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- Topic: Swedish >
- "Bilen är engelsk."
38 Comments
The reason it's just engelsk here is because of the way adjectives are conjugated in the Swedish language. Ett words you add a t to the end. En words you leave it alone. Plurals you add the a. Hope this helps
Of course, there is no language "american", but Amerikanska is American (adjective).
Do adjectives like engelsk/svensk change like the rest? I mean, engelska, engelskt...
Because "Swedish" as a language is svenska - implying it is definite?
194
They should change to be "engelskt" and "svenskt" for ett words because they're adjectives, yeah. The language isn't the definite form though, even if it looks like it, because it's a noun. The -ska ending is just generally used for languages.
Fun story: For a while I hung out on a Swedish pokemon forum to practice reading and writing in Swedish. I told them I was from America (Texas to be exact) and someone asked me to say something in "texanska"--so, the Texas language. :P
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Pikachu, jag väljer dig! The pokemon themselves have the same names as far as I remember, but some of the frequently-used phrases like evolve (utveckla) and catch (fånga) have definitely stuck in my mind. I keep wishing I could play the games in swedish (those translations don't exist save for a fan translation here and there), but maybe I should just watch some of the tv show på svenska instead :)
Did they dub the TV shows? I thought they only add subtitles - or are children's shows an exception? Yea I tried playing a Pokémon game (Pokémon X) in French. Definitely regretted it...because they don't have the same names and as a walking bulbapedia, I had to learn all the names and moves again...
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Important discovery! You can actually watch the pokemon anime in Swedish on the official website. http://www.pokemon.com/se/pokemon-avsnitt/
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I've found many children's shows and movies are dubbed (which is a great way to learn--try looking up one of your favorite disney movies in swedish on youtube and see if you can find it in full on there). I've definitely listened to a dubbed pokemon episode or two in the past, even though I don't remember where I found it (probably youtube again).
why I cannot say, "The car is British"? by the way, Im not english speaker either
Although the terms have a significant overlap, stick to translating English to engelsk and British to brittisk.
Basically because Britain contains more than just England, so the two are not the same.
Is the word bil the current word to describe a car or are there other words? Like you know car, machine, vehicle ...
It's basically only bil. I guess automobil would technically be correct but you would sound like you're from the early 1900s, don't use it.
Also the Swedish word for vehicle is fordon.
I've never heard engelsk pronounced that way, I'm used go hearing a hard "g". I lived in Gothenburg a short while so maybe that's why. (I also stubbornly want to say jag and morgon with hard g's always because it's more reminiscent to me of my time there).
Using a hard g in engelsk would honestly definitely signal that Swedish isn't your native language, in Gothenburg as well.
Hm, I am not native and I don't want to tell you how to speak your language.
...but I also found this, the third clip, the user, pompom says "engelska" with a hard g, it's not engelsk but still. https://forvo.com/word/engelska/
But that user doesn't use a hard g at all - he uses a retroflex ng.
OK. I think my ear needs to differentiate the sound then, it's a nuance for my brain to learn
How do you say the i in bil? It sounds different to the normal i sound in English. :S
This page is helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Swedish
Also, Forvo can help you out with individual words: http://forvo.com/word/bil/#sv
The i in bil matches the English combination of ea in words like leaf pretty well.
I'm not sure if it's just me but it seems as if the sound comes from further back in the mouth compared to the English sound. I'm struggling to make it sound the same but I'll keep trying. Thanks. :)
It differs a bit between accents. The sound your describing from further back in the mouth is typical of middle to upper class Stockholm.
The girl in the Forvo-link has a bit of that sound.
I know exactly what you're talking about! I've noticed the same thing. Well, I did some research and it turns out that swedes very often naturally add 'j' sound to the long 'i' sound, so it becomes more loke 'ij'. The toungue placement is a bit different as well. Altgough now I more or less know how it works, I still cannot reproduce that rich long 'i' sound. =( I just hope that it'll come with a practise.
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'The car is British', was considered wrong. Technically, that's true, so I'll take my loss. But does Swedish have a word for British? I know 'Storbrittanien', but British?!
Obviously. But the term used is "British cars", not "English cars". Besides, not all British cars need to English, even though it works like that the other way around.
Could English refer to a specific kind if car here? Like,maybe "british cars" are cars made in britain while "English cars" are cars with the steering wheel on the right?
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English is not really a nationality for a car, you would rather say the car is British than the car is English....
