"Är prästen här?"

Translation: Is the priest here?

[deactivated user]

Sounds like the start of a lovely new Swedish crime drama...

[SrMarien]

Im still not sure about the pronounciation... Intuitively i would say that the ä in här is pronounced the same as the german ä, but duolingo seems to pronounce it as the a in the german word 'da drüben'... Anyone who could help?

[Lundgren8]

In this case it’s short, so it sounds the same as the short e, i.e. not the same as in här.

[HPFoley]

Is there any sure way to know whether a vowel will be long or short in Swedish?

[Nina116]

This video was extremely helpful to me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESUXFCht6yk

:)

[HPFoley]

Tack! This is very helpful.

[Lundgren8]

It’s hard, but usually if the consonant after is written once, the vowel is long, as in hat and if it’s doubled the vowel is short, as in hatt. Long vowels are always followed by short consonants and short vowels by long consonants. Consonant clusters like nd count as a double consonant, as in lan (long vowel) vs land (short vowel).

[steverandall7]

What is the difference between "här" and "hit"? I'm not quite picking up on the difference in usage.

[Zmrzlina]

The difference lies in location and direction.

Här = here
Hit = here to

[steverandall7]

OK, that makes sense. As a native American English speaker I see it as här - here (location) and hit - to here, in other words, there's some movement and/or direction involved. Is that correct?

[Zmrzlina]

Entirely. :)

[oldestguru]

if he is then we only need a rabbi, an imam and a bar