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- "What do the people think?"
"What do the people think?"
Translation:Vad tycker folket?
21 Comments
2458
Not in this sentence, but basically 'tycker' is when you have a personal opinion, but 'tänker' is any kind of mental activity, while looking at something you think about it, but don't have to have a concious opinion about it.
"vad är det som människorna tänkar på?" Could this be a possible sentence? I know this sort of construction is often used in Sweden....but I would like to get more into it
Tycka means ’to think, to have an opinion’. Tycka om means ’to like’.
What does "personerna" mean and why can't we use that instead of "folket"?
personer means “people” as in the plural of “person” (i.e. you are talking about a couple of specific “persons”). folk means “people” as in “population” or sometimes “ethnicity” (i.e. all those human beings that live in a certain place, or that share the same ethnicity).
If you’re unsure, when you “the people” with a definite article, chances are it probably corresponds to folket rather than personerna in Swedish. At least I have trouble thinking of a context where it might naturally occur. You’re much more likely to talk about “the people=the populace”. Or maybe in rarer cases “the people=the human beings” (as opposed to another group which is comprised of animals or aliens or whatever). That would be människorna. For example:
- I rummet fanns det två människor och tre katter. Katterna höll på att äta medan människorna tittade på tv:n. (There were two people (=human beings) and three cats in the room. The cats were eating while the humans were watching tv.)
- 225
vad tycker folk (what do people opine or think) might be more commonly used, but is not an exact translation. the king might ask vad tycker folket, in distinction to adeln, the aristocrats
- 2458
the people (definite form) = människorna. Here you have to use the definite ending -NA. In a more general form, 'people', could be människor ('human beings'), but in this sentence a certain group of people seems to be implied. What does that 'group' think of something - not humans as a general concept.
shouldn't the English translation be "what DOES the people think" here?
People can be singular, meaning a collective of persons either (in the political sense) with a common government or (in the ethnic sense) with a common ethnicity. Cf.: "There are many peoples on this Earth." ("peoples" as the plural form of the singular "people").
The Swedish "folket", being singular definitive, seemed to mean the singular people to me. Or does Swedish use a different word for that?
- 2458
I agree with you: What does the Swedish people think? Vad tycker svenska folket is singular, one entity. But when I translate "What do the people say?" I would translate it Vad tycker folk /i allmänhet/?, meaning a plural bunch of different persons. Then I would not use folket which is a noun in singular definit form.
English would still use the plural in your first example. I.e., What do the Swedish people think? I can't think of any case where I'd use a singular verb with the word people. "Peoples" does show up sometimes - I'm not sure if that's just colloquial usage. I found this site when I googled it: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/peoples
- 1456
Words like this tend to be treated differently in British English and American English, so they might use the singular on the other side of the pool even if you don't. (pretty sure this applies to people as well, too lazy to google it specifically atm).
So I guess the version with singular "does" should be accepted as an alternative when translating from Swedish, right?
