Learn how to use Swedish comparatives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Morten: Welcome to SwedishPod101.com Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 20 - Public Transport in Sweden. Hej och välkomna, This is Morten. |
| Jasmine: Hej, hej and this is Jasmine. |
| Morten: In this lesson, we are looking at Swedish public transport. |
| Jasmine: We're at the Pressbyrån Kiosk at Gothenburg's popular hub of Korsvägen. |
| Morten: James is talking to Nils in the mid afternoon. |
| Jasmine: They're talking about different tickets and the tone is casual. |
| Morten: Okay. Let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| James: Du Nils, jag måste ladda lite pengar på mitt trafikkort. |
| Nils: Okej, men varför har du trafikkort och inte periodkort? |
| James: Periodkort, vad är det för någonting? |
| Nils: Vad? Känner du inte till det? Om du åker regelbundet är det mycket billigare. |
| James: Ja, men... |
| Nils: Du åker ju in till staden nästan varje dag, eller? |
| James: Ja, det stämmer. Ibland fler än en gång. |
| Nils: Då måste du helt enkelt skaffa periodkort! |
| James: Okej, det ska jag göra. |
| Morten: And now, the slow version. |
| Jasmine: Och nu den sakta versionen. |
| James: Du Nils, jag måste ladda lite pengar på mitt trafikkort. |
| Nils: Okej, men varför har du trafikkort och inte periodkort? |
| James: Periodkort, vad är det för någonting? |
| Nils: Vad? Känner du inte till det? Om du åker regelbundet är det mycket billigare. |
| James: Ja, men... |
| Nils: Du åker ju in till staden nästan varje dag, eller? |
| James: Ja, det stämmer. Ibland fler än en gång. |
| Nils: Då måste du helt enkelt skaffa periodkort! |
| James: Okej, det ska jag göra. |
| Morten: And now with the English translation. |
| Jasmine: Och nu med den engelska översättningen. |
| James: Du Nils, jag måste ladda lite pengar på mitt trafikkort. |
| Morten: Nils, I have to put money onto my travel card. |
| Nils: Okej, men varför har du trafikkort och inte periodkort? |
| Morten: OK, but why do you have a travel card and not commuter pass? |
| James: Periodkort, vad är det för någonting? |
| Morten: Commuter pass, what is that? |
| Nils: Vad? Känner du inte till det? Om du åker regelbundet är det mycket billigare. |
| Morten: What? You don't know that? If you're commuting a lot, that's a lot cheaper. |
| James: Ja, men... |
| Morten: Yes, but... |
| Nils: Du åker ju in till staden nästan varje dag, eller? |
| Morten: You're going into town almost every day, aren't you? |
| James: Ja, det stämmer. Ibland fler än en gång. |
| Morten: Yes, that's true. Sometimes more than once a day. |
| Nils: Då måste du helt enkelt skaffa periodkort! |
| Morten: In that case, you simply have to get a commuter pass. |
| James: Okej, det ska jag göra. |
| Morten: OK, I'll do that. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Morten: So in this lesson we are talking public transport. How is public transport in Sweden? |
| Jasmine: Well Sweden is very big country, so this is not a question you can answer conclusively for the entire country. |
| Morten: But how about say towns and cities, what is it like there? |
| Jasmine: Oh, it's very good. The networks in larger towns and cities tend to be excellent. |
| Morten: But in the countryside, it's a different story? |
| Jasmine: Not necessarily. Public transport is still public in most parts of Sweden. |
| Morten: It is sometimes contracted our private companies though. |
| Jasmine: Yes, especially in Stockholm. But generally, the local authorities are still responsible. |
| Morten: And some do a very good job, but for others it's harder, right? |
| Jasmine: Something like that, yes. Some parts of the country are very remote so public transport there is marginal. |
| Morten: So those are parts of Sweden where you do need a car. |
| Jasmine: I'd say so. But in most urban centers, the public transport options tend to be outstanding. |
| Morten: Really, never any complaints? |
| Jasmine: Well there are occasionally complaints about delays in winter service. |
| Morten: But by and large, it's a very comfortable ride public transport in Sweden. |
| Jasmine: It is, indeed. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Morten: Let's take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. First, we have. |
| Jasmine: Pengar [natural native speed] |
| Morten: Money. |
| Jasmine: Pengar [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Pengar [natural native speed] |
