"Vi läser engelska böcker."

Translation:We are reading English books.

March 13, 2015

19 Comments
This discussion is locked.


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

Ja, men jag hoppas att kunna läsa svenska böcker :)


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

I tried reading a Swedish picture book to my 7-year-old. It took two hours to translate all the words I didn't know. In contrast, I found a historical costuming blog in Swedish and had much easier time reading it.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Finlandia1865

Is this phrase referring to a book in the English language, or a book from England? Or could it be both?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/ahferroin7

And it's worth remembering that this ambiguity exists in English as well, because we use the same word for both the language and the nationality (and insist on capitalizing both).


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

I wrote "We read English language books" and it was marked incorrect. Should it be correct, or did I make a mistake?


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

It's a bit too creative - you added a word that is not in the original sentence. You could say e.g. Vi läser böcker på engelska to emphasise that they're in the English language.


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

Ok, but I thought 'engelska' means the English language specifically, whilst 'engelsk' refers to English things generally.


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

That's correct, but remember adjectives are declined in Swedish. We also use engelskt for singular ett-words, and engelska for plurals.


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

I have problems with engelska, **engels & the others ways... Could someone help me?


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

The adjective engelsk means "English." If it describes a singular en-word, a singular ett-word, or the plural form of either, it becomes engelsk, engelskt, or engelska, respectively. The names of languages in Swedish are usually derived by adding -ska to the root word of a country. Therefore, engelska is not only the plural form of the adjective engelsk, but also the name of the language I'm writing in right now.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/person222222

So then this sentence could either mean "We are reading books from England" or "We are reading books in the English language"?


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

I can help, what are your problems with Engelska?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Sabin128695

i said ( we study English books) is that worng , and what is the difference between, studera och läsa in English???


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

You can use läsa for studying if it's a subject, or if it's at a place. For instance:

  • jag läser kemi = I study chemistry
  • jag läser vid universitet = I study at the university

https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Aapo578869

How do you say "we read english books" then? Because that's what I would've translated that to


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

That is actually the other accepted translation.

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