35 Comments
If you "ställde" the book on the shelf, you put in an upright position.
If you "lade" the book on the shelf, you made it lie down on the shelf.
Standard Swedish does not have one word for "put", so you need to think of how you put something somewhere.
In northern Sweden where I come from, we have a very useful word "he", which could be used like "put", but people from the south would probably laugh at you if used that.
As a German native speaker this course is so much fun, you can see the similarities between German and Swedish in so many places :D
" Jag ställde boken.. " / " Ich stellte das Buch... " " Jag lade boken... " / " Ich legte das Buch... "
" ...på hyllan" / " ...auf das Regal " " ...i hyllan" / " ... in das Regal "
And these sentences also have the exact same meaning! If you would say:
" Ich legte die Flasche auf den Tisch " / " Jag lade flaskan på bordet "
You would at least produce a slightly confused look on the other person's face, because... Who puts a bottle on the table, horizontally?!
Ok, this was maybe a bit to much... :D
822
Yes, på hyllan is used for things that are perceived to be 'on top' of a shelf, maybe a single shelf on the wall, i hyllan for things that are perceived to be 'inside' a shelf, maybe a bookshelf with sides and several shelves.
I'm happy with the verb..but "i hyllan" rather than "pa hyllan"? "In the shelf"? But if that's the way it is, fair enough!
- 822
It depends on the form of the shelf, see my answer to marekpolacek on this page.
Sorry, I clearly had not looked closely enough at the discussion. Thank you for that!
- 822
'placed' can be ställde, if you put something into standing position, or la, if you put something into a position where it's lying down, or just placerade, if you want to be more abstract-general.
- 636
What is the difference between la and lade, I haven't come across la before (as for as i remember). Are they both acceptable simple past tense forms of lägga?
la is just a shorter form, but they're the same word. Both are pronounced la, but lade is the only one used in formal text.
- 636
Okej tack! This rings a bell with sa and sade. Is it the same deal there, pronouncing both as sa?
Yep, same thing there. :) Those are the only two that work that way, though.
- 1193
It didn't accept set. Should "I set the book on the shelf" be accepted?
Personally, I think it should accept put, set, placed, stood or, alternatively, accept only stood.
Hmm, "into" was not accepted. Wouldn't it be technically correct concerning english? Is it just one of the cases you don`t accept something in order to learn correct swedish?
I could imagine "into the bookcase", since a bookcase encloses the books and usually has a front. I could not imagine "into the bookshelf" though. Things go on shelves.
Can someone please tell me why 'I was putting the book in the shelf' is incorrect? Isn't ställde used for 'put, was/were putting' just like other verbs in the past tense? Any help would be appreciated! :)
- 747
The problem is with the English preposition "in" when used with "shelf." In the discussion previously, the problem from the Swedish perspective is answered by Arnauti:
marekpolacek:
"Is there any difference between på hyllan and i hyllan?"
Arnauti
"Yes, på hyllan is used for things that are perceived to be 'on top' of a shelf, maybe a single shelf on the wall, i hyllan for things that are perceived to be 'inside' a shelf, maybe a bookshelf with sides and several shelves."
Later this difficulty in the difference between Swedish and English use of the words "i" in reference to "hyllan" and "in" in reference to "shelf" is discussed from an English-speaker's perspective:
thorr18
"I could imagine 'into the bookcase,' since a bookcase encloses the books and usually has a front. I could not imagine 'into the bookshelf' though. Things go on shelves."
No. The above sentence is past tense (jag ställde / I put), not past perfect (jag hade ställt / I had put).
I entered "I kept the book on the shelf" and was marked wrong(using the mobile app for android). Isn't "kept" the same as "put" in this context?
I would say kept is about having maintained the status of something, while put is an act of actually changing the status of something. After you put it, you can keep it. :) You can continuously keep it, but you can't really continuously put it.
