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- "Vi sitter runt elden och sju…
"Vi sitter runt elden och sjunger."
Translation:We are sitting around the fire and singing.
20 Comments
Can the Swedish sentence not also be interpreted as merely being a progressive tense, or does adding the "runt elden" remove that interpretation?
Good question. It's the latter, but it's definitely not obvious.
1502
I think it can be both progressive or simple depending on the context.
Like I wrote before the sentence feels a bit odd, though grammatically possible imo. In English: 1. We sit around the fire and (we) sing (What are you doing during summer?) 2. We are sitting around the fire and (we are) singing (What are you doing atm?) should be correct, among other options. The omission of 'we/we are' or a comparable phrase/modifier to 'around the fire', such as 'our favorite songs' makes it sound a bit weird in English to me (!). Yet it is good to notice that such a structure is well possible in Swedish (and German 'Wir sitzen (gerade) am Feuer und singen').
The progressive would be vi sitter och sjunger runt elden, though - not vi sitter runt elden och sjunger.
Oh yes, "We are sitting around the fire (and) singing" is definitely accepted. I meant "merely ... a progressive" as in just "we are singing around the fire", which I tried and wasn't accepted.
- 1502
English translation sounds a bit odd, maybe missing an object. Any native English speaker around?
- 1502
Not quite sure, that is why I'm asking. Swedish sentence sounds fine, though I'm obviously just a learner, but my non-native English brain seems to stumble a bit when it comes to the 2nd progressive. Maybe something like 'We are sitting around the fire singing'. No big deal I suppose, thx for your effort nonetheless.
- 1343
I agree with you, it sounds odd. It would be better to say: "We are sitting and singing around the fire" would be better, if you have to pick from the available words. You could also say "We sit around the fire and sing". Or as you suggested make this sentence without the word "and".
What's the difference between brand, eld, and brasa, and why is elden used here instead of one of the other words for the fire?
- brand = uncontrolled fire
- eld = controlled fire (and the word for fire in general, as in e.g. "when humans first discovered fire...")
- brasa = a bonfire spefically, and also fires in e.g. ceramic stoves
So it's eld since that's what you'd normally use, but we also accept brasa when translating into Swedish.
That depends on what you mean, specifically - I mean, I did give several very different examples.
