Learn about saying you don't understand something
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Hello and welcome to Swedish Survival Phrases brought to you by SwedishPod101.com. This course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Sweden. You’ll be surprised at how far a little Swedish will go. |
| Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by SwedishPod101.com and there, you will find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. When you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Swedish Survival Phrases lesson 8 - Using English to Your Advantage in Swedish. |
| In today’s lesson, we’ll cover another extremely important phrase, “Can you speak English?” |
| Using this phrase as opposed to speaking English at someone is important for many reasons. For one, if the party you’re speaking to doesn’t understand English, at least they’ll be able to understand what you’re asking. Furthermore, it shows a lot of respect to show that you took the effort to learn even a little bit of the language. And for these reasons and many more, we’re going to cover these phrase. |
| In Swedish, can you speak English is Kan du prata engelska? |
| Kan du prata engelska? |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: Kan du prata engelska? |
| Now, let’s hear it once again, Kan du prata engelska? |
| The first word, kan, means “can” or “could.” |
| Let’s break down this word and hear it one more time: kan. |
| kan |
| This is followed by du, which in Swedish is “you.” |
| du |
| du |
| This is followed by prata, which means “speak.” |
| prata |
| prata |
| Lastly, we have engelska, which in Swedish means “English.” |
| engelska |
| Let’s break down this word, engelska. |
| engelska |
| So all together, we have Kan du prata engelska? |
| Literally, this means “Can you speak English?” |
| Now, let’s try a different language. How about German? Many Germans travel to Sweden in the summer, so if you’re traveling from Germany, the following phrase could prove to be an important phrase to learn. |
| “Can you speak German?” is Kan du prata tyska? |
| Kan du prata tyska? |
| The word for “German” is tyska. |
| Let’s break down this word and hear it one more time: tyska. |
| tyska |
| Here, just the word for the language changes, the rest is the same. |
| Nowadays in Swedish, English started at school, so the number of speakers is increasing. However, there is still many people who don’t speak English. There are numerous ways of asking this question. For instance, in a Swedish textbook, you might see Kan du tala engelska? However, while the use of the word tala is correct, it sounds a little bit bombastic or old-fashioned. |
| On the other hand, you can also say “Kan du engelska?” which literally means “Can you English?” |
Outro |
| Okay, to close out today’s lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for saying it aloud. You’ll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so lycka till, that means “good luck” in Swedish. Ok, here we go! |
| “Can you speak English?” - Kan du prata engelska? |
| Kan du prata engelska? |
| Kan du prata engelska? |
| “Can you speak German?” - Kan du prata tyska? |
| Kan du prata tyska? |
| Kan du prata tyska? |
| Alright, that's going to do it for today. Remember to stop by SwedishPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF. When you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
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