"I september sjunger jag mycket."
Translation:In September I sing a lot.
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Swedish has a rule that the verb must be in the second place (the V2 rule). So in English you say:
- [In September] [I] [sing] [a lot]
whereas in Swedish you must say:
- [I september] [sjunger] [jag] [mycket].
Alright...so if it was switched around, it would look more how I expected it. "Jag sjunger mycket i september."
I still don't really get the second place rule. Could you go over it in more detail, please?
Bascicly if you have three words, subject, object and verb, you have to put the verb as #2 word. Object, verb, subject or subject, verb, object.
Of course itsn't just 3 words. 'I december' or 'Det finns' and others are considered a single clause.
order changes in questions
Can you explain where in this sentence the verb is in the second place because it is in the third place in this sentence? Because In and September are 2 different words both nouns right so why do they count as 1? Sorry if this is a daft question having a hard time getting my head around this rule. Appreciate any help you can provide.
Sure, in questions you begin with the verb and the word kanske can often break the V2-rule as well.
I'd prefer to say that the rule does not apply to questions (since questions are formed by changing word order, how could it?). It also does not apply to subclauses and a certain type of exclamations. I wrote some more about it here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/8970470
With that analysis, questions aren't an exception from the V2 rule, since the verb is still in 2nd place, it's just that they can have an empty 1st place.
One way of making sense of that analysis is claiming that questions either start with a question word, like Varför? 'Why?', which takes 1st place, or if there isn't an explicit question word, there is a 'zero question word' in its place instead.
Personally I just feel it's more helpful to say that V2 doesn't cover questions. The main thing about questions after all is that the verb must go before the subject.
In traditional Swedish grammar, you often analyse question sentences as the first slot (’fundamentet’) being ”empty”.
Do people generally follow that rule when talking or is it just when writing? I'm asking because in many languages when speaking informally grammar rules are being ignored.
Yes, but "mycket" can also mean "very":
Jag är mycket trött - I am very tired
Think of mycket as the equivalent of "much" in English. :) It's the same as "a lot".
by mycket it means that the quantity is a lot (like rice or a sackful of potatoes) but många indicates a countable quantity. Like jag äter många applen
We always use i with months, just like you use in with months in English. What's strange is rather that we say på with seasons of the year (på vintern) where you say 'in' – 'in winter'.
Its not about this sencence but what is the most common swedish translation of "of"? There are so many so i just wonder which should i use most
You are right. There are so many, because it is rather arbitrary which preposition a language will use with which verb or in which situation. They do not translate from one word directly to another, because different languages use their prepositions differently. http://en.bab.la/dictionary/english-swedish/of
can someone please explain why its no pa???? Is the phrase talking about every September or the upcoming September?? Since it was "i" i am thinking it is the upcoming September. Someone please help me understand.
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Is this a common phrasing? To me the English sentence structure seems poetic, and not one would use in everyday speech. The normal one would be "I sing a lot in September / Jag sjunger mycket i september". Do Swedes have a preference for phrasing it the other way, or is this just a quirky Duo sentence?
So, the season of the fall begins
Down the crossroads in a sleepy little inn...
In Catalan "una miqueta" means "a little", so I always mistake mycket for it. >.
I understand the structure of this sentence. However, would it not be more natural to say, 'I sing a lot in September' ? Thanks