"Den gamla damen har en fin klänning på sig."

Translation: The old lady is wearing a beautiful dress.

[RavenBersekr]

Hi guys, in Italian, to call someone old would be considered unpolite. We often use some kind softer words. So I was wondering, is that okai in Swedish to refer directly to someone as "gammal"?

[devalanteriel]

Except Juventus, I take it. :p

It depends on the context. If you're just describing a person, saying they're old isn't weird at all. Calling somebody old to their face without proper reason is rude.

[KristinaMichigan]

To my Midwestern U.S. ears, even describing someone as an "old lady" is disrespectful. Also, some men will use it to refer to their wives, but show their disregard for them when they do so. If you insist on using "lady," I would suggest "elderly lady" for the English translation.

[devalanteriel]

That is a good point. I don't think I can make that the default since that'd effectively mean adding a new word ("elderly") to the course. But it's at least accepted for all sentence variations now.

[RavenBersekr]

Many thanks :))

[Coreopsis2943]

Why is the "på sig" after the dress instead of after "har"?

[Arnauti]

Both ways work here.

[Margaret758900]

An idiomatic way to say it in English (not, however accepted by Duolingo) would be "the old lady has on a nice dress." I reported it.

[Tom948490]

Surely it should be: The old lady has a nice dress on ?

[CullenMowe]

Personally (to my American ears), both positions of "on" sound perfectly normal and more or less interchangeable. I think I might prefer "to have on ____" if there's going to be several adjectives, or especially with a list of items.

[Guy166763]

Agreed. I tried "the old woman has a fine dress on" and that was rejected

[devalanteriel]

That's because dam is "lady" rather than "woman".

[dark_peppermint]

Sorry for replying to an old comment, but is there much of a difference in meaning between dam and kvinna in Swedish?
I feel the words are rather interchangeable in English so that's why I am wondering.

[devalanteriel]

I've added that as well now.

[iokasimov.m]

The old lady wears a good dress is not accepted.

[devalanteriel]

I don't really think "a good dress" covers the meaning very well.

[Najmiesmdr]

When do you use den or en added to a word for article?

[mamajelli]

why was "the old woman" marked wrong? old lady and old woman are the same in English.

[devalanteriel]

As you point out, some English speakers can use "lady" to mean "woman".

But dam is never the "woman" sense of lady, much as "gentleman" isn't the same as "man".

[Sarah319956]

Is there a male equivalent of dam in common usage? I found herre in the dictionary but not sure if it is used.

[devalanteriel]

gentleman might fit, or herre.

But that's only for style. Neither is in very common use at all.