- Forum >
- Topic: Swedish >
- "Ju snabbare, desto bättre"
27 Comments
1477
ju … desto is a combination, in English the combination is the … the
These expressions work like this: If you have more X, you will have more Y.
Ju mer du läser, desto mer lär du dig - The more you read, the more you learn
Ju större fötter du har, desto större skor behöver du - The bigger feet you have, the bigger shoes you need
Ju fler desto roligare - The more the merrier
Ju fler kockar, desto sämre soppa - The more cooks, the worse the soup (Proverb: too many cooks spoil the broth)
1477
If X to a higher degree, then Y to a higher degree too
Or covariance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covariance
1477
Ju has other uses too. A common one is to reinforce that something is already known. This is often not translated into English.
Jag har ju sagt det! - lit. I have [ju] said that - idiomatic translation: I told you so!
1477
It doesn't really mean anything else, it's a word in its own right. Ord.se has good examples of how to use it.
1477
I think it could be doch, aber or ja in German:
Det vet jag ju! 'Das weiß ich doch!'
Du talar ju tyska – 'Du sprichst ja Deutsch'
Det är ju inte så bra – 'Das ist aber nicht so gut'
1633
Thanks, that's what I thought. Also, doch can be used as aber and ja too in German. And I think as jo is used in Swedish too.
1477
I thought some more about this and came to the conclusion that ja is the best translation after all. In doch, I feel there's always a sense of contradiction, and in most cases it would be better translated with fast (or fast + ju) in Swedish (although fast works a little differently syntactically). And fast is definitely a very false friend :)
1633
Speaking of false friends, you probably know this one, but I'll leave it here for the rest: It's not the fart that kills, it's the smäll.
1477
Yes, so there's no 1=1 here. And you can't ever put this ju first in a sentence in Swedish, as you can with doch in German.
1633
Yeah, it's just easier to understand things if you can compare them to something you already know. Germanic languages are so similar, yet there are a bunch of minor details that make even very similar languages different.
1371
In German: je schneller desto besser = ju snabbare desto bättre = the quicker the better.
Is there a difference between using "Ju ..., desto ..." and "Ju ..., ju ..."?
There's this Swedish article here: https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=411&artikel=3240910 I believe it says that using "Ju ..., ju ..." is more colloquial. Am I interpreting this right? Is there anything else worth knowing about this?