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- "Han bor antingen i Sverige e…
"Han bor antingen i Sverige eller i Finland."
Translation:He lives either in Sweden or in Finland.
42 Comments
I typed this and it was marked incorrect: He lives in either Sweden or in Finland.
Why?
1336
Let's see if some native English speakers will chime in, but that combination sounds wrong to me. He lives in either Sweden or Finland is great, or He lives either in Sweden or in Finland, but but once you put either after in, it sounds superfluous to add another in.
Agreed. The sentence He lives in either Sweden or in Finland almost sounds as though there are two Swedens and he lives in either one of those "Swedens", or in Finland. An example to demonstrate my point might be: It is in either box or in the cupboard which again implies the object is in one of two boxes or in the cupboard. In practice this would not matter as we know there is only one Sweden hence it would be understood but is not correct and sounds rather awkward.
Both sentences Arnauti suggests sound fine though I would tend to prefer the former as it just sounds neater. (My preference only though.)
You could also drop the word "either" to make the sentence He lives in Sweden or Finland which implies the same as the other correct answers but is a little ambiguous in that it potentially could mean he lives in both countries at different times. I also assume that this would not be accepted as a correct answer in this instance because it does not include the word either which is central to the question being asked.
I think ”He lives in either Sweden or Finland” should be accepted. ”It is in either THE box or the cupboard” would be the corresponding example. Without the ”the” the meaning changes.
Yep. That is accepted. The sentence in dispute is “He lives in either Sweden or in Finland.”
Not to my native American English ears. I was about to type the same question
Same here. I actually typed it in too, and both my sibling and I thought it was ok. For reference, we're both native American english speakers
The American-English (so not actually English) tilt of some phrases is genuinely very annoying. I spent a good while thinking byxorna was underwear for example.
I agree, I've spoken english all of my life. Perhaps they want more literal translation rather than just the meaning, or english is not their first language. Then again, maybe I just ain't got no good grammar. :)
It sounds ok my ears if dodgy grammar, so it shouldn’t be accepted for pedagogical reasons.
Odd question. In Swedish, can you drop the second 'i' in this sentence? Colloquially is what I'm mostly referring to.
I would mark that wrong in formal contexts, actually. Just like "either in x or in y" and "in either x or y" are formally correct in English. I realise the question was about colloquially, though - I mean, we accept both. :)
tack, but is the current pronunciation in the engine okay? are you able to check by clicking above? (it sounds pretty close to the Forvo version)
The "a" in "antingen" should be short, but for TTS it is long. You can watch this video to learn the difference.
ok tusen tack, I did hear a minor difference, but now I know it is significant :)
- 1336
heller is 'either' in the combination inte … heller meaning 'not … either' – but it doesn't work here.
If I'm not mistaken, I believe "inte...heller" should be translated as "neither...nor" rather than "not...either". I think that would help people understand the difference between heller and antingen.
"neither ... nor" is varken ... eller, and "not ... either" is inte ... heller. :)
Thanks for clarifying! Is there maybe a post somewhere that compares/contrasts the different constructions?
Not that I know of, but here goes:
- either ... or = antingen ... eller
- not either = inte heller
- neither ... nor = varken eller
I guess that's 2/3 the same as my previous comment though. :)
reposting Arnauti's response: "heller is 'either' in the combination inte … heller meaning 'not … either' " .. it can only be used in the negative form
... with two examples:
i) A eller B, antingen A eller B
ii) A är inte sant. Det är inte B heller. (Compare to positive form: A är sant. Det är B också.)
- 1336
If you're talking about two en objects, yes, that's a correct sentence. But you can't follow up the sentence above with that question, because you're either comparing two ett nouns, or in reality referring to two clauses, and for referring to clauses we always use ett forms too. So it would have to be Vilket gillar han bäst? here.
I think I wouldn't ever use bäst here, but rather mest. Is that an oddity?
Okej, tack! Men finns fortfarande frågan... Vilket gillar han bäst? Sverige eller Finland? :D
That came up as an audio file for me. I can't believe I got it first time. Awesome!!
Please search for heller in this commen thread - you'll find it answered already. :)