| Morten: Next, we have. |
| Jasmine: Trafikkort [natural native speed] |
| Morten: Travel card. |
| Jasmine: Trafikkort [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Trafikkort [natural native speed] |
| Morten: Next, we have. |
| Jasmine: Periodkort [natural native speed] |
| Morten: Commuter pass. |
| Jasmine: Periodkort [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Periodkort [natural native speed] |
| Morten: Next, we have. |
| Jasmine: Billig(are) [natural native speed] |
| Morten: Cheap(er). |
| Jasmine: Billig(are) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Billig(are) [natural native speed] |
| Morten: Next, we have. |
| Jasmine: åka [natural native speed] |
| Morten: To drive, to ride. |
| Jasmine: åka [slowly - broken down by syllable]. åka [natural native speed] |
| Morten: And finally, we have. |
| Jasmine: Skaffa [natural native speed] |
| Morten: To get (organise). |
| Jasmine: Skaffa [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Skaffa [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Morten: Let's take a closer look at the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrases in this lesson are good for everyday conversations. |
| Jasmine: Absolutely. They are great for when you don't know exactly what someone is talking about. |
| Morten: Or perhaps pointing at, what could you say than? |
| Jasmine: You could say, vad är det för någonting? |
| Morten: What is that? Literally it asks what is that for something, but there is no need to translate the for something part. Pay attention to the pronunciation, please. Let's hear it once more. |
| Jasmine: Please say it after me, Vad är det för någonting? |
| Morten: Good job. And to this, I might say, Känner du inte till det? |
| Jasmine: Don't you know that? This answer with a question shows some disbelief, I thought everyone knew that. |
| Morten: This could come in handy, I guess. Please listen again and repeat after Jasmine. |
| Jasmine: Känner du inte till det? |
| Morten: Very good. Let's recap, I asked Vad är det för någonting? |
| Jasmine: And I respond with Känner du inte till det? |
| Morten: So, dear listeners you want to ask what is that? |
| Jasmine: Vad är det för någonting? |
| Morten: And then the other person might say, Don't you know? |
| Jasmine: Känner du inte till det? |
| Morten: Good work everyone. |
| Jasmine: Our last phrase is used to confirm someone else's assumption or opinion. |
| Morten: Yes. It's a very useful tool. So if I said Det är en bra film, this is a good film. |
| Jasmine: I could say, det stämmer That's true, that's right. |
| Morten: Or if someone said to you, du kommer inte från Sverige, eller? |
| Jasmine: You're not from Sweden, right? You could respond with Det stämmer. |
| Morten: All right. Let's try that with our listeners. Assuming you're definitely not from Sweden of course. |
| Jasmine: Du kommer inte för Sverige eller? |
| Morten: Det stämmer. well done. |
| Jasmine: Well just one thing to say about our vocab today. |
| Morten: The word pengar, money is always used in plural in Swedish. |
| Jasmine: Det stämmer, that is absolutely true. Thanks for the good work and staying with us so far. Let's keep going. |
Lesson focus |
| Morten: And now, let's take a look at the grammar section for this lesson. In the lesson focus, we are looking at comparative forms of adjectives. |
| Jasmine: Adjectives in Swedish are potentially a big subject. |
| Morten: That's one of the reasons we haven't covered them yet in any great detail. |
| Jasmine: We haven't seen so many in our lessons yet either. |
| Morten: Which ones have we seen so far? |
| Jasmine: We've see bra, god, hungrig, liten, ofta, fin, dålig, varm, blåsig, tidig, skön och billig. |
| Morten: Wow, you remember them all. Do you remember all their translations? |
| Jasmine: No need to worry about that just now. Let's first look at the adjectives and how to make them comparative. |
| Morten: Sure. Just like English, Swedish has regular comparatives and irregular comparatives. |
| Jasmine: They are irregular than regular in Swedish. |
| Morten: In English it's mixed. Some adjectives make their comparatives with the regular ending ER. |
| Jasmine: While others takes more before them. |
| Morten: Does Swedish also have that phenomenon? |
| Jasmine: Yes and no. Swedish does make some comparatives with mer, the equivalent of more. |
