Learn how to describe something that happened
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Alisha:Hi Everyone, I’m Alisha, and welcome back to SwedishPod101.com. This is Beginner season 1, lesson 8 - Going on a Date in Sweden. |
| Satsuki:Hej allihopa! I am Satsuki. |
| Alisha:In this lesson, you’ll learn to describe how something was, by using the preterite tense. |
| Satsuki:The conversation takes place at Lisa’s apartment, and it is between Lisa and her friend Anna. |
| Alisha:Because they know each other, they’ll be using casual Swedish. |
| Satsuki:Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Lisa Jag var på en dejt i lördags, med Johan, från Karins middag. |
| Anna Hur var det? |
| Lisa Det var trevligt, men lite stelt. |
| Anna Jaha. Vad gjorde ni? |
| Lisa Vi åt middag på en restaurang. |
| Anna Hur var middagen? |
| Lisa Maten smakade bra, men det var dyrt. |
| Anna Betalade inte Johan? |
| Lisa Nej. |
| Alisha: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Lisa Jag var på en dejt i lördags, med Johan, från Karins middag. |
| Anna Hur var det? |
| Lisa Det var trevligt, men lite stelt. |
| Anna Jaha. Vad gjorde ni? |
| Lisa Vi åt middag på en restaurang. |
| Anna Hur var middagen? |
| Lisa Maten smakade bra, men det var dyrt. |
| Anna Betalade inte Johan? |
| Lisa Nej. |
| Alisha: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Lisa Jag var på en dejt i lördags, med Johan, från Karins middag. |
| Alisha:I went on a date Saturday, with Johan, from Karin’s dinner party. |
| Anna Hur var det? |
| Alisha:How was it? |
| Lisa Det var trevligt, men lite stelt. |
| Alisha:It was nice, but a bit awkward. |
| Anna Jaha. Vad gjorde ni? |
| Alisha:I see. What did you do? |
| Lisa Vi åt middag på en restaurang. |
| Alisha:We ate dinner at a restaurant. |
| Anna Hur var middagen? |
| Alisha:How was the dinner? |
| Lisa Maten smakade bra, men det var dyrt. |
| Alisha:The food tasted good, but it was expensive. |
| Anna Betalade inte Johan? |
| Alisha:Didn't Johan pay? |
| Lisa Nej. |
| Alisha:No. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Alisha:Nice, so Lisa got to go on a date! Tell me Satsuki, what’s the dating scene like in Sweden. |
| Satsuki:Alisha, that is a good question, but it is actually not that easy to answer. |
| Alisha:Really? Why not? People *do* date, right? |
| Satsuki:Yes, Swedes do date, but it doesn’t really work the same way as it does in the US, for example. |
| Alisha:Okay, so what does Swedes do when they date then? |
| Satsuki:Well some people do go out and eat together, or watch a movie, but it is not that common. |
| Alisha:Wait, I’m confused! |
| Satsuki:Yes, it can be a bit confusing for non-Swedes. And, to be honest, it is confusing for us Swedes as well, because there is no particular thing that Swedes do on dates. And there are no real rules for how to behave either. |
| Alisha:So...how do you know you’re on a date or not? |
| Satsuki:Well, Swedes don’t even seem to like using the word “date”. Even if they ask someone out on a date, and go on dates, they are still reluctant to say the word itself. |
| Alisha:So it seems like dating is a lot more casual and informal in Sweden. |
| Satsuki:Yes, I think that is true. |
| Alisha:Ok, 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:dejt [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:date |
| Satsuki:dejt [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:dejt [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:att vara [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:to be |
| Satsuki:att vara [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:att vara [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:trevlig [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:nice |
| Satsuki:trevlig [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:trevlig [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:stelt [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:awkward |
| Satsuki:stelt [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:stelt [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:att göra [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:to do |
| Satsuki:att göra [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:att göra [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:att äta [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:to eat |
| Satsuki:att äta [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:att äta [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:men [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:but |
| Satsuki:men [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:men [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:mat [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:food |
| Satsuki:mat [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:mat [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:att betala [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:to pay |
| Satsuki:att betala [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:att betala [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Satsuki:dyr [natural native speed] |
| Alisha:expensive |
| Satsuki:dyr [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Satsuki:dyr [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Alisha:Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Satsuki:Let us start with word ‘dejt’! |
