"Do you usually write letters?"
Translation:Brukar du skriva brev?
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In Swedish, "Brukar" isn't an adverb like "Usually" is in English, but an auxiliary verb.
It works like "Kan" in "Kan du skriva brev"
But 'skriver du vanligtvis brev' was correct! Is there any difference in meaning vs 'brukar du skriva brev'?
A small nuance, I think. Maybe you can feel it in English if you compare the sentences in the past tense instead: I used to write letters vs I usually wrote letters.
those would translate, jag brukade skriva brev, vs. jag vanligtvis skrev brev, in that order?
Close - the latter is jag skrev vanligtvis brev, due to the v2 rule. :)
I wrote "Vangligtvis skriver du brev?". Did i mess up the word order or is this a correct translation that hasn't been added yet?
The V2 rule does not apply in case of question sentence. And "brukar" is a help verb in Swedish.
Brukar du vanligtvis skriva brev? Was not accepted. Redundant use of usually or gramatically incorrect?
I completely forgot that letters are written notes, and went with "bokstäver"; but I made another error so I can't say if it's accepted or not.
No, we go by the logic that people will learn the wrong meaning of that word if we do accept it. For some sentences, this makes a lot of sense. For this one, I can really see the argument going either way.
- vanlig = common, and vanligt is the singular ett-word and adverb form, but it's not used like this
- vanligtvis = usually, adverb
- brukar = to habitually/usually do, verb
So they're from different word classes.
Standard word order is Du skriver brev. If you add a modal verb, you put that as the main verb in the v2 slot: Du brukar skriva brev.
To make that into a question, you move the main verb to the beginning of the sentence, hence:
- Du skriver brev -> Skriver du brev?
- Du brukar skriva brev -> Brukar du skriva brev?
"Skriva du vanligt brev?" is wrong. I can't understand the difference between vanligt and brukar, I guess they're just different kind of words, can someone help with this?
- vanligtvis means "usually"
- vanligt means "common" (singular indefinite ett-word adjective)
- brukar means "usually do"
So you can use vanligtvis here.
Also:
- skriva is the infinitive
- skriver is the present tense
So vanligtvis is the adverb, vanligt is an adjective only for ett-words and brukas is like some kind of verb that means the same... like you said in the previous comment to zk1P4. So, if I get it properly, "Skriva du vanligt brev?" would mean something like "Do you write common letters?" Is that my mistake?
Well, it's still skriver, not skriva. And you need to either add the article for the singular or use the plural form, as below. But you're right about the general meaning.
- Skriver du ett vanligt brev?
- Skriver du vanliga brev?
Oh, yes, I also forgot that, I got it. OK, thank you very much for this clarification, I get it now :D