Learn how to make comparisons
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Alisha:Hi Everyone, this is Alisha:and welcome to SwedishPod101.com. This is Beginner season 1, lesson 6, Which Delicious Swedish Dish do you Want? |
| Satsuki:Hej allihopa! I’m Satsuki. In this lesson we will learn how to make comparisons. |
| Alisha:The conversation will take place at a restaurant, and it is between Lisa and a waiter. |
| Satsuki:The conversation will be in formal Swedish since they don’t know each other. |
| Alisha:Okay! Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Servitör Vill du beställa? |
| Lisa Ja… Är kycklingsalladen stor? |
| Servitör Ja, den är ganska stor. |
| Lisa Och tonfisksalladen? |
| Servitör Den är mindre. |
| Lisa Jaha, så kycklingsalladen är större än tonfisksalladen? |
| Servitör Precis. |
| Lisa Då tar jag en kycklingsallad, tack. |
| Alisha: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Servitör Vill du beställa? |
| Lisa Ja… Är kycklingsalladen stor? |
| Servitör Ja, den är ganska stor. |
| Lisa Och tonfisksalladen? |
| Servitör Den är mindre. |
| Lisa Jaha, så kycklingsalladen är större än tonfisksalladen? |
| Servitör Precis. |
| Lisa Då tar jag en kycklingsallad, tack. |
| Alisha: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Servitör Vill du beställa? |
| Alisha:Would you like to order? |
| Lisa Ja… Är kycklingsalladen stor? |
| Alisha:Yes…. Is the chicken salad big? |
| Servitör Ja, den är ganska stor. |
| Alisha:Yes, it is quite big. |
| Lisa Och tonfisksalladen? |
| Alisha:And the tuna salad? |
| Servitör Den är mindre. |
| Alisha:It is a bit smaller. |
| Lisa Jaha, så kycklingsalladen är större än tonfisksalladen? |
| Alisha:I see, so the chicken salad is bigger than the tuna salad? |
| Servitör Precis. |
| Alisha:That’s right. |
| Lisa Då tar jag en kycklingsallad, tack. |
| Alisha:Then I will take a chicken salad, thank you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Alisha:So Satsuki, in this conversation, two different types of comparative adjectives were used to describe the food. |
| Satsuki:That’s right! |
| Alisha:Well, these definitely seem useful, but I’ve heard that there’s a very typical Swedish word that can also be used when you’re describing something. |
| Satsuki:You’re probably thinking about the word ‘lagom’! |
| Alisha:Yes, that’s it! What does it mean exactly? |
| Satsuki:Well, that’s just it... the word ‘lagom’ doesn’t easily translate to English, but the closest meanings are “just enough”, “not too much, not too little” or “enough to go around”. |
| Alisha:I see, but does it have negative or a positive connotations? |
| Satsuki:It doesn’t really have either, and I guess that’s why it’s so special. |
| Alisha:I see! Well, it seems like a very useful word! |
| Satsuki:Yes it is, and us Swedes it a lot! |
| Alisha:Keep that one in mind, listeners! With that, let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Alisha:Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Satsuki:beställa [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:to order |
| Satsuki:beställa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:beställa [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:kycklingsallad [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:chicken salad |
| Satsuki:kycklingsallad [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:kycklingsallad [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:stor [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:big |
| Satsuki:stor [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:stor [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:ganska [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:quite |
| Satsuki:ganska [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:ganska [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:tonfisksallad [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:tuna salad |
| Satsuki:tonfisksallad [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:tonfisksallad [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:precis [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:precisely |
| Satsuki:precis [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:precis [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:ta [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:take |
| Satsuki:ta [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:ta [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:mindre [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:smaller |
| Satsuki:mindre [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:mindre [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:än [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:than |
| Satsuki:än [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:än [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:större [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:bigger |
| Satsuki:större [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:större [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Alisha:Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Satsuki:Okay, first we’ll look at the words ‘tonfisksallad’ meaning “tuna salad” and ‘kycklingsallad’, meaning “chicken salad”. |
