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In the last 30 years or so, in England, it seems to have become accepted that the person "in the chair" will be referred to as "the Chair". This used to get the response from old fogies (like myself), "I am not a piece of furniture", but no one seems to mind the committee being called "the Board" which obviously means "the Table". It's a lot better than using "Chairperson" if you want to be inclusive.
The following are accepted translations of ordförande on Duolingo: chairman, chairperson, chairwoman, chair, president.
Hi Leslie. I've worked at three universities for 15 years now and we've alway used the term 'Chairperson'. It was a little strange when this term became widely used and adopted at first but it seems to be okay now - at least in Higher Education
Does the word "ordförande" come from something like "word-leader" or "word-beginner"? Like - He is the one leading the discussion - or - He is the one that speaks first?
Taken very literally, it means that, yes. Word-steerer, a person that distributes the speaking time among the gathered.
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Can it also mean spokesperson?
I'm coming from Dutch, and ordförande is obviously related to Dutch woordvoerder. The Dutch word does mean spokesperson, but not chairman. That would be voorzitter.
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There's an exact translation for that: talesperson. Also språkrör or talesman or taleskvinna* if you want a gendered word.
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I wrote this sentence correctly and on second thought took off the first definite article = chair of the committee. Wouldn't the chairman be something like "ordföranden?"
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The s-genetive is always followed by a noun in the indefinite form regardless of the English translation.
So, we still do not need the definite article. But if you omit it, DuoLingo sees it as wrong. That seems wrong :)
Just like you don't say "the committee's the chairman" in English, you cant have the definite after a possessor -s in Swedish either.
I agree, nor can you in the other Germanic languages I know of (including my native: Dutch). However, "chairman of the committee" is perfectly fine English (they use the genitive -s less than, say in Swedish, German or Dutch), and the translation of that to "kommitténs ordförande" seems right. Or would you translate that in a different way?
At least in Swedish, nouns after a possessor -s are generally treated and perceived as were they definite. So I think the translation is rather straightforward.
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Zmrzlina is right. 'chairman of the committee' would be ordförande i/för kommittén in Swedish. Kommitténs ordförande is definite in both places.
It's not an apostrophe: it's an ‹e› with acute accent ‹é›, to indicate that this loanword from French has a stressed long vowel in the last syllable.
