Learn how to use present tense Swedish verbs to ask someone to do something for you
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Alisha: Hi Everyone! I’m Alisha, and welcome back to SwedishPod101.co m! This is Beginner, season 1, lesson 16 - Asking a Swedish Friend for a Favor |
| Satsuki: Hej allihopa! I’m Satsuki. |
| Alisha: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask someone to do something for you. |
| Satsuki: The conversation is over the phone, and it’s between Lisa and her friend Anna. |
| Alisha: They’ll be using informal Swedish since they know each other. |
| Satsuki: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Anna Ja det är Anna. |
| Lisa Hej Anna. Det är Lisa. |
| Anna Hej Lisa, hur är det med dig, du låter väldigt sjuk. |
| Lisa Jag är förkyld. Anna, skulle du kunna göra mig en tjänst? |
| Anna Självklart. Vad är det? |
| Lisa Kan du köpa lite värktabletter åt mig? |
| Anna Visst! |
| Alisha: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Anna Ja det är Anna. |
| Lisa Hej Anna. Det är Lisa. |
| Anna Hej Lisa, hur är det med dig, du låter väldigt sjuk. |
| Lisa Jag är förkyld. Anna, skulle du kunna göra mig en tjänst? |
| Anna Självklart. Vad är det? |
| Lisa Kan du köpa lite värktabletter åt mig? |
| Anna Visst! |
| Alisha: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Anna Ja det är Anna. |
| Anna: Yes, this is Anna speaking. |
| Lisa Hej Anna. Det är Lisa. |
| Lisa: Hi Anna. This is Lisa. |
| Anna Hej Lisa, hur är det med dig, du låter väldigt sjuk. |
| Anna: Hi Lisa, how are you? You sound very sick. |
| Lisa Jag är förkyld. Anna, skulle du kunna göra mig en tjänst? |
| Lisa: I have a cold. Anna, would you be able to do me a favor? |
| Anna Självklart. Vad är det? |
| Anna: Absolutely. What is it? |
| Lisa Kan du köpa lite värktabletter åt mig? |
| Lisa: Can you buy some painkillers for me? |
| Anna Visst! |
| Anna: Sure! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Alisha: It was nice of Anna to agree to help Lisa! |
| Satsuki: It sure was! |
| Alisha: Is it okay to ask your Swedish friends for help? |
| Satsuki: Well, I guess it depends on what kind of help you’re asking for, but in general, I’d say it’s okay to ask your friends for help. |
| Alisha: Are there any times when it’s not okay to ask your friends for help? |
| Satsuki: That’s tough to answer, but I suppose it depends on the kind of friendship you have with the person. I think Swedes, in general, tend to turn to their family when they need help, rather than ask friends, especially when the favors are more demanding. |
| Alisha: So for bigger favors it’s more common to ask your family, but for more simple things you usually ask your friends? |
| Satsuki: That's sounds about right! |
| Alisha: Okay! Now let’s move on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| att låta [natural native speed] |
| to sound |
| att låta [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| att låta [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| sjuk [natural native speed] |
| sick |
| sjuk [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| sjuk [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| förkyld [natural native speed] |
| cold |
| förkyld [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| förkyld [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| att göra [natural native speed] |
| to do |
| att göra [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| att göra [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| tjänst [natural native speed] |
| favor |
| tjänst [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| tjänst [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| att köpa [natural native speed] |
| to buy |
| att köpa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| att köpa [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| lite [natural native speed] |
| some |
| lite [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| lite [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| värktabletter [natural native speed] |
| painkillers |
| värktabletter [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| värktabletter [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| 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 pronoun ‘lite’. |
| Alisha: Which means “some”. |
| Satsuki: Yes, and it’s used to denote the quantity of nouns in the same way as English. |
| Alisha: How would I say “I am going to the store to buy some milk”? |
| Satsuki: ‘Jag ska gå till affären och köpa lite mjölk’ |
| Alisha: Okay, and what else do we have? |
