"Min faster är min pappas syster."

Translation: My aunt is my dad's sister.

[HoroTanuki]

far (father) + syster (sister) = faster (aunt)

[Zmrzlina]

That's what makes Swedish family words so excellent! :D

[ViolentRed]

Indeed... Swedish is brilliant that way! It has the most clear, short familial words in all the languages that I know... Smart!

[notofimport]

Japanese does this a lot, too, with kanji. I love it!

[Mak0rz]

"Papa's" is not an accepted translation of "pappas." Shouldn't it be?

[Zmrzlina]

We're sticking to father or dad in the course.

[Mak0rz]

Good to know. Tack!

[Steph927304]

I had a fault for putting dad here

[Arnauti]

Probably something else that went wrong. When this kind of thing happens, it's best to report it via the Report a problem button. If you do post in the forum, always write the whole sentence you put.

[Silpheed]

Faster really interests me. I like the obvious Father's Sister compound, but beyond that it sounds like the English word "foster." Foster parents, foster home, etc. Maybe this word originated from earlier languages where it was custom to give the children to the father's sister in case the parents couldn't tale care of them. I'm going to look into this.

[cvictoria42]

Nope, completely unrelated. "Faster" is derived from "father's sister", whereas English "foster" comes from Old English fōstor (food, sustenence). There's a Swedish cognate of "foster" spelled the same way meaning "fetus" http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/foster#Etymology

[Jan-Olav]

Foster is also used the same way as in English: foster parents = fosterföräldrar.

[ezetsubou]

If it means "paternal aunt," isn't this sentence redundant?

[Yerrick]

Yes, but this is an early lesson teaching the fundamental meanings of vocabulary like this.

[Jeanbean425734]

How would one say, "I have many aunts," including both sides of the family? Is there another word? Or would one have to say, "mostrar och fastrar"?

[devalanteriel]

You'd have to go with the longer option. :)

[ex0mo]

Is far a synonym for pappa or is it just a leftover from an older languages? German has cognate words for both, but Vater (the te got lost in Swedish like in broder -> bror) is more formal than Papa. If both can be used is there a similar difference in Swedish?

[CultureWarrior]

'far' and 'pappa' seem to work the same as in German: 'far' = Vater and 'pappa' = Papa, so I bet 'far' is more formal than 'pappa' as it is in other languages too (Dutch for example, my mother tongue)

[devalanteriel]

It's a bit more formal, yes, but generally it's more that it's uncommon and oldfashioned than that it's formal. Some people (about 10% in a survey I saw) use far as their main word for their own father, so it's still in active use that way as well.

[EwaDuVarra]

And it s the same in Greek . PATER = THE ACTUAL ROOT FOR EUROPEAN LANGUANGES. and PAPPA

[The_Swedish_Chef]

How would one say "aunts" - fasters?

[Ludvig556532]

Fastrar or mostrar.

[JerWer]

Shouldn't Papa be acceptable for Pappa, and Mama for Mamma? Papa/Dad/Father are pretty much interchangeable here in America, as are Mama/Mom/Mother. The only difference really is that Mother/Father can be perceived as slightly more formal, while both M/Papa and M/Dad are both decidedly less formal.

[devalanteriel]

Yes, but there's an issue of logistics. Please see the top question of the FAQ: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/20444477