"Hunden åt katten."
Translation:The dog ate the cat.
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I prefer to think of this as Santa giving out the Christmas gifts.
- Ho, ho, ho! Boken åt pappa och hunden åt katten!
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
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
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)
Huh so that means this sentence can mean "the cat ate the dog" too? Or did I misunderstand something?
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).
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Could you somehow explain how the two stress patterns would be different "(the dog at the cat" vs. "the cat ate the dog")?
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"?
This one shocked me and I'm glad it is GOING sometime soon. I couldn't translate it at first because I couldn't believe it. But... if the dog is large with a strong prey instinct... Our friend's outdoor Husky ate their pet pigmy goat so, well... animals happen.
