"Det är en tidning."

Translation: It is a newspaper.

[g.uh]

The "t" in "Det" is mute? Or we should pronounce as "Detär en tidning" ?

[JGHunter]

A few people have asked this, but nobody is answering. It'd like to know, too!

[Zmrzlina]

It is silent, yes.

[JGHunter]

Thanks! I hear the v is silent in brev, is it also silent in other places, like kvinnar?

[Zmrzlina]

No, that is wrong. V is not silent in brev or kvinna.

[JGHunter]

What is wrong? Very unclear answer.

[alice.madison]

I think that "kvinnar" is pronounced more like "veenahr"

[Arnauti]

The k is heard in kvinnor, but the v is often de-voiced to the point where it may sound a lot like an f instead. And the o ending is often pronounced very blurrily, like a schwa-vowel. In clear speech though, it sounds like it's written.

[fraumueller]

I wrote "this" instead of "that"for "det". We didn't learn something else for now. I think it should count.

[Lundgren8]

’This’ would be det här or detta.

[openeverything]

I don't get the difference between this/that det/detta är either. Also wrote 'this'. Since we do not have any context for this sentence, I agree with the other user, that it should count. Or it should be changed or at least get an explanation added.

[MathiasGru2]

I've read somewhere that with "en-words" you have to use "den", and "det" with "ett-words". If this is right, why is it correct to say "det" in this sentence?

[Arnauti]

Det does not refer to the newspaper in this sentence. It is a placeholder pronoun much like it in It is raining. Much longer post about this here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/9708920

[g.uh]

Det means all of this (it, the, what)??

[Starpath]

Det means 'it' by itself. As far as I know it doesn't mean 'the', and 'vad' is 'what', or at least in verb form. Sorry, I'm not too far into the course myself, but that's what I remember so far.

[alexwooty]

I couldn't hear the t in det being pronounced either - is it is silent? Or is it affected by the word that follows it?

[Zmrzlina]

Silent.

[yadwinder_gadari]

How can we avoid confusing this sentence with "what is a newspaper ?" ?

[Arnauti]

'What is a newspaper?' would be Vad är en tidning?

[sevensn]

i used ths instead of that and it was counted as a mistake

[Arnauti]

Just as it should be. Det in this sentence means it, but if you stress it a little more, it can also mean that.
this would be det här or detta.

[Tarik777]

How do you say, "This is a newspaper?" And is "det" the only word for "it"?

[Arnauti]

Det här är en tidning or Detta är en tidning (more formal)
it can be den or det depending on gender.

[Shinigurai]

För mig som har pluggade svenska för över 6 år det rätt ordet är DEN. This seems wrong, since when you're using en words then it is DEN instead of det. Please do correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I've been taught over the past 6 years in school. Futhermore, in the spoken slowmotion sentence the voice says DEN. In spoken language these -n and -t sounds are being mostly silent.

[Arnauti]

Yes, it really needs to be det here. I wrote a long post about it here which hopefully explains it: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/9708920

[JohnReuben2]

EMIL I NEED UR HELP! If flickan means the girl cant it be pronounced also as Det flicka?

[JadeW4]

Shouldnt it be its instead?

[Arnauti]

It is can be shortened to it's with an apostrophe, but its only means 'belonging to it', like in The newspaper lost its credibility for instance.

[Ibland]

I answered : this is a newspaper, and the software corrected "That is a newspaper". Really ?

[Arnauti]

Really, there's a difference in meaning between 'this' and 'that', and we can and do express that difference in Swedish too. this is 'det här' or 'detta' and that is 'det där' or sometimes 'det'.

[shinabamorotomo]

I typed "tidnig" instead of "tidning" and got it right, are they both correct?

[Arnauti]

No, that should be considered a typo. There's no such word, it's only tidning.

[Yueyang947859]

Tidning = Newspaper right? Since newspaper is gender neutral, may i check why it is en tidning and not ett tidning?

[Arnauti]

tidning isn't neuter, it's common gender, so that it's en tidning, tidningen.
The Swedish genders aren't masculine/feminine, we just have two grammatical genders, neuter and common gender.

[Yueyang947859]

But why is tidning a common gender tho?

[Arnauti]

There isn't much sense behind the genders. Historically, it's called common gender because we used to have three genders, feminine, masculine and neuter, and the first two melted together into common gender. There are some tendencies, for instance words with the ending -ing are typically en words. (except the word ett ting 'a thing', where -ing isn't an ending).

Some more about these tendencies here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/6329293

[Yueyang947859]

Thanks a lot :-)

[MLPSalem]

I don't have a microphone. Should I start to do the lessons on my macbook?

[lagolas2010]

You can disable microphone lessons in the settings

[RoseRialRosall]

I can not here the en. Is there a problem?

[KittyGraveyard]

why did it say what I typed was wrong? it says "Type what you hear" and instead of letting me continue it said it was wrong just because I forgot the "t" in "Det" which is silent like why????

[Dakotajei]

It didn't get why sometimes we say " ett brev " for " a letter " and why we say " en tidning" for a newspaper, i mean why the ett and en changes

[jetsetjames]

Ahh i typed in TE as in tea and thought it doesnt make any sense... Tea and newspaper... No wonder why