"Jag bor nära mina föräldrar."

Translation: I live close to my parents.

[AhhBisseto]

As a native english speaker I'm starting to question my own abilities because "I live near to my parents." isn't accepted... have I been practicing swedish too long and started going crazy? =O

[bex42]

To me "near to" and "close to" mean exactly the same thing and I am quite confused!

[Arnauti]

I'm obviously not a native speaker of English myself, but I think with a spatial meaning, most people would prefer to say close to but near without the to. Near to is more often used to convey an abstract sense, that's probably why it wasn't included to begin with. I don't think it's wrong per se though, so I'll add it.

[bex42]

Thanks! It amazes me how rarely these issues crop up when there are so many ways to say things, especially given the course isn't long out of beta. Really appreciate all your hard work!

Just thinking more about it now, "I live near my parents' house" sounds fine, but I like it better with "to" when I'm talking about my parents, not their house. I guess you're right about the abstractness, but maybe we have different views on what's abstract!

[cayvie]

to be honest, that sounds a little weird to these native english speaking ears

[atofelt]

Why is the default translation of "nära" "close to" instead of "near"?

[ShanneSkratch]

i think the English translation Is sometimes in American English not in English English . We use different words for things though understand it all. Mom for instance is American English Mum is English English

[JimNolt]

Can someone spell "föräldrar" phonetically for me!

[major0celot]

sounds like for-el-drar from here

[JimNolt]

Thanks vinylcyanide... I should have not been so quick to ask. After hearing it often enough I'm catching on. And I'm also working with a hearing loss... so I need to give these words more time to "sink in." I appreciate everybody's help here. This is a wonderful way to learn.

[makmegs]

''I live close to my folks'' isn't acceptable?

[Zmrzlina]

Nope, you'll have to stick to "parents" here.

[JYH6UtXB]

I've got a question and I'd put it in the general Topic:Swedish area, but the last time I posted a question there, it just disappeared (since no one responded to it). So, the question is, what are the pronunciation rules that govern when ä is pronounced /eh/, as in 'föräldrar' and when is it pronounced /ah/ as in 'ungefär'? I've listened to some excellent YouTube videos about pronunciation which I recall addressing how to pronounce the sounds but not when to pronounce them one way or the other. Can anyone help?