Learn how to ask whether someone can do something on a specific date
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Alisha:Hi Everyone! This is Alisha:and welcome back to SwedishPod101.com. This is Beginner season 1, lesson 10 - Getting Some Good Swedish News. |
| Satsuki:Hej allihopa, I’m Satsuki. |
| Alisha:In this lesson you’ll learn how to ask someone to do something on a specific date. |
| Satsuki:The conversation takes place over the phone, and is between Lisa and the restaurant manager. |
| Alisha:They don’t know each other, so they’ll be using formal Swedish. |
| Satsuki:Great! Let’s listen to the conversation! |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Lisa Ja det är Lisa. |
| Chefen Hej Lisa. Det här är Anders från Restaurang Vitsippan. |
| Lisa Hej Anders. |
| Chefen Lisa, du har fått jobbet. |
| Lisa Jasså. Underbart! Tack! |
| Chefen Kan du börja den fjärde januari? |
| Lisa Visst! När? |
| Chefen Klockan 17 |
| Lisa Okej. Tack så mycket. Hej då. |
| Chef Hej då. |
| Alisha: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Lisa Ja det är Lisa. |
| Chefen Hej Lisa. Det här är Anders från Restaurang Vitsippan. |
| Lisa Hej Anders. |
| Chefen Lisa, du har fått jobbet. |
| Lisa Jasså. Underbart! Tack! |
| Chefen Kan du börja den fjärde januari? |
| Lisa Visst! När? |
| Chefen Klockan 17 |
| Lisa Okej. Tack så mycket. Hej då. |
| Chef Hej då. |
| Alisha: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Lisa Ja det är Lisa. |
| Alisha:Yes, this is Lisa speaking. |
| Chefen Hej Lisa. Det här är Anders från Restaurang Vitsippan. |
| Alisha:Hi Lisa. This is Anders from Restaurant Vitsippan. |
| Lisa Hej Anders. |
| Alisha:Hi Anders. |
| Chefen Lisa, du har fått jobbet. |
| Alisha:Lisa, you got the job. |
| Lisa Jasså. Underbart! Tack! |
| Alisha:Really? Wonderful. Thank you! |
| Chefen Kan du börja den fjärde januari? |
| Alisha:Can you start the fourth of January? |
| Lisa Visst! När? |
| Alisha:Sure thing! When? |
| Chefen Klockan 17 |
| Alisha:Five o'clock. |
| Lisa Okej. Tack så mycket. Hej då. |
| Alisha:Okay. Thank you so much. Bye. |
| Chef Hej då. |
| Alisha:Bye. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Alisha:So it looks like Lisa got herself a job. But tell me Satsuki, what’s it like to work in Sweden? |
| Satsuki:That’s a good question! Actually, most workplaces are quite relaxed, and hierarchal structures are less common than in other cultures. |
| Alisha:Oh really, in what way? |
| Satsuki:Well first of all, people within the same company always call each other by their first names. |
| Alisha:Ah, so you call your boss by his or her first name? |
| Satsuki:Yes. And managers are generally seen more as coaches than as commanders, because they usually trust their employees to solve problems, and complete tasks their own way. |
| Alisha:Hmm, Sweden seems like a pretty nice place to work! |
| Satsuki:Yes, it is! |
| Alisha:I wonder if any of our listeners have experience working in Sweden? |
| Satsuki:If so, let us know! Okay, let’s move on to the vocab now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Alisha:Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Satsuki:ja, det är [name] [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:yes, this is [name] speaking |
| Satsuki:ja, det är [name] [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:ja, det är [name] [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:att ha [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:to have |
| Satsuki:att ha [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:att ha [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:att få [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:to get |
| Satsuki:att få [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:att få [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:jobb [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:job |
| Satsuki:jobb [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:jobb [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:underbart [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:wonderful |
| Satsuki:underbart [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:underbart [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:att börja [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:to start |
| Satsuki:att börja [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:att börja [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:Fjärde [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:Fourth |
| Satsuki:Fjärde [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:Fjärde [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:januari [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:January |
| Satsuki:januari [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:januari [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:visst [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:sure thing |
| Satsuki:visst [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:visst [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:att kunna [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:to be able |
