22 Comments
324
I believe "upp" is more generally "up", and "uppför" is specifically "uphill" or "upstairs".
- 264
I reported this, but it might be worth mentioning here too. I answered "It goes upward" and was told I am almost correct.... should use "upwards." As far as I can determine, "upward" and "upwards" are synonymous. The same is true of "backward" and "backwards." [Some sources do make a fine distinction though. As an adjective... upward; as an adverb... upwards. But other sources I've checked do not make that distinction. ]
If I was referring to an elevator going up, would I say 'det åker uppför?'
- 439
For an elevator it would be 'Hissen åker uppåt'. The word 'uppför' would imply a sloping surface like a hill.
- 395
Or apparently a vertical surface like a wall. At least in the case of nedför.
It’s a vague distinction, but uppåt means ’in the direction upwards (usually without a specific goal) and uppför means the same thing, but when you’re walking along something, like stairs or a hill. It’s commonly used with words like klättra (climb), because then you’re in contact with what you’re climbing, i.e. you’re going along the mountain for example.
So if i want to say the plane moves upwards or when the sun rises it moves upwards i have to use uppåt because it.s not actually climbing an earthly structure?
In German, there is a phrase "Es geht bergauf" which literally means "it's going uphill", but one uses it as a metapher to say that the things are developing in a right way. What about the Swedish sentence, does it have such connotation as well?
No, not at all. If anything, people would likely think you mean something's a struggle. But we do use det går utför, "it's going downhill", to mean the exact opposite. :)
I think "det går uppåt" works as a metaphor for things developing well, though.
That's interesting! The opposite one does exist in German as well. Thanks for the answer :)
Ni kanske borde lagga till översättningen 'goes upstairs' också ;) Jag använder uppför och nerför som 'upstairs and downstairs' ofta på jobbet. Directionally of course since uppe och nere can mean upstairs and downstairs as a place.
I respect that you do this, but it's really not very idiomatic Swedish.
- 192
Can "It walks uphill" be an acceptable translation here? Cause it got marked wrong for me :(
That honestly really doesn't sound like a very good translation, even though it's grammatical. The phrase is an idiom, not about something actually physically walking.