| Morten: But it's normally used only with adverbs and participles. |
| Jasmine: Yes. But because of the massive influence of spoken English, some Swedes are starting to get confused about when to use it. |
| Morten: It's the same way even native English speakers forget whether it should be easier or more easy. |
| Jasmine: Exactly. For that reason mer is getting more and more productive in Swedish. |
| Morten: But we'll be looking at the grammatically correct standard forms, won't we? |
| Jasmine: Yes. If you want to go native later on, feel free. |
| Morten: But for now, it's best that you know the official correct forms, so let's see what they are. |
| Jasmine: Okay. The regular way to make comparatives is to add ARE at the end. |
| Morten: And which of our adjectives is regular? |
| Jasmine: Regular adjectives include god - godare , tasty, tastier. Hungrig - hungrigare , hungry, hungrier. Ofta - oftare, frequent, more frequent and fin- finare nice, nicer. |
| Morten: Wow, that's quite a lot. Is that all? |
| Jasmine: No. There are five more. Varm - varmare , warm, warmer. Blåsig - blåsigare , windy, windier. Tidig - tidigare, early, earlier. Skön - skönare , pleasant, more pleasant and billig - billigare , cheap, cheaper. |
| Morten: Just so we're straight on this, to get the comparative forms of these adjectives, you just add ARE. |
| Jasmine: Yes, the only one that's different is Ofta. It already ends in A, so we only need to add RE. |
| Morten: Okay. So this happens to adjectives with bowels at the end, right? |
| Jasmine: Yes. And there are some with certain consonants or consonant clusters at the end as well. |
| Morten: But let's not go into that now. We're also not going to cover the superlative in this lesson. |
| Jasmine: Yeah. It will take a bit more time and once you know the comparative… |
| Morten: You're sailing. Let's practice making some comparatives, shall we? |
| Jasmine: Okay. Remember, just add ARE to the adjective at the end. Here we go. |
| Morten: Varm. |
| Jasmine: Varmare, nice. |
| Morten: Blåsig. |
| Jasmine: Blåsigare, that's right. Here's another, Billig. |
| Morten: Billigare, sound. The last one, Tidig, |
| Jasmine: Tidigare, well done. |
| Morten: And what of the irregular adjectives, which ones are those? |
| Jasmine: They are bra - bättre , good, better. liten - mindre, small, smaller and dålig - sämre, bad, worse. |
| Morten: Watch out for that last one, dålig. It's especially tricky. |
| Jasmine: True because strictly speaking it has another comparative, dålig, värre. |
| Morten: The translation into English remains the same, but sämre means worse in the sense of lesser quality. |
| Jasmine: Whereas värre refers to a deteriorating situation in general and has a much broader scope. |
| Morten: Let's practice this a little. |
| Jasmine: Repeat after me, Bra, bättre. |
| Morten: Bra, bättre. Another one, please? |
| Jasmine: Liten, mindre. |
| Morten: Excellent work. And one more please? |
| Jasmine: Dålig, sämre. |
| Morten: Good job. And how about its alternative form? |
| Jasmine: Dålig, värre. |
| Morten: Thank you very much. Perhaps, it will be a good idea to also put this into context with some actual phrases. |
| Jasmine: Okay. How about these two weather examples, Vädret är bättre idag. Det är varmare. |
| Morten: The weather is better today. It's warmer. |
| Jasmine: Or Vädret är värre idag. Det är blåsigare. |
| Morten: The weather is worse today. It's windier. That was a lot to chew on. Please practice these and the other examples. |
| Jasmine: Listeners, can you understand Swedish TV shows, movies or songs? |
| Morten: How about a friends' or love ones' conversations in Swedish? |
| Jasmine: If you want to know what's going on, we have a tool to help. |
| Morten: Line-by-line audio. |
| Jasmine: Listen to the lesson conversations line by line and learn66 to understand natural Swedish fast. |
| Morten: It's simple really. |
| Jasmine: At the click of a button, listen to each line of the conversation. |
| Morten: Listen again and again and tune your ear to natural Swedish. |
| Jasmine: Rapidly understand natural Swedish with this powerful tool. |
| Morten: Find this feature on the lesson page under premium member resources at SwedishPod101.com. |
| Jasmine: Tack så mycket, till nästa gång. |
| Morten: Yes, until next time. Tack så mycket. Hejdå. |
| Jasmine: Hejdå. |
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