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- Topic: Swedish >
- "Han har en jättestor hund."
36 Comments
1659
In the US, we would often say "great big dog" rather than "very big dog" in this sentence. I think this should also be accepted.
2451
I don't know if it is a dialect thing (I'm from Stockholm), but I would say that 'jätte' is a familiary/spoken language thing, to intensify, used instead of 'mycket' (very). It's so common that it isn't such a big deal anymore. But of course 'riktigt stor' is another way of saying 'mycket stor' (very big), and people who take care of their written language will not use an illogical expression as 'jätteliten'. And in that case probably avoid it also when talking.
2451
The thing is that 'veramente', 'molto', 'davvero' is all adverbs, right? But 'jätte' is really a noun in Swedish, a fairy-tale figure, like "the green giant" = den gröne jätten. But 'jätte' is also used as a measurement, meaning 'really big' (like a giant), but has evolved even further, to mean just 'very very', and can therefore be combined with 'small'; jätteliten = very small
2451
Did you remember to combine it with "very" ? Jättestor = very + large. I wrote "very large" and it was accepted.
139
So "jättestor" can't be translated to "gigantic" on its own, but rather to "very big"? (And does "very large" then also apply?)
2451
'Jättestor' is used too much, so it has lost the meaning of 'gigantic', then we would rather use 'enorm'. And yes, 'jättestor' is also 'very large'.