23 Comments
På has become my go to word when i'm stuck as it seems to have 100 different meanings.
1619
Is Husets framsidan also possible? In which cases the genitive with på is used?
No, but husets framsida is a normal structure. You can never have a definite noun after a possessor.
so is "om" possession of location for cardinal directions and is på possession of location for relative directions? or why is it på here, but om for norr om sjön and väster om huvudstaden
- 894
om with location is to the … of … – (till) vänster om huset 'to the left of the house'
på in framsidan på huset is like of in the front of the house, it's just that we don't use av that way (it's not totally wrong in this specific case, but på is the most idiomatic way of saying it).
But in English the 'front side' of a building IS the facade, so shouldn't 'the facade of the house' be an acceptable translation? I think I've used it before and gotten it right, but this time it wasn't accepted.
- 822
A façade is a specially constructed front side of a building, an architectural feature that was common years ago, especially for buildings on the main street in the business section of town. Sometimes the façade would have a structure higher than the normal upper ledge of the wall to support special decoration, sometimes the year of construction, often the name of the business. The front side of an ordinary house or building would not be a façade.
"Façade" can have the sense of "false front," and this word can be used figuratively:
"Her flawless public façade masked private despair." https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/facade
- 894
None really, or none that I can think of. på might be a little more natural and av slightly more formal.
I wrote the house's front side. Is there any reason why this should not be accepted?
It's not quite natural. Possession is usually shown with 's for people and with "of" for things. But actually, I also think "side" is completely unnatural in English. I would just say "the front of the house" ... but logically, your answer is correct - just a bit odd - and you're learning Swedish rather than English, so it should be accepted.
Thanks. Though I'm trying to learn some English, too, but I've gotten to the boint where DL doesn't help much with my English anymore, so from time to time I get situations like this. Thanks for the input anyways :)
You can definitely use 's to show possession with things, all respect to BenUserName, so don't think it's very unnatural.
Saying 'front side' or 'back side' of the house is possibly a bit redundant, but it wouldn't be wrong or unnatural, especially if there is a practical reason to say it, like if you're doing work on or outside the house. Also, we often say 'the front of the house' or 'the back of the house' or 'the side of the house' to refer to that general area right around the house, not just the vertical surface.
Ok, I get it that prepositions are usually counter-intuitive, confusing and arbitrary, but this simply takes the cake. På is a whole new level of confusion.