| Satsuki: Next, we have the word ‘värktabletter’. |
| Alisha: That means “painkillers”, right? |
| Satsuki: Yes, but literally, it’s “pain-tablets” |
| Alisha: Really, that's a bit weird! |
| Satsuki: This could be a bit confusing for non-native speakers at first. So, it might also be good to know, that Swedes often use the brand names of painkillers, such as “Alvedon” or “Treo” rather than the word ‘värktabletter’. |
| Alisha: Listeners, keep that in mind! What’s next? |
| Satsuki: The next word we need to spend time on, is the adjective ‘förkyld’, which is “cold”. |
| Alisha: I remember that! Lisa said, “I have a cold”! |
| Satsuki: Yes, but in Swedish, instead of using the verb ‘att ha’ (“to have”), you use the verb ‘är’, which means am. So, the sentence ‘jag är förkyld’ literally translates to “I am cold” but corresponds to “I have a cold. |
| Alisha: Let’s go now to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask someone to do something for you. Satsuki, where should we start? |
| Satsuki: I’m glad you asked, because there are actually two types of sentences we need to look at. The first sentence is the one where Lisa both asks for a favor, and for permission to ask a favor. |
| Alisha: It was “Would you be able to do me a favor?”. |
| Satsuki: In Swedish, ‘skulle du kunna göra mig en tjänst’. |
| Alisha: Hmm…there’s something familiar about this sentence. |
| Satsuki: Well remembered! It uses the first conditional tense, which we covered in a previous lesson. |
| Alisha: You use the first conditional to describe actions that can only occur under certain conditions in the present. |
| Satsuki: Yes, and because it’s a sentence that uses the first conditional tense, it will include three different verbs. |
| Alisha: Which ones are they? |
| Satsuki: Well, first you have the auxiliary verb ‘skulle’, then a main verb in infinitive form, but without the ‘att’ (“to”). In the sentence from the dialog, we used the verb ‘att kunna’, “be able to”. |
| Alisha: So “would you be able to” translates to... |
| Satsuki: ‘Skulle du kunna’. But we also need a third verb to specify what we’re actually asking for. In this case, we’re using the verb ‘att göra’, “to do”, in the infinitive form, but without the ‘att’. |
| Alisha: So “would you be able to do me a favor” is… |
| Satsuki: ‘Skulle du kunna göra mig en tjänst’. |
| Alisha: I see! But there’s something different about the word order of this sentence.... |
| Satsuki: Well spotted! This sentence is a question, and auxiliary verbs like ‘skulle’ always come first in questions. They are then followed by the subject of the sentence, in this case ‘du’, “you”. |
| Alisha: I see! Let’s practice that sentence! |
| Satsuki: Okay, listeners repeat after me! |
| Satsuki: ‘Skulle du kunna göra mig en tjänst’. [pause] |
| Alisha: We’ve now learned how to ask permission to ask for a favor. So it’s time to move on to actually forming a questions that actually asks someone to do something for us. For example, ”can you buy some painkillers for me?” |
| Satsuki: You would say ‘kan du köpa lite värktabletter åt mig’. |
| Alisha: I recognize the first part of this sentence! |
| Satsuki: Yes, we’ve seen sentences similar to this in a previous lesson, when we learned how to say things like ‘kan du träffas’, “can you meet”, or ‘kan du jobba’, “can you work”. |
| Alisha: Okay so this should not be so difficult then! |
| Satsuki: What’s important here, is the ‘åt mig’, “for me”, that comes at the very end of the sentences. |
| Alisha: Why’s that important? |
| Satsuki: Because that’s the part that explicitly states, that the painkillers aren’t being bought for someone else. |
| Alisha: I think I understand, but let’s practice a bit. How would I say, “can you buy some milk for me”? |
| Satsuki: Let’s start with the “can you buy “ part, which is ‘kan du köpa’. |
| Alisha: And then? |
| Satsuki: Then we need to specify what we want someone to buy. |
| Alisha: Let’s say we want someone to buy “some milk”. How would you say that? |
| Satsuki: ‘Lite mjölk’. Finally, we need to say that it’s “for me” that the person should buy milk. And “for me” is ‘åt mig’. |
| Alisha: Okay, let’s put that together. “Can you buy some milk for me?” is... |
| Satsuki: ‘Kan du köpa lite mjölk åt mig’. Listeners, repeat after me! |
| Satsuki: “Kan du köpa lite mjölk åt mig”. [pause] |
| Alisha: That wasn’t so difficult! Well, I think that’s it for this lesson, but make sure you check the lesson notes, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Satsuki: Great work everyone! Hej då! |
| Alisha: Bye! |
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