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- "Attention is important when …
"Attention is important when one drives."
Translation:Uppmärksamhet är viktigt när man kör.
44 Comments
I disagree that när man kör and när man kör bil are the same. När man kör bil should translate as "when one drives a car".
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I don't think so, in fact köra bil is like a verb in its own right in Swedish and we very often say that in contexts where you'd prefer to only say drive in English.
Yeah that is the correct translation, however the arument was that in everyday discussion pointing out that what you are driving is a car is redundant and wierd. What you are driving is expected to be a car unless you state otherwise.
Redundancy is generally a feature and not a bug in languages. To say "kör bil" is perfectly idiomatic and will continue to be accepted, just like "kör" will too.
I suppose that is true, and you are right in that none will have a problem with you saying it that way. I just thought it was a strange set of options to have, seeing as they are besically the same. It can create confusion when learning is really what I'm getting at.
Sure. Sorry if I'm coming off as a bit rude in the tone of my previous post. I think that a learner will learn through this question that "kör" and "kör bil" both work well for describing the act of driving. But I totally see what you mean too, and it's not at all an invalid point to make.
Not at all! Just had an opinion I wanted to share is all. No hard feelings. :)
Can't argue the idiomatic part. On the Swedish side kör bil I'm sure ok. Just in the multiple choice questions could be confusing for someone who does not know that. But you are right of course if it is a valid translation, it should not be removed from the course. Just maybe remove it from such multiple choice questions? I don't know just an idea...
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I think this is why it's important to have it there. It's really just as natural to translate drive into köra bil as into just köra (when that's what you mean, of course). Like for instance, it's pretty natural in English to say things like "I like driving/to drive", right? It's even more natural than "I like driving cars", am I right? But saying just jag gillar att köra doesn't sound nearly as good in Swedish. It isn't wrong or anything, but it would be more natural to say Jag gillar att köra bil.
I believe that there is a distinction to be made between whether kor bil is accepted in certain question formats and when it is required as an answer in the multiple choice question format.
I agree that it is a little redundant so why not just get rid of the kör bil sentence then?
When talking about something in a very general or abstract sense, the adjective defaults back to neuter gender.
Well, when talking about something in a general or abstract sense. Yes, it's common.
I'm thinking it has to do with possession. To have attention is important. "Att ha uppmärksamhet är viktigt när man kör." It works when you think about other examples where you use en-words with vikigt. "Att ha en bil är viktigt när man bor på landet." To have a car is important when you live in the countryside." This is not something I can confirm as I'm simply a native speaker and have not thought about these things before. I can't find an example of possession where "viktig" is used though so I'm quite confident in what I stated. However you can have something that that is important. "Att ha en viktig studie." To have an important study". I don't know I think I'm confusing myself. :P It depends on where in the sentence the word "viktig" is placed if it becomes viktigt or viktig. I have no conclusive answer for you, sorry!
I guess using "kör bil" for driving is like using "lagar mat" for cooking.
kör by itself still means "drive" but lagar means "fix", so it's not a perfect analogy but yeah it's similar.
OK, so "lagar mat" can mean "fixing food"? Like I hear people say they are going to fix dinner. Interesting. Thanks for that.
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Is the solution with "kör bil" really the same? So can't köra relate to driving any other vehicle?
"Köra" and "kör" is the same word with different required prepositions (I think I'm saying the right things). So one would say "att köra" = to drive, and "kör" = drive. So basically "köra" is describing an activity and "kör" is the activity. "Jag ska köra" = I'm going to drive/ I'm going driving., and "Jag kör" = I'm driving. I understand if I'm not making complete sense and I apologize. I'm not a professional. :)
EDIT: Just realized what I think was the original problem here, that the correct answer was picky about stating what was being driven. "Köra" is indeed universally used for all vehicles. It's just that as an every day sentence the expected vehicle would be a car or other vehicle of transportation on public roads. If you are talking about driving anything else that will be in context or added in the sentence as car was here but replaced with desired vehicle. I.E: "Jag körde till båten och körde den en sväng." = I drove to the boat and drove it for a bit. I hope you got something out of this mess heh, I might have just confused people with my picky comment.
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Well, my problem was that I got this sentence as multiple choice question and didn't choose the solution with "kör bil" as I thought the word "bil" is nowhere in the English sentence. I think it would be better not to have both solutions (with and without bil) in one question.
I thinks it's fine to have both 'kör' and 'kör bil' as possible answers to the same question. Remember, the ultimate purpose of Duo is to teach us Swedish, not to guarantee a good score on the exercises.
If you are a highly proficient speaker, you will recognize that both 'kör' and 'kör bil' are valid answers here. On the other hand, if you were marked wrong because you failed to recognize that, then I guarantee you that you will remember that fact now, long after you have forgotten other things about Swedish.
"Om" means "if" in that sense, whereas in this sentence we're going for when one drives rather than if one drives.
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Ah, I see... would the sentence make sense with "om man kör bil"? I understand that the meaning is slightly different (när is more about the time when you drive, om is more conditional - hard to describe for me, but basically like when & if in English, right?), but I'm not really sure if "om" would work here too.
Eftersom det är "en uppmärksamhet" borde man inte säga "Uppmärksamheten är viktig", utan alltså t på slutet?
Multiple choice gave me "Det är viktig med uppmärksamhet när man kör." and I was curious why it wasn't an accepted answer, as I've seen this sentence structure before. What makes it incorrect?
You're right in saying that this is a normal sentence structure but it should be viktigt so that it agrees with 'det'
OH! That little bugger slipped right past me. Glad to know it was something that simple. Thanks!
In cases where the subject has a general, abstract, or collective sense, the neuter indefinite form of a predicate adjective MAY be used. Examples:
Sill är gott.
Politik är roligt.
This lack of agreement occurs especially frequently when the noun is in a form without article or is something not normally used in the plural.
You can think of these examples as ellipses of att clauses (which are always grammatically neuter):
Sill är gott = Att äta sill är gott
uppmärksamhet är viktigt = att vara uppmärksam är viktigt
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My confusion had nothing to do with the first half of this sentence. I can't seem to get the word order after "när" straight. I thought the verb would come before the noun after "när." What can I do to "un-confuse" myself? Thanks.
Patty, in a main clause the verb comes second (V2 rule). But in a subordinate clause, the verb comes at the end of the clause.
Here we have a subordinate clause beginning with "när".
