68 Comments
I understand 'min' is for 'en'-words and 'mitt' is for ett words. My understanding was 'kaffe' is an 'en'-word if you mean you want a cup of coffee, but if you want to refer to a certain kind of coffee it would be handled as an 'ett' word. Does 'mitt kaffe' then mean the person is saying something along the lines of 'my [brand / type of ] coffee?
We quite often refer to our cup of coffee as "my coffee" (mitt kaffe) as well, just as you would in English, i.e. "My coffee is hot" - "mitt kaffe är varmt".
Min is used for en-words, and mitt is used for ett-words. All plurals are mina though.
Min anka = My duck ("en anka")
Mitt barn = My child ("ett barn")
Mina koppar = My cups
What if a sentence has different words of ett and en? Which determines if it's mitt or min? Thank you
I believe each word gets its own "my" in Swedish. In English we could say "my" with a list of words, for example "my cat, dog and child....", but in Swedish you would say "min katt, min hund och mitt barn...".
Sorry to have left this unanswered for 3 months. I can't think of examples, do you have any?
I'm still confused about ett words and en words. Do you a reference(s) that shows the rules on how to tell the differences?
Tack tack!
There are no definite rules, sadly. Just like el/la in Spanish, der/die/das in German or la/le in French, grammatical gender is something you just have to learn with the noun.
There are some noun endings you could look for in the chapter on nouns which give clues to gender. http://www.readersstuffz.com/downloads/ebooks/Language%20Books/Swedish/Swedish%20-%20Essential%20Grammar.pdf
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Kaffe is in general an ett word, but you can say en kaffe when you speak about your cup of coffee or something like that. So min kaffe is also correct, but there's a difference in meaning.
En kaffe sounds just about acceptable to me if used for ordering. I'd personally always specify the unit, i.e. "En kopp kaffe, tack". Of course I'd never order "ett kaffe, tack" either.
Min kaffe sounds abominable though. "Jag hämtar min kaffe" does not sound natural at all to me. I would always refer to it as "mitt kaffe". Is this a regional thing I've somehow managed to avoid for 34 years?
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It's definitely used less with coffee than with beer, but it doesn't sound strange to me – I'd usually order en kaffe. My feeling is that I hear it more often in restaurants and cafés so it could be business jargon, but I'm not sure.
That doesn't quite make any sense lol. Is this true of anything? Any ett word can just be treated as an en word in certain contexts?
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We only tend to use it with words commonly spoken about in 'servings', like en öl 'a beer' and as here, with coffee.
is the mitt/min difference just boil down to en ett difference s? I see cognates with Swedish min and English mine (archaic) as well as Swedish din and English thine (archaic). makes me want to research premodern and Old English before the loss of most gendered nouns to find more parallels.
Just like en and ett, min and mitt are used for en-words and ett-words respetively. All plurals use mina though.
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Spelling doesn't always make sense, but here it actually does, since the i sound in mitt is short, the word is pronounced as mitt, not as mit.
A better question would be why min is not written minn, since that is how it is pronounced, but for that one I don't have a good answer. It's just down to convention, I think.
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mitt for ett words and min for en words.
Kaffe can be either an ett word – when you speak about coffee in general – and an en word – when what you really mean is 'a cup of coffee'.
Is this an irregular form? I thought "mine" is translated to "min", not "mitt"! Thanks for any explanations...
Min, mitt and mina all mean "my/mine" depending on grammatical gender or number.
I keep forgetting when to use 'mitt' and when to use 'mina'. I dont really understand when to use what
"Mitt" is used for ett-words in singular and "mina" is used for both genders in plural. Singular for en-words is "min". Mitt bord, mina bord = My table, my tables. Min stol, mina stolar = My chair, my chairs.
Min : en words
Mitt : ett words
Mina : plural words
Like ma, mon and mes in French.
That's acceptable if you're specifically talking about a cup of coffee, as opposed to for example some instant coffee you keep around at home. You can still use "mitt kaffe" to refer to a cup of it though, and I would say it sounds a bit more natural, but that may just be me.
It's neither.. ? What prompted you think 'mig kaffe' is the correct answer?
I thought it's "en kaffe"... or is it "ett kaffe"? In the section food, I learned "kaffe" for a coffee shop or something but I think there was no article ...
Hej! I don't understand when I should use min/mina/mitt... Someone to light my lantern?
Min is my/mine for en-words, mitt is my/mine for ett-words, and mina is my/mine for plural of both.
Why is there no section on the app that briefly explains the grammar or at least gives the respective list/chart before each chapter. I'm wildly guessing my way through, trying to figure out the possessives. Very frustrating. I'm almost through the section (I must be a good guesser), but I am basically still clueless.
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This is a question for the general forums, since it's about how Duo works in general. It works the same for all courses and isn't something that we as course creators can do anything about. (we read the Swedish forums, but I'm sure Duo staff don't). I agree with you, but there's nothing I can do about it.
If it's at all possible, you should try to use the site sometimes, the experience is much better there.
You can still access the information using your browser. https://www.duolingo.com/skill/sv/Possessives
Why is "my coffee" translated as "mitt kaffe" and not as "min kaffe". Is there a difference with the en or ett words?
Jag = I, Mig = Me, Mitt = My or mine, ett-words, Min = My or mine, en-words, Mina = My or mine, plural
