"You read the newspapers."

Translation:Du läser tidningarna.

January 10, 2015

16 Comments
This discussion is locked.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/ferretchere

Why "ni"? Most frustrating thing is not explaining "why" behind anything.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Ococnut

I'll just put this here:

I assumed tidning is cognate with English 'tidings'. In fact it is a very close anagram. Remeber thr song We Wish You A Merry Christmas has a line; 'Good tidings we bring, to you and your kin'. Good tidings or good NEWS. Newspapers.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/devalanteriel

Yup. A tiding was an announcement, originally, and news used to be announced orally. German, Danish, Dutch, etc. also have cognates.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/caren3a

Both du and ni are accepted here :-)


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Chardonbleu

Any tips on remembering tidning? It just won't stick...


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/DarkMoonFire

Tid translates to time.

A lot of newspapers are called 'The Times' (as is one of the major newspapers in the UK) or 'The Sunday Times' or 'The [place name] Times'

Maybe that could help to make a connection for you?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Danverdie

When do you put -arna after the word? Because sometimes it's just -en and sometimes you put -or after the word, but i don't know what to use when. Can someone explain?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/devalanteriel

For tidning:

  • -en is the singular definite suffix: tidningen = the newspaper
  • -ar is the plural suffix: tidningar = newspapers
  • -na is the plural definite suffix: tidningarna = the newspapers

The pattern depends largely on the verb's declination. This page has some more info on that: https://www.lysator.liu.se/language/Languages/Swedish/Grammar.html#nouns


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/elemental_1_1

Thought it meant "read" in the padt tense so I wrote "läst".

Sadface


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Arnauti

Past tense is läste.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/CedSgm7N

Do most Swedes use "Du" or "Ni?" - I believe that Du is used with friends and family, while Ni is for people you don't know . Is that correct?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/devalanteriel

No, that's a common myth. You should use du when talking to one person, and ni when talking to more than one person. Swedish never used ni broadly as a formal pronoun, and you may even offend some older people if you use it, so while it does occur rarely, this is largely misinformed and not advisable.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/James704885

what's the difference between tidningar and tidningarna?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/devalanteriel
  • tidningar = newspapers
  • tidningarna = the newspapers

https://www.duolingo.com/profile/ELKnox

It wont accept du or ni for me each time i select one it suggests the other... Very frustrating


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Arnauti

Did you get it as a multiple choice question? For those, you have to check all correct answers – so you'd have to choose both if they appeared together.

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