Learn how to use the verb kunna to ask for clarification
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Kellie: Hi everyone, and welcome back to SwedishPod101.com. This is Intermediate, Season 1, Lesson 2 - There's a Better Way to Get Around Sweden! Kellie here. |
| Vicky: Hej! I'm Vicky. |
| Kellie: In this lesson, you’ll learn about using the verb kunna and asking for clarification. The conversation takes place in the city center. |
| Vicky: It's between Kalle and Frida. |
| Kellie: The speakers are strangers, so they’ll speak both formal and informal Swedish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Kalle: Ursäkta mig, vet du var jag kan köpa ett SL-kort? |
| FridVicky: Jag förstår inte riktigt vad du menar. Vad är ett SL-kort? |
| Kalle: Du vet, ett sånt där kort som man kan åka buss och tåg med. |
| FridVicky: Jaha, du menar ett sånt som man laddar på med pengar? |
| Kalle: Ja, exakt! Vet du var jag kan köpa dem? |
| FridVicky: Nej, tyvärr. Jag åker bara bil och taxi. |
| Kalle: Okej, tack i alla fall. |
| Kellie: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Kalle: Excuse me, do you know where I can buy an SL-card? |
| Frida: I don't quite understand what you mean. What’s an SL-card? |
| Kalle: You know, one of those cards you can ride the bus and train with. |
| Frida: Oh okay, you mean one of those that you charge with money? |
| Kalle: Yes, exactly! Do you know where I can buy them? |
| Frida: No, unfortunately not. I only travel by car and taxi. |
| Kalle: Okay, thanks anyway. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Kellie: Vicky, is it pretty common to stop a stranger in the street and ask for information in Sweden? |
| Vicky: Actually, it’s fairly rare to ask a stranger something or to be approached by a stranger for directions and such. Swedes generally don’t want to talk to people they don't know if it’s not absolutely necessary. |
| Kellie: So if you don’t know the way around, what should you do? |
| Vicky: Instead of asking for directions, people tend to try to figure it out by themselves using smartphones, signs, and so on. |
| Kellie: So would you say Swedes are very reserved? |
| Vicky: Yes, it's not that we’re rude or hate people, we just tend to mind our own business. |
| Kellie: If you really need to stop someone in the street, be careful then. |
| Vicky: Right, for example, avoid people who are walking fast or look stressed. |
| Kellie: Is there any time at all when approaching someone is acceptable in Sweden? |
| Vicky: Yes, if you’re at a bar or a club, it’s okay! |
| Kellie: Good to know! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Kellie: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Vicky: ursäkta mig [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Excuse me, I'm sorry |
| Vicky: ursäkta mig[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: ursäkta mig [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have.. |
| Vicky: inte riktigt [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: not quite |
| Vicky: inte riktigt[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: inte riktigt [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have.. |
| Vicky: att veta [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: to know |
| Vicky: att veta[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: att veta [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have.. |
| Vicky: jaha [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Oh okay |
| Vicky: jaha[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: jaha [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have.. |
| Vicky: att ladda [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: to charge |
| Vicky: att ladda[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: att ladda [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have.. |
| Vicky: tyvärr [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: unfortunately |
| Vicky: tyvärr[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: tyvärr [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have.. |
| Vicky: i alla fall [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: anyway |
| Vicky: i alla fall[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: i alla fall [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: And last.. |
| Vicky: SL-kort [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: SL-card |
| Vicky: SL-kort[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: SL-kort [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Kellie: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Vicky: tyvärr |
