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- "Hunden åt katten."
17 Comments
1484
Almost, it could mean 'the dog for the cat', as a phrase out of context.
This reminds me of a children's song, you have it in English too in several versions I think. In Swedish it's Bä bä vita lamm - "Baa, baa, white sheep". Wikipedia article here: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A4,_b%C3%A4,_vita_lamm
So in this song, there's talk about how everyone in the family gets new clothes:
Helgdagsrock åt far och söndagskjol åt mor
och två par strumpor åt lille, lille bror.
(roughly: 'holiday coat for father and Sunday skirt for mother and two pairs of socks for little little brother')
In the song it's obvious that the clothes are for the members of the family. But people will often jokingly say that this is the song "about the family that ate clothes" because the other interpretation is also possible. :D
17
Could it also be interpreted as the clothes that ate the family? I know I've been swallowed up by a few oversized coats and sweaters in my time. :P
1484
Yes, since we don't have case markers for nouns, you can't really tell who ate whom. :D (or who/what ate whom/what)
1484
In theory it could, but in practice you would have to add something else to make that work (and also use a special stress pattern).
https://youtu.be/eB3DTh-syCo I thought that the pronunciation of "helgdagsrock" and "söndagskjol" will be "heledagtjock" and "söndagsjol". Now I'm confused! How will I know how to pronounce "sr" and "skj"?