"Jag sover i flera timmar."
Translation:I am sleeping for several hours.
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Can you explain a little bit more. So far I thought that "i" in swedish means in!
It does! But it's also the preposition Swedish just happens to prefer with durations of time. Prepositions are highly irregular between languages, as you might have noticed.
How would you say, "I will sleep in several hours." Is it still i for in, or is a different preposition used
@Malgosia007 you can skip att in kommer att, especially in less formal language.
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I cannot reply to Zmrzlina's post so I'll write it here - why "Jag kommer sova om flera timmar", not "Jag kommer ATT sova om flera timmar"?
@KaBo07: You can use jag går och lägger mig for I'm going to bed. Saying jag går och sover would have the same meaning, but be less idiomatic. Just jag går sover doesn't make sense - are you going to sleep, sleepwalking, or something else?
@KaBo07: Not entirely sure what you mean here. Han går simmar reads like "He goes swims".
Although, in some other constructions, we'd use på. Jag har inte sovit på fem dagar. I'm not sure why, a bit too native for that.
When we were previously discussing a sleeping moose, Älgen sover i natt meant that the moose sleeps tonight. Älgen sover på natten meant the moose sleeps at night. Does this sentence mean I am sleeping for several hours now, this time? And if I wanted to say that I habitually sleep for several hours, would I use på? Tack så mycket!
No, it's just that i natt means 'tonight'. Those (i natt, i dag, i morgon etc) are set expressions.
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And this time it's really... What's wrong with "I sleep for many hours."? "Flera" is a countable form of "många", then translating it as "many" can't be wrong.
We keep to "many" = många; "several" = flera throughout the course. However, flera can also somewhat colloquially be used for "more", so it's accepted at some further places.
Is that a colloquial use? I thought it was countable vs non-countable, i.e. "Jag vill ha mer mat" vs. "Jag vill ha flera kakor"
Flera means several or many, but not few. Apparently, få is few, but I'm not sure if it's taught on DL. In English, "few" is less than "several."
We do teach få, but I think since that also means "receive" that Duolingo doesn't realise they're different words and hence doesn't show it in red when it first appears.
Also, please note that we make a difference between "several" and "many" throughout the course, so flera only translates to "several" here.
Why is I sleep for a few hours incorrect? Several and a few mean the same thing in American English.
No, slept is the past tense.
I slept for two hours 'Jag sov i två timmar'
I have slept for two hours 'Jag har sovit i två timmar'.
Why is the plural formed as timmAr and not timmOr, while the singular is "en timma"?
It can actually be either, but timme is the main form and timma is an alternative singular form. We recommend using en timme, but en timma is also acceptable.
I would not trust google, even for words. It's usefully only in very minscule ways. For looking up words I would use ord.se or wiktionary
So...technically, given the meaning of "Jag sover i flera timmar", one couldn't actually speak this sentence, right? Because you would be actively sleeping. Tack!
Sure you could, given proper context. :)
- Sover du gott på söndagar?
- Jag sover i flera timmar.
Jag förstår, tack! I see now what was confusing me. I thought sover was only "am sleeping" as in right now.
I got false when I translated 'flera' with 'many'. Is that really that bad a translation?
Jag är helsvensk och skrev också many. Many översätter man väl till många, så ja det kanske inte är bästa ordvalet här.
I remember i by thinking: "in the space of" (several hours)
I remember 'för' by thinking: "for the sake of" (several hours)...
I know it must be 'i' because an hour is not a person/entity.
I'm very new at Swedish though, so maybe my mnemonic device will prove erroneous the more I learn!
Is there some reason that flera can't mean "a few"? "A few" and "several" are interchangeable in English, but "several" is more formal and sounds stilted in contexts like this one.
Why is "I sleep in several hours" wrong here? As in I go to sleep in several hours, would you use a different word for "in" here if that were the case?
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Is there a difference between multiple hours and several hours? My answer was incorrect because I translated flera as multiple.
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Thanks. It remains difficult, those English prepositions. I know what is meant in Swedish, but then things go wrong with the translation from Dutch to English.
på is also used for durations, but in the negative. For instance:
- jag har sovit i flera timmar = I have slept for several hours
- jag har inte sovit i flera timmar = I have not slept (continuously) for several hours
- jag har inte sovit på flera timmar = I have not slept (at all) for several hours
Let me see if I got this.
i = duration of time om = amount of time until something happens på = a time when something happens regularly
Is that right?
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Yes, that's wrong as explained elsewhere on this page.
Jag sover om flera timmar: I sleep in several hours.
Jag sover i flera timmar: I sleep for several hours.
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That's a pity, because close enough is not good enough ;-). flera means "several"; många means "many".
But... "several" and "many' mean the same thing...??
I've noticed it will accept "Elk" or "Moose" in English for "Älg", so why not here? It's the inconsistency of this app which is most annoying.
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"several" and "many" don't mean the same. Several is less than many.
I've several trousers and many t-shirts. That's three trousers and ten t-shirts.
en älg is called "moose" in North America and "elk" in Europe. Duo accepts both translations. More about moose/elk on this site https://naturetravels.wordpress.com/2007/10/29/whats-the-difference-between-a-moose-and-an-elk/