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- Topic: Swedish >
- "The man has white clothes."
"The man has white clothes."
Translation:Mannen har vita kläder.
9 Comments
Is there a singular of kläder? Something like "en kläd?" Or is it always plural, like pants in English?
287
"Kläder" is always plural. The word you would use for singular is "ett klädesplagg", something like "an article of clothing" contracted into "a clothing-article". However, one can use "en kläd" as a jocular way to refer to a piece of clothing, my father often does. It's funny because it's wrong.
in the previous lessons 'clothes' was translated either 'klader' or 'kladerna'. In this sentence I went with 'kladerna' and it was marked wrong. How come?
Clothes = Kläder
The clothes = Kläderna
Notice the difference? That's why it was marked wrong here if you wrote kläderna.
What is the difference between vit and vitt, and are they pronounced the same?
- 287
As for the pronounciation, Swedish distinguishes between long and short vowels. Here, the double t in "vitt" is used to mark the i as a short i. "Vitt" is pronounced similarly to English "sit" or "it" or "bit" or "wit". It's harder to find an English equivalent to "vit". It's somewhat like the "ee" in "need" or "bee" (and people who speak English with a Swedish accent often pronounce those words with a Swedish long i...).
