"Who will teach German?"

Translation: Vem ska undervisa i tyska?

[mike.liddle]

can anyone explain why it's "lära ut" or "undervisa i" instead of just "lära" or "undervisa"?

[Super-Svensk]

There are several ways to say "teach" in Swedish. First, there is lära. So, if you want to use lära, the sentence will have two objects (the person who is learning and the thing that the person is learning). If the subject and the object (the person who is learning) are the same, you add sig (or mig, dig, etc.) because there still needs to be that first object. For example, Jag lär mig svenska (literally "I learn myself Swedish"). Mig is there to act as the first object. However, this construction (where the subject and who is learning are the same) means "to learn/study" instead of "to teach." Lära is used to mean "teach" when the subject is not the same as who is learning. For example, Hon lär dig svenska. (She teaches you Swedish). This is kind of confusing, so to sum it up, lära means "learn" when you are learning something from yourself, and "teach" when you are learning from someone else. If you have any questions about this, please ask me.

[mike.liddle]

yes, I understand the word "lära", but why do they have "ut" or "i" there? according to what you said it should work to just drop that ie., "hon lär/undervisa tyska" but it says, "hon lär ut/undervisa i tyska"

[HelenCarlsson]

"Undervisa" works without an object, so you can simply say
"Hon undervisar"

She can also teach something
"Hon undervisar i tyska"

... and someone
"Hon undervisar oss i tyska"

"Lära" = teach doesn't work the same way. You have to tell what is taught
"Hon lär ut tyska"

... and if you add whom she teaches, you skip the particle "ut"
"Hon lär oss tyska"

[OlliPllnen]

I believe this still doesn't explain the need for "i" in the sentence "hon undervisar oss i tyska", is "hon undervisar oss tyska" wrong?

[devalanteriel]

Yes, undervisa works like e.g. "give instructions" in English does. So while you can say "She gives instructions", you can't say "She gives instructions English" - you need a preposition. For Swedish, it's the same thing, and the preposition is i.

[Super-Svensk]

Lära requires a subject, a direct object (what is being taught), and an indirect object (who is being taught), so you can't just say Hon lär tyska.

[airelibre]

How do you say someone teaches IN a language? Eg. He teaches maths in German - he is speaks German in the lessons.

[HelenCarlsson]

In a language = på ett språk
Han undervisar i matematik (or "i matte") på tyska.

[airelibre]

Thanks, thought so. So you could say "Han undervisar i tyska på svenska" - He teaches German in Swedish?

[Zmrzlina]

Yes.

[samsam10]

Why not tysk.?

[creativemetaphor]

If I'm remembering the lesson right, Tysk would be a German thing like saying Volkswagon is a German car, while Tyska is the German language.

[HelenCarlsson]

Correct! "Tyska" is also used for plural: "två tyska bilar".

[BretCollin1]

Can anyone explain then why my Berlitz dictionary says "Engelsk - Svensk" on the cover? It must be more complicated than this...