| Alisha:“Tuna salad” and “Chicken salad”? What’s so special about these? |
| Satsuki:Well, in the dialogue, the forms we saw were ‘tonfisksallanden’ and ‘kycklingsalladen’ - with the ‘en’ endings. |
| Alisha:How does that ending change the words? |
| Satsuki:The ‘en’ at the end of ‘tonfisksalladen’ corresponds with the word “the” in English. |
| Alisha:I see, so it becomes a part of the word itself! |
| Satsuki:Right. It’s different from English, so please watch out. Now let’s look at the verb ‘att beställa’ that appears in the dialog. |
| Alisha:Hmm... that means “to order food” right? |
| Satsuki:Well actually, Swedes use the verb “att beställa” when they’re talking about ordering food, but it can be used when we talk about ordering other things, such as books, tickets, and so on. |
| Alisha:Okay, got it. |
| Satsuki:There is also an antonym for the verb ‘att beställa’, which is good to know if you’d like to cancel something you’ve ordered. |
| Alisha:What’s that one? |
| Satsuki:The verb “to cancel” in English translates to the verb ‘att avbeställa’ in Swedish. |
| Alisha:I’ll keep that in mind! Now, let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha:In this lesson, you’ll learn about the comparative forms of adjectives. |
| Satsuki:When Lisa told the waiter that “the chicken salad is bigger than the tuna salad”, she used a comparative adjective. In Swedish, this sentence would translate to ‘kycklingsalladen är större än tonfisksalladen’. Listeners, let’s practice this one. |
| Satsuki:‘kycklingsalladen är större än tonfisksalladen” [pause] |
| Alisha:Okay, great. Let’s take a closer look at the structure of this sentence. |
| Satsuki:The good news is, the structure is almost identical to its English translation. And that means that the subject of the sentence, ‘kycklingsalladen’, is placed before the adjective (in its comparative form). ‘Kyckling sallanden är större’. |
| Alisha:I see. And this is followed by the thing that “the chicken salad” is being compared with – in this case “the tuna salad”. |
| Satsuki:Precisely! So in Swedish that would be ‘än tonfisksalladen’. |
| Alisha:I think I get it! So how would you say “the tuna salad is smaller than the chicken salad” in Swedish? |
| Satsuki:”the tuna salad is smaller” translates to ‘tonfisksalladen är mindre’. |
| Alisha:Okay I get that, but how about the “than the chicken salad” part? |
| Satsuki:That translates to ‘än kycklingsalladen’ in Swedish. |
| Alisha:I see. Should we put them together to form a whole sentence? |
| Satsuki:Okay! ‘Tonfisksalladen är mindre än kycklingsalladen’. [pause] |
| Satsuki:Now let’s look a bit more closely at the two adjectives ‘stor’ “big” and ‘liten’ “small”. The good news is that both these adjectives are common in Swedish, so learning them at an early stage is good. |
| Alisha:The good news? Is there bad news as well? |
| Satsuki:Not bad exactly, but these two adjectives conjugate irregularly in their comparative (higher degree) and superlative (highest degree) forms, so you need to memorize them. |
| Alisha:Okay, can you explain this a bit more? |
| Satsuki:Well “big, bigger, biggest” in Swedish translates to ‘stor, större, störst’. |
| Alisha:Okay listeners, let’s practice. Repeat after Satsuki. |
| Satsuki:Stor, större, störst. |
| Alisha:And what about “small, smaller, smallest”? |
| Satsuki:“Small, smaller, smallest” in Swedish is ‘liten, mindre, minst’. |
| Alisha:Let’s practice that as well just to be safe! |
| Satsuki:Repeat after me. |
| Satsuki:‘Liten, mindre, minst.’ |
| Alisha:So now we have looked at some examples of adjectives that conjugate irregularly, so how about those that conjugate regularly? |
| Satsuki:Well the conjugation of most adjectives is quite straightforward, most of them take the ending ‘-are’ in their comparative form and the ending ‘-ast’ in their superlative form. |
| Alisha:Do you have any examples? |
| Satsuki:Of course. For example, you have the adjective ‘billig’, meaning cheap which changes to ‘billigare’ in its comparative form and ‘billigast’ in its superlative form. But there are also exceptions to this rule. |
| Alisha:More exceptions? |
| Satsuki:Yes I’m afraid so, but it’s not that difficult. When adjectives end in ‘-er’, ‘-el’ or ‘-en’ the ‘e’ in front of the ‘-r’, the ‘-l’ or the ‘-n’ is dropped when the ‘-are’ and ‘-ast’ is added. |
| Alisha:Can you give us an example? |
| Satsuki:I most certainly can! Let’s look at the adjective ‘vacker’. In its comparative for, it drops the ‘e’ that is in front of the ‘r’ and you add the ending ‘are’. So you have ‘vackrare’. |
| Alisha:And in its superlative form? |
| Satsuki:In its superlative form you do the same, but you just add the ending ‘-ast’ to get ‘vackrast’. |
| Alisha:Okay, well, that was not too difficult! But make sure you check the lesson notes, listeners! |
| Satsuki:Yes, please do. And I think that will do it for this lesson! Thanks for listening everyone. |
| Alisha:Yes, and we hope that you will join us again soon! |
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