"Vi har drygt tre veckor på oss."
Translation:We have slightly more than three weeks.
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can anyone clarify what this means? the english solution is a little awkward/ambiguous. thanks!
I assume that a bit more than and just over would be also good translations for drygt and to my ear a bit less:) awkward in English.
I wonder if there is a special word for `a bit less than' in Swedish.
I also assume those are accepted.
The opposite, "a bit less than", is knappt!
I think that might be because dryg also features with another meaning, so Duolingo thinks it's more common. It could also be that you've made a few more errors on such sentences so that the system has decided you need to practice those more. Or any of a few other reasons, hard to say for sure.
Somehow, Duolingo seems to be biased toward presenting drygt rather than knappt.
An interesting note is that some native speakers use the word "drygt" when what they really mean is "approximately". The true meaning is "slightly more than" and it can never be exactly as much as or less than.
I don't fully understand the use of "på oss" here, and can't find any sources about it. Is it another definition of "ha på sig" (to wear), or entirely separate from the verb? Is it valid with other subjects: "Jag har drygt tre veckor på mig"? Other comments suggest it has to do with deadlines, so I guess it always needs to follow a time expression.
Yes, exactly - it means "the amount of time you have prior to a deadline", basically. So it's like in the Queen song:
Flash, I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!
The first time I encountered this, I was racking my brain trying to remember what garment was called veckor to find out what they were wearing.
The "correct" solution I got was "We have a good three weeks." Um, what?
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nacreousnereid, compare the following:
He weighs a good 200 pounds = He weighs at least 200 pounds, and possibly a bit more
Sounds good to me. The default is "We have slightly more than three weeks", though.
Mostly no: ... på oss means that you have a deadline, but ... kvar just means that there's three weeks left of something
We have got slightly more than three weeks. To me it emphasizes better the deadline part.
That absolutely works. We usually accept "got" everywhere in similar situations, but it was apparently missing here. I've added it.
The "på oss" at the end is where I had a problem. I should have just ignored it when translating to English. But doing that will make it easier to forget it when translating back to Swedish.
So how would you say "We have just over three weeks to ourselves" in Swedish?
A small percentage of the population does use it like that, but the overwhelming majority uses the traditional meaning of "slightly more than".
Would/Could if ever be said without the "pä oss?" Vi har drygt tre veckor. Perhaps in response to, "Hur mycket tid har vi för att avsluta jobbet?"
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It's not a direct translation, but would We have just over three weeks left convey the same meaning?
Often, yes, though it does have the direct equivalent ... veckor kvar.
