"Hans kostym kommer om en månad."
Translation:His suit is coming in a month.
24 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Being Dutch, I thought this was actually a suit belonging to a guy named Hans. Whoops.
Since Hans is a Swedish name as well, that would actually be a possible translation of this sentence.
You can add an apostrophe in cases like this if you feel it's necessary to avoid ambiguity, but it's certainly not necessary. The language council only says that both ways are ok, however I feel I've been told it's better not to use them if you can avoid it.
As far as I know (and correct me if I'm wrong) there is no required possessive apostrophe-s in Swedish, leaving the only way to determine the difference between "Hans" and "Hans his" the context.
692
I agree with Arnauti, it's a possibility, but it's better to avoid using an apostrophe if the meaning is clear by the context. It is also preferable to rephrase a sentence in order to avoid an apostrophe. However, if an apostrophe really is needed to avoid ambiguity, then it is preferable to use it in words ending in -s, -x or -z.
I found a good explanation in the language magazine Språktidningen (2017-05-10):
Ett tecken som sällan har sin plats
Just a couple of examples from the article:
-
If you want to distinguish if it is Andrea or Andreas who owns the buss pass: Det är Andreas' busskort. Note that even in the rare occasions the possessive apostrophe is recommended in Swedish, the usage differs from the one in English. Andreas' in Swedish does not imply plural, there aren't more than one person called Andreas who own this single buss pass together.
-
Det här är inte min rumskamrat, det är Nils' (rumskamrat). It is not my roommate, it is Nils's (roommate). When you want to be clear about it not being about Nils, but about Nils's roommate, but you've already written the word roommate once in the sentence, so you want to avoid repeating it.
Of course, in both instances, it would have bean better to rephrase the sentences.
- Busskortet tillhör Andreas.
- Det är Nils rumskamrat, inte min.
Well, now I kind of regret not reporting it. Then again, there are a lot of words that could be interpreted as a name.
Yes, for actions that are going to take place, om is used.
- "När kommer du?" - "Om två timmar."
- "When will you be here?" - "In two hours"
I wrote 'his suit will come' and that was marked as incorrect, but is it not a correct translation of kommer, which can mean come and it makes sense in English.
Yes, that should be accepted. Report things like this by using the Report a problem button, and we'll add them.
- 1472
I wrote 'His suit is coming in a month's time' and was marked wrong. Would this be a different expression in Swedish?
Only when the subject is present in the sentence. Han tar sin kostym = He takes his suit. but Hans kostym kommer = His suit arrives
Who ever says that a suit comes in a month? A suit arrives in a month is more like it.
I thought this phrase would translate to "His suit comes in about a month". Why is om ignored in the translations? Or is this some special case of some sort where "kommer om" just mean "comes"?
