22 Comments
337
I thought it would be "den" because it is referring to an -en word (en säng). No?
- 900
I'm sure you've already found out about this elsewhere, but I'll just post an answer here anyway for anyone who comes by: det here does not refer to the bed. It is a placeholder pronoun, used to start talking about a new topic, and for that purpose, we always use det.
Here's a link to a much longer text about this: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/9708920
- 337
Thanks Arnauti. Let me see if I understand. Suppose we are already talking about beds and you asked me which one is mine. Would I then answer (pointing to mine), "Den är min sang."?
- 900
Yes (except you'd skip säng). And in the same situation you would say That one is mine in English, rather than It is my bed.
Do you speak Spanish or a similar language? Because I was going to do the same!
At first I thought (Purely listening to audio) that they said 'Det ar min swag.' Well I was totally wrong xD
The pronounciation of this sentence is correct, right?
I was hearing a "v" sound myself in säng as in "svang", so I'm thinking it's just pronounced the way it is and we're not used to it haha
- 868
I also hear it as 'sväng', but I suspect the TTS of being a bit off (at least at the moment, 1-1-2017). Also, Forvo pronounces it differently: https://sv.forvo.com/word/säng/#sv. Perhaps one of the mods or a native speaker can help us out?
My translation was "This is my bed", but the correct answers were "It is my bed" and "That is my bed".
Is there really a difference between "This is my bed" and "That is my bed"?
It is my bed: Det är min säng
This is my bed: Det här är min säng
That is my bed: Det där är min säng
But then I think "That is my bed" should be removed as a correct answer (or alternatively "This is my bed" should be handled as correct as well). In the end, the differences seem to be quite subtle
I think "It is my bed" is the most general translation, though "This or That is my bed" could possibly be used in a situation where you're pointing at a particular bed and want to emphasize that "THIS/THAT ONE is mine". In that case you would put the emphasis of the sentence on "DET" in the Swedish sentence too ("DET är min säng"). Or someone who hasn't seen a bed before (I know it's quite unlikely...) asks "What is this/that?" ("Vad är det här/där?") poiting at your bed and you answer "That's my bed" ("Det (här/där) är min säng"). In this case you can omit "där/här" but as I wrote before, generally "this" = "det/den här" or "detta/denna" (not very much used in spoken Standard Swedish) and "that" = "det/den där". The emphasis is put on "här/där".
TLDR, to make it simple, both "this" and "that" could as well have been wieved as incorrect even if there are situations where they could have been used, both of them.
- 900
If you put a little bit of stress in det in det är min säng, it will indeed mean that is my bed. But it never means this is my bed – we always say that as det här är min säng or detta är min säng.
- 900
The difference between det här/this and det där/that is that this refers to something close to the speaker whereas that refers to something farther away. In practice of course the difference isn't always obvious but basically these concepts are used in a very similar way between Swedish and English.
- 1727
I thought "bed" was "bädd" in Swedish? Can you use "bädd" and "säng" interchangeably?
No, it’s normally säng. Bädd is also a word but it’s a more general word for ’the place you sleep’, so a ’sofa bed’ is bäddsoffa for example and the place your dog sleeps can also be a bädd. But that word is not as common.
"Säng" looks very much like bed cover in Icelandic (sæng), but apparently that's "filt" in Swedish and seems to translate as "blanket" in English on Google Translate. Slightly confusing when you already speak one of the Nordic languages. : p
I heard "Det är min sväng" too, so I listened to it slower and figured it out.
