"Det är viktigt att boken är bra."
Translation:It is important that the book is good.
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In English, I feel as though a more appropriate translation would be "It is important that the book be good", because it would require to use the subjunctive form of be (which is just be). I did read somewhere that Swedish does not really use subjunctive anymore. Does anyone else agree with me on the subjunctive form in English?
I agree! I thought first of using the subjunctive ("be"), and then I thought, "Duolingo will probably not like it" and decided to use the more mainstream "is". I'd naturally write "It is important that it be good", but in speech I might choose to the indicative out of fear that the subjunctive should sound pedantic, but it'd depend of whom I'm speaking to.
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"I insist that he be here."
"We asked that it be done yesterday."
"I support the recommendation that they not be punished."
"It is important that he be cured."
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My English teacher told us that the subjunctive is only used in American English. We didn't learn it at school.
This isn't true, the subjunctive is still used in British English in some cases. Such as: "If I were you" (Many people incorrectly use "was" in its place), "Had I known about it, I would have done something" and other sentences formed in the same way. So it is still used in British English, it's just seen as formal speech because of the technically incorrect but more often used form of "If I would have known..." etc.
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Oh, I see! I'll tell my teacher (he knows American English better than British English) about this when school starts again!
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So the subordinate clause keeps the usual order of words in a sentence? I expected some playing around with the second är, similar to German.
Bra is the much more common one to use to say good. If unsure, stick to bra.
God is usually used to mean tasty and referring to food.
In a handful of expressions however, god is still used to mean good. Perhaps someone with a bit more clear mind (it's almost 2 am in Sweden at the moment...) can give you a few examples.