"De säger att man aldrig ska torka tårar utan handskar."

Translation: They say that one should never wipe tears without gloves.

[HelenCarlsson]

"Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar" is the title of a triology by Jonas Gardell about the aids epidemic in Sweden during the 80:s.

[Rakhelii]

Oh, thank you! That explains it...

[Olweg]

That's such an amazing mini-serie / movie-trilogy. A must see <3 I'm so glad that duolingo talks about it (never saw that sentences since I began swedish a few years ago !)

[JonathanSh756844]

Why does 'ska' mean 'should' rather than 'will' here? I guess it's because of the indefinite subject 'man', but is there more to say?

[devalanteriel]

ska is a very versatile word, and occasionally, only contextual clues will dictate translation. This is probably one such case. There's simply no way a native Swedish speaker would mistake ska to mean "will" here.

[jwbards]

Is that because of the books? I couldn't figure out what the sentence was supposed to mean. I ended up going with will, thinking perhaps it was an idiomatic expression related to making someone happy. I sure was off target! :)

[devalanteriel]

No, I'd make the same interpretation regardless. :)

[YufeiPang]

Can I use 'shall' instead of 'should'?

[JavadMousa3]

American english language users prefer to use should but in G.B shall is used very much instead

[devalanteriel]

Technically, yes, but I would not translate it that way.

[Seeheer]

I automatically said "gloves on", because the inference is that you would be wearing them.

[devalanteriel]

That's fair - I'll add that. Please note that, strictly speaking, "gloves on" corresponds better to handskar på (sig).

[Seeheer]

Thanks, I did wonder about that

[DavidKinne10]

Why is 'aldrig' before 'ska'?

[devalanteriel]

There's a rule called BIFF which states that inte goes before the finite verb in subclauses. The rule's a bit broader than that, though - it applies to other disjuncts as well, for instance aldrig.

[DavidKinne10]

Yeah I only knew the 'inte' rule. Is there a list of such words somewhere?

[devalanteriel]

I'm afraid I know no such list, but it should apply to most if not all disjuncts (satsadverbial).

[JavadMousa3]

What would be wrong in the meaning if we just put...the...before...tears...

[devalanteriel]

No, that would be tårarna.

[Kunducs]

Is there any difference between "utan" and "förutan"?

[devalanteriel]

The latter is archaic. :)

[Kunducs]

Ahha!