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- "Björnen är ett stort djur."
42 Comments
Does Swedish use definite articles to talk about classes of things, like English? So 'the bear' can refer to the type of animal as a concept, as well as a specific, actual bear?
Why is the bear is a great animal marked as wrong answer?
Aren't great and big synonims?
Insofar as being words describing size, yes -- but great just feels a lot bigger than big, and I would probably use jätterstort for great.
How is the bear an 'ett' word when we are saying Björnen with an 'en' at the end as the bear???
Stort sounds like (?) it might be a distant cognate with English "stout." Since both mean "big," it seems that "stout" should be an acceptable translation. Correct?
Stout is more of a stocky/wide/heavy kind of 'big' though.
Interestingly, many words in English that begin with st- are related to strength and solidity, being fixed in place etc.: strong, stoic, stand, stuck, stout, stocky, stiff...
**facepalm
I got this twice, and both times I wound up answering in svorska in a different way. First time, Björnen är ett stort dyr; second time, Björnen er ett stort djur.
1491
The noun that they're tied to. In this case, it's 'a big animal' so stort is tied to djur which is an ett noun, so it has to agree with that and be stort instead of stor or stora.
I know when to use "stor" and "stort", but when should you use "store"?
You could use "store" in the definite form if what you are describing is obviously male.
Den store mannen - The big man
Åh, store Gud - Oh, great God
etc
- 1491
It's OK. Here is a clearer pronunciation by a live speaker: http://sv.forvo.com/word/bj%C3%B6rnen/#sv
The R + N melt together to form a retroflex sound, it may take some practice to hear it.
I'm more intrigued by the vowel. I gather that a long Ö is pronounced /ø:/, but in front of an R it is /œ:/ - now, when you have ÖRN (and presumably ÖRT &c), is the vowel still changed to /œ:/, even though the R itself "melts" into a retroflex? I ask because that's how it sounds to me, but I can find no confirmation for this hypothesis in the references I have (and at my age don't trust my ears as much as I used to).
Yes, it is correct. If you listen carefully you should hear also the b and the r.
- 250
Tack Arnauti och davost. I listen again carefully. Yes, it has 'b'. But for the retroflex sound, I need more practice to notice it. By the way I still feel that the normal speed version and the slow speed version are different.
- 1491
You'll hear the retroflex eventually if you keep listening. :) Unfortunately we can't hear the slow version, but I know they often sound differently, so you're most likely right about that.
Make sence if I say: det stora djuret är min ?
•(Note: I just want to practice this grammar)
- 1491
I just spotted this question which I must have missed until now. Since it's ett djur, it would have to be Det stora djuret är mitt.
There are Swedish words that correspond more closely to these words: gigantiskt, jättestort or enormt for example.
The bear is a huge animal - why was that sentence incorrect? Unless there is another word for Huge in swedish that I havent known yet.
No, for the definite you would need "stora" - Det stora djuret (The big animal)
