28 Comments
Really?
'Her book' V 'the book is hers'
'Your book' V 'the book is yours'
I find 'Boken är mannens' quite intuitive.
in English you would say, "it's the man's book" I've never heard anyone say "the book is his one's" it's weird
138
Yes, exactly. In modern English, "the book is the man's" is highly marked and awkward, while "it's the man's book" is the usual, idiomatic way of saying it. I wonder when the correct idiomatic English expression will not be marked as wrong any longer while the non-idiomatic expression "the book is the man's" will be marked either as wrong or as antiquated. Antonio_Sou's examples like "the book is hers" do not provide any argument in favour of saying that "the book is the man's" is modern idiomatic English. "The book is hers" is, "the book is the man's" is not.
- 138
Yes, really. "The book is hers" is modern idiomatic English, "the book is the man's" is not.
- 1264
The book is the man's? It doesn't sound familiar for me. Just asking: "The book of the man" is not a proper translation?
No, your sentence would be just mannens bok. In this sentence there is a verb är and bok is the subject. It sounds a bit awkward in English but it answers to the question vems är boken? (lit. whose is the book; to whom does the book belong) and the answer is boken är mannens (the book is the man’s; the book belongs to the man).
Then in that case the correct English answer should be "The book belongs to the man." It doesn't need to be translated literally.
- 1264
I see! Thank you for the clarification. I have to say, as a Hungarian it is really hard to think like a Swedish but I really love the language!
- 1264
LOL :) "It's not enough to have talent, you also have to be Hungarian." /Robert Capa/
When I listen, I can't tell whether the speaker is saying "boken" or bocken (sorry, I can't type the umlaut). How can one tell? Context?
(I am not a native, so anyone please do correct me if I am wrong.) first of all, 'böcken' is not a swedish word as far as I know. singular it is 'en bok/boken' and 'böcker' is the plural form. so that should take away any confusion, however there is also certainly a big difference in pronouciation of the 'o' and 'ö', type it in google translate and let pronounce it, or refer to this video or some other one for the pronouciation of the alphabet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHe7f_L7S2Q
- 833
en bok = a book and boken = the book
Same with 'man':
en man = a man and mannen = the man
Is there any particular reason why in one context, book is bok but in plural, it's böcker?
If I recall correctly, some words change their vowels when pluralized. So the 'o' here became 'ö'.
