"The people of Sweden"

Translation:Sveriges folk

February 11, 2015

18 Comments
This discussion is locked.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/dbozjak

Why not sveriges folket? Since we do have the people of sweden?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Arnauti

We can't have a determinate noun 'owned' by a noun in the genitive. Just like you can't say the girl's the book in English.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Gerda82

Thanks for the explanation. I still think it's kind of weird that there is no determiner at all in this sentence. In Dutch, you would still use a determiner: "het Zweedse volk", meaning "Sverige folk" and "The people of Sweden".


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Arnauti

I don't know what word class Zweedse is in Dutch (I know zero Dutch) but it looks more like an adjective than a noun?

If we use an adjective instead, we can say both det svenska folket and svenska folket. It's unclear to me why we can say svenska folket without an article: I usually tell people this occurs with 1) things that function as names 2) with numerals and similar adjectives. It clearly isn't #2, but maybe 'svenska folket' has been used so much it's gotten close to #1 after all.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Gerda82

Oh yeah, sorry, I got a bit confused. It is an adjective in Dutch: because I'm used to the way Dutch handles this, I think my head likes to think that "Sveriges" is an adjective also - but of course, it isn't.

That's very interesting, thanks for replying in such detail! You seem like a really great person and language lover :).


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Arnauti

Thank you! I can't deny being a language lover :)


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/RAlberdi

You can (and have to) do that in Spanish. The more I learn languages, the more I understand Dr. Zamenhof...


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/MikyNik1856

I quickly looked up this guy on wikipedia and the dude is quite interesting. I'm curious though, i can't see the connection he has with this comment. Would you tell me more?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/LaimutTiei

Dr. Zamenhof definitely is a language lover: he created Esperanto language, wich is perhaps the most popular artificial language.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Christiane980578

What is the difference between folk and befolkning?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Arcprotorp

Is there a thread explaining the differences between "folk" / "människor" / "personer". In some cases they seem to be interchangable, but I have a hunch that it is not true for all cases.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/stuartrdr

Is there a reason why "Folket av Sverige" doesn't work?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Arnauti

We just don't say that. We don't use av in constructions like that in Swedish. You say a cup of coffee, we say en kopp kaffe. We use av for 'material' and 'made by' and some other things, but not really for this 'genitive' meaning.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Tentsmuir

Should that not be "Sweden's people"? Where is the definite article?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Patrick889093

So you don't say the people of sweden . It is Sweden's people


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/BernaRosen

Thank you Arnauti


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/lammkott

It's not "some (collection of) Swedish people", it's the people, so why not folket?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Abdy344426

If you want the right translation write it in English ie Sweden's people it is correct in English too don't write it differently in English

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