"Vad skrattar du åt?"
Translation:What are you laughing at?
56 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
AFAIK In English, you use "laugh at someone" and "laugh about something". Since the question starts with "What" and not "Whom", using "about" would be the correct translation.
I disagree. "What are you laughing at?" sounds the most natural to my ear, especially in a situation where someone is offended that someone is laughing, such as if they expect that they're being laughed at
1090
Why are you laughing? makes most sense. I avoid ending English sentences with prepositions, because I'm a rule follower.
Does svenska have such a rule, even if it's disregarded, I wonder.
There is actually no rule about ending English sentences with a preposition. At one time, an (unfortunately) influential writer coughJohnDrydencough felt that English should emulate Latin as closely as possible, despite the fact that, you know, it is a Germanic language with Romance loan words. Dryden was such a successful author, that many people sought to emulate him, despite the fact that his rule was artificial and arbitrary. We are still dealing with the nonsense of him and his ilk nigh on four hundred years later.
Det skulle vara trevligt om Pewds gjorde en "Lär dig svenska med PewDiePie" serie på YouTube. :-) En liten försmak här: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqqjm-Kqe_Q
- 696
It would be nice if Pewds made a You learn Swedish with PewDiePie series on Youtube. A little ??? here. Did I translate the first sentence correctly? I do not know försmak. Is it like a little taste?
So they can put prepositions at the end of a sentence in Swedish, too?
Is it correct in both formal and informal swedish or it works just the same as un english?
It's correct in formal Swedish too and we don't have this whole discourse about how it's supposedly wrong that you do in English.
(It still varies what you can do with which words, of course, you still cannot put just any preposition at the end of just any sentence).
It isn't really wrong, even in formal English, and never really was until a bunch of scholars decided to write an English grammar based on Latin. It's why we're saddled with things like "must use the nominative case (which we don't really have) after a linking verb such as is or feels. Germanic languages in general, which English is, allow prepositions at the end of a sentence.
Ending prepositions are really useful, I miss them in my Russian. We use them only for humor purposes when we need to indicate that something is translated wrong (x
Would "Vad skrattar du om?" make sense, to mean 'laughing about' rather than 'laughing at'?
Yes, @HPFoley, yours is a perfectly acceptable translation, and a form that is still widely used by "highly educated" or formal people in the U.S. (I'm not saying it is better than the everyday English usage of most, but that it is, indeed, proper English.)
It's an acceptable English translation (some would even say the correct one!) but, unfortuantely, Duolingo has yet to accept it as valid.
Having just had a ding-dong elsewhere on Duolingo when I complained about ending a sentence with a preposition, I have to admit that this is by far the most natural and acceptable way of saying it. "At what are you laughing?" sounds excessively arch and formal to me, and I don't think Duoloingo needs to accept it. (I am probably going to be upbraided now for forcing my views on others.)
Ok i've come so far in Swedish,and even though i do pretty good,i have to admit that i don't understand Swedish vowels.To me it seems like there are some extra. When i have to write down what is said,sometimes i'll confuse the vowels,because they seem to be the same.
-Could someone explain how to pronounce each vowel ? For example å sounds a lot like ö,but i hear o sounds more like u (but not like english u which is unpure) -Another concern,˝y˝ can sound like I or U ?
If you or anyone else is still interested, here's a great video I found by a channel called "Academia Cervena". It's short, includes some technical jargon and very effective, I'd say. I watched it a few times and after practicing I can identify the different vowel sounds.
He also explains the situations in which certain vowels sound exactly the same (hopefully the link works; make sure to watch part 1 too!). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzYArZVTD4s
It's very hard to explain vowels in text. Swedish does have a relatively rich vowel inventory, with a few more than what English has. You can find examples of Swedish vowel sounds here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_phonology
English doesn't have ö and ä, I suppose, but those are pretty close to ё and я, are they? Especially inside of мёд and мяч
No, after prepositions you need the object form of du: Jag skrattar åt dig.
In English, 'you' happens to be the same in both cases, but if you reverse the roles, it would be You are laughing at me, not You are laughing at I in English, so it really works the same in both languages.
Even though both might be translated into "to" in English, they are different words with different usage and meaning.
"Att" is used before infinite verbs in sentences like "Jag kommer att vinna"="I am going to win". It can also be use as "that" in sentences like "Är det sant att jorden är rund" = "is it true that the earth is round".
"Åt" is a preposition that is usually translated to "to", "at" or "for", in the meaning "towards", "directed towards" or "as a favour for". "Sväng till höger"="Turn to the right", "Jag skrattar åt dig"="I'm laughing at you", "Jag städar åt dig"="I'm cleaning for you". Also the phrase "komma åt" means to "access" or "reach". "Jag kan inte komma åt internet" - "I can't access the Internet" (OMG!).
"Åt" is also the past tense of the verb "äta" ("Ate" / "to eat").
Can someone please give me some more examples on when the "åt" preposition is used?? Thanks!
Are there other word for 'at'? I don't remember the word but i'm cocksure i saw another word for 'at'.
The hover dictionary said that "åt" is "at" or "to", does this make "åt" similar to the French à?
- 183
"Varfor skratter, Du" just sounds better to me. In English it's more common to ask "What's so funny" or "Why are you laughing?"
Without a screen shot or a cut and paste of exactly what you wrote this comment is completely meaningless. We have no idea whether you made a mistake you didn't see, whether you were translating from Swedish to English or English to Swedish, or whether you had a correct alternative answer not in the database yet.
Why not "Vad ar du skrattande at?" Why do the sentences have to be so backwards instead of straight forward? Sorry, my cheap keyboard doesn't do the symbols.
Why not "Vad ar du skrattande at?"? Why do some sentences have to be so backwards? Sorry, my cheap keyboard won't let me make the symbols.
- 436
Where I come from, skriking is another way of saying crying. So skrattar threw me at first. I kept translating it as crying. To confuse things further, skrike is related to the Swedish skrika (scream). So I'm probably going to mix up skratta, skrika, and gråta for a while yet. I won't know if I'm crying, screaming, or laughing.