| Satsuki:att kunna [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:att kunna [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Alisha:Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Satsuki:We’ll start with the word ‘visst’. |
| Alisha:Which means“sure thing”, right? |
| Satsuki:Yes, and it’s an affirmative expression that can also be used to mean “certainly”, “bet you” and “by all means”. |
| Alisha:I see, that’s good to know. What’s the next word we’re going to talk about? |
| Satsuki:The next word is actually a phrase, and it’s one Swedes use when they answer their cell phones. |
| Alisha:Ok, what is it? |
| Satsuki:You say ‘ja det är’ followed by your name. So if someone calls my cell, I would usually answer it by saying ‘ja det är Satsuki’. |
| Alisha:And that literally translates to “yes this is Satsuki”? |
| Satsuki:Yes, but a better translation is “yes this is Satsuki:speaking”. |
| Alisha:And what would you say if you answered your landline rather than your cell? Is it different? |
| Satsuki:Well, usually you would answer with your last name. |
| Alisha:Only your last name? |
| Satsuki:Yes, but some people also answer with the preposition ‘hos’, which means “at”, followed by their last name. |
| Alisha:So how would that sound? |
| Satsuki:Let’s say my last name is Pettersson, a very typical Swedish last name. I would answer my phone by saying ‘hos Pettersson’ or just simply ‘Pettersson’. |
| Alisha:I see! I think I’ve got the hang of it, so let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha:So in this lesson we’re learning how to ask someone if they can do something on a specific date. |
| Satsuki:That’s right, and we’ll do that by looking more closely at one of the sentences from the dialogue. Can you guess which one? |
| Alisha:It must be the one when the restaurant manager asks Lisa “can you start on the Fourth of January?” |
| Satsuki:Precisely! In Swedish, this was ‘kan du börja den fjärde Januari’. |
| Alisha:Hmm, this seems tricky...there are a lot of new words. |
| Satsuki:Yes I know, but let’s break this sentence down and explain it. I think that will help. |
| Alisha:What will we start with? |
| Satsuki:Let’s start with the first part of the sentence ‘kan du börja’. |
| Alisha:That means “can you start” right? |
| Satsuki:Yes! First let’s take a look at the two verbs that appear in this sentence. |
| Alisha:You mean the verbs “can” and “start”? |
| Satsuki:Yes, and “can” translates to ‘kan’ in Swedish. It’s a modal verb, which means that the second verb will be in the infinitive tense, but without the word ‘att’ (“to”). |
| Alisha:Oh! I remember that from a previous lesson. Could you give us some examples please? How would you say “can you meet”? |
| Satsuki:Well you will start with the ‘kan’, which means “can”, followed by the subject ‘du’, which is “you”, and then the Swedish verb for “to meet up”, which is ‘att träffas’. |
| Alisha:But you will remove the “to” in “to meet up”, right? |
| Satsuki:That’s right. |
| Alisha:So how do you say “can you meet up?” in Swedish? |
| Satsuki:‘kan du träffas’ x2 [pause] |
| Alisha:Okay, one more example - how would you say “can you work” in Swedish? |
| Satsuki:That’s easy. Like before, you will start with the modal verb ‘kan’, followed by the subject ‘du’ and then the infinitive tense of the verb “to work”, which is ‘att jobba’, but don’t forget to remove the ‘att’. |
| Alisha:So “can you work?” in Swedish is? |
| Satsuki:‘Kan du jobba’. Let’s practice that as well. Listeners, repeat after me ‘Kan du jobba’.[pause] |
| Alisha:Okay, I think I understand now, but I have one question? |
| Satsuki:Sure! |
| Alisha:I’m wondering about the word order of these kind of sentences. Before, when we’ve talked about modal verbs, the main verb has always followed directly after the modal verb. But now, the subject “you” is coming directly after the modal verb. |
| Satsuki:You’re absolutely right, the word order has changed. That’s because the sentence here is a question. |
| Alisha:Ah, I see. So it’s exactly like in English. |
| Satsuki:That’s right. Now, let’s look at the second part of the sentence from the dialog, where we actually say the specific date that we want something to happen. We said ‘den fjärde januari’, which means “the fourth of January”. |
| Alisha:This is quite similar to how you say it in English! |
| Satsuki:Yes it is, but take note that in Swedish, there is nothing that corresponds to the English “of”, when you refer to dates in this way. |
| Alisha:Hmm, you’re right! But what about the word ‘den’? What does that mean? |
| Satsuki:Good question. ‘Den’ is a definite article that refers to the noun ‘januari’, “January”, and it’s used when there is a word before the noun that describes it. In this case, that’s ‘fjärde’, meaning “fourth”. |
| Alisha:I see, so how would you say “the seventh of April” in Swedish? |
| Satsuki:You would say ‘den sjunde april’. Listeners, repeat after me - ‘den sjunde april’. |
| Alisha:Okay one more, how about “the eighth of September”? |
| Satsuki:Den åttonde september. x 2 [pause] |
| Alisha:Great! Ok, I think that’s it for this lesson! Listeners, make sure to check the lesson notes. |
| Satsuki:Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next time! |
| Alisha:Bye everyone! |
| Satsuki:Hej då! |
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