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- "She comes at any time."
"She comes at any time."
Translation:Hon kommer när som helst.
45 Comments
364
Thank you. I've been studying Swedish for almost two years and I had never heard that expression before. Much appreciated.
1458
Yes, that is also a good sentence. If you want to, you can add a preposition and say Hon kommer vid vilken tid som helst, but the preposition is optional.
1081
Hi Duo! Could you please recommend some English article where I could read about conjunctions usage? For example as far as I can see word "som" could have many meanings depending on words near and it not really clear at all. Thanks in advance
121
Hmmmm.....
"At any time" feels a bit wider than the definition of "när som helst" that I'm used to in Swedish (which usually implies "very soon" or "now in a minute")
121
It's just an idiom. "At any time" would literary be "vid vilken som helst tid", which sounds weird and extremely awkward in Swedish. English "any" is usually "vad som helst" or "vilken som helst" or "vilket som helst" in Swedish, so that's the reason for "som helst" in this case.
To get rid of the awkwardness we've simply reduced "vid vilken tid" to "när", and thus you get "at any time" -> "vid vilken som helst tid" -> "vid vilken tid som helst" (just reordering the words, still exactly the same meaning) -> "när som helst" (exchanging "vid vilken tid" to "när").
I hope this makes some kind of sense, at least.
406
She comes at any time? Is this intended to mean something like "she'll be here any minute now"?
363
I've heard some say that "När som helst" is similar to "Whenever" but others saying it's nearer to "Any time now". What's the common usage? Or perhaps either?