"Please, can you read through my answers?"
Translation:Snälla, kan du läsa igenom mina svar?
34 Comments
whats the difference between genom and igenom
- 12
- 8
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 4
You can often use either of the words no matter the context. But if you only use "igenom" you may sound a bit posh, and if you only use "genom" you may sound a bit careless. So I will explain kind of how to use them to not sound too posh or too careless.
"Genom" is like a preposition, example "Hen gick genom staden" ("They (sing.) walked through the city"). While "igenom" is more like an adverb, example "Hen sjöng dagen igenom" ("They (sing.) sang throughout the day").
Another thing to have in mind though is that "igenom" can actually mean through, like really through. Example, "Jag gick genom dörren" means that you walked through the door, nothing special. But if you say "Jag gick igenom dörren" it sounds like you went through the door like a ghost or you broke the wood while walking through it.
So it's basically just a sense of which word to use in which situation. In the end they mean the same, even though it may sound a bit weird in some situations to use one or the other.
- 25
- 21
- 13
- 8
- 7
- 4
- 107
Thank you! Unfortunately I still have problems with remembering what "hen" means :).
- 12
- 8
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 4
No, "hen" is personal, it's exactly like "he" and "she" except that it works for all genders.
We also have "man" as an impersonal pronoun in Swedish, but there are more and more people using "en" as impersonal pronoun because "man" is the same word as for a male person which makes some sentences a bit wage (for example "Man som kvinna" can mean both "One is [some adjective which you add in the end in the Swedish phrase] as a woman" or "Either man or woman"). "En" (the pronoun) is the object form of "man" (the pronoun), that's why many people have chosen to change "man" to "en" for subject as well.
- 25
- 24
- 23
- 13
- 12
Thanks! How complicated it all seems! So you would use "hen" when you didn't know if it referred to a man or a woman?
- 12
- 8
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 4
@HaroldWonh: Yes, exactly, it's for when you don't know someone's gender, when someone's gender is ambiguous (for example if they are far away) and when the gender may make the situation ambiguous (for example in law texts).
- 12
- 8
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 4
Also, think of all the other pronouns, they are non-gendered (at least not in Swedish and English), for example we only have one word for "I" not depending on if you're a man or woman, and one word for "you" not depending on if the person you talks to is a man or a woman etc. All languages don't have non-gendered pronouns. So, "hen" is like one of the other pronouns we know, just that you use it for people you're talking about instead of for yourself ("I", "jag", non-gendered words) or someone you're talking directly to ("you", "du", non-gendered words).
- 25
- 25
- 10
- 406
I guess "Hen" can also be used if the person's gender is neither man nor woman ^^'
- 22
- 22
- 22
- 1077
Tack. Knowing that the form svarar existed had me thinking that it was a common gender word, but I was wrong.
If a word exists in both verb and noun form, is the noun usually neuter?
- 22
- 22
- 22
- 1077
Point taken. I was thinking that making a noun neuter would avoid plural/present tense confusion, but there isn't much control of when a noun becomes a verb then the noun already has a gender (although I suppose it could switch genders) where if a verb becomes a noun then a gender will somehow be assigned to it..
- 12
- 8
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 6
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 5
- 4
"Vänligen" is used more in signs, for example a sign with the text "Vänligen, gå ej på gräset" ("Please do not walk on the grass"), while "snälla" is used more in speech, for example someone can say "Snälla, gå ej på gräset" to you ("Please, don't walk on the grass"). But depending on how you emphasize you can use either of them in text or in speech.
- 24
- 16
- 11
- 2
Must we use "snälla" (at the beginning of the sentence) when we adress to someone we know well, and "tack" (at the end of the sentence) when we adress to an unknown person?