| Alisha:It sounds almost exactly like the English “date”! |
| Satsuki:Well, that is because the Swedish word ‘dejt’ is actually borrowed from English! |
| Alisha:But it is not spelled the same, right? |
| Satsuki:No, in Swedish it is spelled D-E-J-T. |
| Alisha:D-E-J-T, I see. So, is it also used exactly the same way as in English too? |
| Satsuki:Well, in Swedish, the word ‘dejt’ is usually used to describe a meeting between two people, where there might be romantic interest. |
| Alisha:So what word do you use for a meeting between two friends, for example? |
| Satsuki:In that case, it is probably more common to use the word ‘träff”. So, for example, if I wanted to say “I will meet up with Anna tonight” in Swedish, I would say ‘jag har en träff med Anna ikväll’. |
| Alisha:Okay I see, that will be good to know! |
| Satsuki:Now, let’s move on to the next word, ‘stelt’. |
| Alisha:That means “awkward”, right? |
| Satsuki:Well actually, the word ‘stelt’ literally means “stiff”, but a better translation is “awkward”. |
| Alisha:I see, so you can use it to describe a feeling or a situation, as Lisa does in the dialog, when she says “it was nice, but a bit awkward”. |
| Satsuki:Yes exactly. She says ‘det var trevligt, men lite stelt’. |
| Alisha:But can you also use this word to describe something physical, right? |
| Satsuki:Yes. For example, if I want to say “my leg is stiff” in Swedish, I would say ‘mitt ben är stelt’. |
| Alisha:Okay, got it. Now, let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha:In this lesson, you will learn how to describe how something was, using the preterite tense. |
| Satsuki:That is right. And it might be helpful to know that this tense is used to describe both completed and uncompleted actions. |
| Alisha:I see, so the ending doesn’t change depending on whether something did or did not happen. |
| Satsuki:Exactly! Now let’s look at some of the verbs in preterite tense that were in the dialog. |
| Alisha:There are six of them - “Was”, “did”, “ate”, “tasted” and “paid”. |
| Satsuki:Yes, that is absolutely right. And the first three of them, ‘var’ (“was”), ‘gjorde’ (“did”) and ‘åt’ (“ate”), are irregular verbs, or strong verbs, as they are also known. |
| Alisha:And that means that they’ll conjugate irregularly. |
| Satsuki:Yes, but we will leave the irregular verbs for another time, and focus on the verbs that conjugate regularly instead. |
| Alisha:Ok, so what about the other two verbs “tasted” and “paid”? |
| Satsuki:Well, in Swedish, regular verbs – or weak verbs, as they are usually called – are divided into three sub-groups. Each of these conjugate differently. |
| Alisha:And we’ll look at how verbs from each of these groups conjugates in the preterite tense. Let’s start with the sub group that includes “tasted” and “paid”. |
| Satsuki:In Swedish, these translate to ‘smakade’ and ‘betalade’, respectively. |
| Alisha:Okay! So how do we recognize them? |
| Satsuki:Good question! The stem of the verbs belonging to this group ends in an ‘–a’. |
| Alisha:Okay, and how do we change them into their preterite tense? |
| Satsuki:It is simple, you just add the ending ‘–de’. So the verb ‘smaka’ (“ taste”) changes to ‘smakade’ (“smakade”). |
| Alisha:I see, and with the verb “pay”? |
| Satsuki:The stem of the verb “to pay” in Swedish is ‘betala’ so it changes to ‘betalade’. |
| Alisha:Oh, that was simple! But what about the other two subgroups of verbs? |
| Satsuki:The next group has a verb stem that ends in a consonant. But these are divided into two groups. |
| Alisha:Hmm, this is starting to get confusing! |
| Satsuki:I know, but bear with me, I will explain! |
| Alisha:Okay! |
| Satsuki:First, you have verbs with stems that end in a voiced consonant, and they take the ending ‘–de’. |
| Alisha:Do you have an example? |
| Satsuki:Of course, let us look at a verb that has appeared in a previous lesson. The verb ‘beställ’, which means “order”. |
| Alisha:So you simply add a ‘–de’ to the stem? |
| Satsuki:Yes, so ‘beställ’ becomes ‘beställde’, which means “ordered”. Okay, so next we have verbs whose stem ends in a unvoiced ‘k’, ‘p’, ‘s’, or ‘t’. |
| Alisha:And how do they change? |
| Satsuki:They take the ending ‘–te’. |
| Alisha:Doesn’t the Swedish verb for “buy” belong to this group? |
| Satsuki:That is right, the verb ‘köp’ changes to ‘köpte’, meaning “bought”, in the preterite tense. |
| Alisha:I see. And how about the last subgroup of weak verbs? |
| Satsuki:The third and final group of verbs, are the ones with a stem that ends in a vowel other than ‘–a’. |
| Alisha:Like the Swedish verb for “live”? |
| Satsuki:Yes, “live”, which translates to ‘bo’ in Swedish is an example of these types of verbs. They take the ending ‘–dde’. So ‘bo’ changes to ‘bodde’ in the preterite tense. |
| Alisha:That’s a –D-D-E ending. |
| Satsuki:Yes, that is right. |
| Alisha:Wow, that was a lot of information! |
| Satsuki:Yes, but it is good to know, and you will soon get the hang of it! |
| Alisha:Well that’s it for this lesson! Thanks for listening, and come back soon to learn more useful phrases in Swedish! |
| Satsuki:Hej då! See you next time! |
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