"Mina föräldrar är gamla."

Translation: My parents are old.

[Art445078]

'Gamla' sounds like the German 'vergammeln.' Great mnemonic.

[Ollyfer]

It only gets from this on: The great-grandmother (Urgroßmutter) is called a gammelmormor (or gammelmorfar, if I remember correctly, the paternal great-grandmother), as if she was already rotting, and Swedish people were unapologetic enough to let her know on sight.

[nikozilar]

Couldn't this be "My parents are ancient"?

[Arnauti]

I'd say 'ancient' would be urgamla. Older than just old. :)

[A_Schwammerl]

Although... Nationalsången says 'Du Gamla...', and technically that means 'Though Ancient...' either way.

[Arnauti]

No, technically it means 'You old'

[m.stratton]

Then why does it give 'ancient' as an option when you hover over 'gamla'? That's misleading.

[Arnauti]

It's because we have the phrase from the National anthem in the course, and the traditional translation for that is not literal (because it's a song). Anything that works in one place in the course can show up everywhere. But I'll see if I can change it somehow.

[MiguelPrie508090]

But ancient is more for buildings and other history things

[tsKiitos]

I thought you use gamla when it precedes the noun?

like in gamla stan or (possibly?) jag har gamla föräldrar

[Arnauti]

It's the same in both cases here, so your examples are correct.
But for singular definite words, there's a difference:

det gamla bordet 'the old table' but bordet är gammalt 'the table is old'
den gamla boken 'the old book' but boken är gammal 'the book is old'

[fishynishi]

Aaah... gamlastan in stockholm makes sense now :)

[AlexMoby]

One question: If gamla is the plural of gammal, then why is the national anthem "Du gamla, du fria" ?

[4oYBIxtO]

See above,
and "gamla" fits better with the rhythm of the song. Poetic freedom.

[Hjtunfgb]

så är du >:(

[Gnurfel]

Can you say föräldrars föräldrar or something like that to mean grandparents when you don't know if they're maternal or paternal grandparents?