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- Topic: Swedish >
- "We answer our own questions."
"We answer our own questions."
Translation:Vi svarar på våra egna frågor.
24 Comments
The verb "svara" is a little bit like "reply" in English. (That is actually another possible translation.) In English you reply to something (but you wouldn't reply to a question), and that is how "svara på" is used as well.
"Hon svarar på hans brev." - "She replies to his letters"
You could also use the specific verb "besvara" as in "Vi besvarar våra egna frågor."
When you take a test, you answer a question; you don't reply to the test. In this context, at least, the words are not interchangeable (like Gramphos said). When you respond to a person asking a question, you also usually say you "answer". If you respond to them when they are not asking a question, then it is usually called a reply. Also, you could say you replied with an answer, but I don't think you can answer with a reply :) That'd be another example of them not being interchangeable.
Well, why do we use the word "to" in the sentence "We reply to our own questions" ? The preposition just wants to be there :p Actually though, "svarar" is used to mean "reply". However "svarar på" is usually used to mean "answer". The distinction is that you would normally reply to a letter, but you would normally answer a question. https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=svara_p%C3%A5
I typed svara as answer, and it marked me wrong and told me the right word was Besvarar, then when i looked at the comments, it told me the right word was svarar! Any way to tell when to use which words?