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- "Barnen lär sig läsa."
18 Comments
1457
If you want to say that clearly in Swedish, you should say Barnen lär sig själva att läsa.
"Lär sig" is a modal verb? Lär sig själva is not? Jag förstår inte. Lär sig läsa but lär sig själva "att" läsa?
Hi Arnauti. My thanks indeed for the clarification. But would my English translation be wrong, per se? DL marked it wrong, so just clearing that up.
- 1457
Yes it is wrong actually, lära sig just means learn and if you add that they teach themselves, you're actually adding something that wasn't there in the Swedish sentence. There's nothing in that sentence to make you infer that they teach themselves. The reflexive pronoun just expresses the fact that the language in itself is aware of the active nature of learning something.
Translation in practice is another story, there may be contexts where – in English – The children teach themselves to read means exactly the same as The children are learning to read and in those cases of course it would work.
Does that mean that they teach themselves to read? Or does lära always come with sig, mig etc., no matter if you are teaching yourself or if someone else teaches you?
It means that they learn, not necessarily that they teach themselves. It doesn’t mean that they don’t receive help learning, but it’s a skill that they alone acquire.
Thanks! Is it also possible to use lära to express that A is teaching B something, like "Läraren lär barnen läsa"?
Yes, that also works. The important thing is that lära almost always either have to have an object as in your example lär barnen or be reflexive jag lär mig. Then it can mean either to gain knowledge for yourself or to give knowledge to others.
So you can’t say e.g. jag lär tyska to mean ’I learn German’ or ’I teach German’. It has to be jag lär mig tyska and if you teach as a profession and don’t have an object you say jag undervisar i tyska, or jag lär klassen/barnen tyska but then it sounds like something temporary rather than a profession.
I understand. Thank you very much for your help and explanations, it's really appreciated!
I thought is was "barnen lär sig att läsa", with a very quick and soft "att".
i had the child is learning to read and got incorrect. i though Barnen could be both the children and the child
hej Mr.Arnauti what is the differnce between lära and läsa;as DL has either one with both meanings
- 229
I have a list of modal verbs which doesn't include "lär sig", with this sentance having no att, does this mean "lär sig" is a model verb as well?
