable? I remember in Spanish it was easy to learn the stress. I don't know if there are easy rules in Svenska, but I'll assume I'm just supposed to listen to more exercises to pick it up.
- 1331
Stressed syllables can be long or short, but unstressed syllables are always short. There's no 100% rule for where stress falls, but usually on the first or second to last syllable in words that are not loan words. There are some links to pronouncing resources in the sticky thread under Discussions: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/5892805
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A/o today, June 15, 2020, there are two - 2 - recordings going out. I heard the first and commented below. I heard the second, very easy to understand, just now. That would be the problem.
When would we use "tala" instead of "prata"? Would it be more natural to say "han pratar portugisiska" versus "han talar portugisiska"?
Tack!! :)
”Tala” is a tad bit more formal. Traditionally you would use ”tala” for speaking languages, so you’d say ”han talar portugisiska”, but now you can use either. ”Vad talar du om?” is a bit more formal than ”Vad pratar du om?”.
I was told "prata" is more like "speak" and "tala" more like "talk". Is this not true ? Only a difference in formality ?
pratar reminds me of the English word "prattle." Does it have the same chattery connotation?
Not really any chattery connotation...but it does have that same level of less formal thing.
He talks. He speaks.
I think pratar is pretty close to the Dutch 'praten' and talar close to the Dutch 'spreken'.
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Sometimes i just cannot understand her, even when I listen in the slow mode several times.
Certainly, it is. It comes from the same thing, meaning to chat; it just didn't gain the connotation of endless unimportant chatter. The Swedish word pladder looks to be their prattle.
http://en.bab.la/dictionary/swedish-english/pladder
"Praktisk erfarenhet av Europa - inte mediernas pladder om Europa - är den pålitligaste och mest inspirerande källan till kunskap"
so, talar and pratar is the same and i can use both when i want to say ´´talk´´ or ´´talking´´?
Kind of, in degrees of formality. As Lundgren8 has already explained, to put it simply "talar" mostly sounds a bit more formal than "pratar".
Can anyone explain to me the difference in pronunciation of tala and talar and also prata and pratar. Thanks in advance.
Duo will accept minor typos so long as they don't make a different word, that's my best guess of what happened.