| Kellie: meaning "unfortunately." |
| Vicky: We use this word both in sentences and alone as a negative answer. For example, if someone asks us if we have a pen, but we don’t, we can just say tyvärr. |
| Kellie: Can you give us an example of a complete sentence? |
| Vicky: Sure. For example, you can say.. Jag gillar tyvärr inte hundar lika mycket som du. |
| Kellie: .. which means "Unfortunately I don't like dogs as much as you do.” What’s the opposite of this word? |
| Vicky: The opposite of tyvärr would be lyckligtvis, which means "luckily." |
| Kellie: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Vicky: att ladda |
| Kellie: meaning "to charge." This verb is used when we talk about charging our phone's battery, or putting money on our card. |
| Vicky: We also have the expression att ladda upp, which has two meanings. The first one is "to upload" something, for example, on the Internet. The second meaning is "to warm up," for example, before a game. |
| Kellie: Since this verb only has the meaning “to load” or “charge”, as in "put something into," it can’t be used like the English "I charge you with this." Please give us a Swedish example of how to use this word correctly. |
| Vicky: For example, you can say.. Jag har inget batteri kvar på mobilen, så jag måste ladda den fort. |
| Kellie: .. which means "I don't have any battery left on my phone, so I have to charge it fast." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Kellie: In this lesson, you'll learn about using the verb kunna and asking for clarification. |
| Vicky: Att kunna expresses knowledge, ability, or possibility. |
| Kellie: Let’s take a look at a sentence from the dialogue where this verb is used. |
| Vicky: Ursäkta mig, vet du var jag kan köpa SL-kort? |
| Kellie: "Excuse me, do you know where I can buy an SL-card?" This sentence is used by Kalle to ask where he can do the thing he wants to do. |
| Vicky: A modal verb like kunna has to be used together with a main verb. |
| Kellie: This modal verb can be used when asking for favors that another person will do, or when we want to be able to do something ourselves. Let’s take a look at another sentence from the dialogue. |
| Vicky: Ett sånt där kort som man kan åka buss och tåg med, |
| Kellie: meaning “One of those cards you can ride the bus and train with.” |
| Vicky: In this sentence, we use kan åka which means “can ride” or “be able to ride.” |
| Kellie: Let’s see one more example from this dialogue. |
| Vicky: Vet du var jag kan köpa dem? |
| Kellie: meaning "Do you know where I can buy them?" |
| Vicky: You can also use kunna in negative form by adding the word inte, meaning “not,” between the modal verb kunna and the main verb. |
| Kellie: Let's have an example. |
| Vicky: For example, Jag kan köpa dem meaning “I can buy them,” becomes Jag kan inte köpa dem, |
| Kellie: which means “I cannot buy them.” |
| Vicky: Here’s another example, Jag kan inte åka buss och tåg. |
| Kellie:“I can’t ride the bus or train.” |
| Vicky: You can find the verb Kunna in two forms; kan, meaning “can” and kunde, meaning “could.” |
| Kellie: It’s a modal verb, which is a form of auxiliary verb. You can use it before other verbs to show ability or possibility. |
| Vicky: We usually use kunde to talk about the past. For example, Hon kunde cykla på sin cykel i en tidig ålder. |
| Kellie: Which means "She could ride a bicycle at an early age." |
| Vicky: Kunde is the past tense of kunna. It can also be used in a negative form, for example Hon kunde inte läsa förrän hon fyllde sju. |
| Kellie: “She couldn’t read until she turned seven.” What about the polite requests we mentioned before? |
| Vicky: Right, we often use kan to make polite requests as well. Kan du ta hand om vår hund medan vi är på semester? |
| Kellie: meaning "Could you take care of our dog while we are on vacation?" |
| Vicky: Notice that kan is also used to translate the English modal verb “may,” as seen in this example, Kan jag få låna toaletten? |
| Kellie: which means "May I use the restroom?" So to recap, let’s give a general rule on how to build a sentence. |
| Vicky: It’s simple and similar to English. After the subject, you just need to add either kunde or kan and then the main verb. |
| Kellie: What about the questions? |
| Vicky: In the case of questions, you just need to put kunde or kan before the subject. For example Kunde du simma? |
| Kellie: meaning "Could you swim?" Ok, let’s see how to ask for clarification in more detail, which is important to avoid misunderstandings. We have an example in the dialogue. |
| Vicky: Jag förstår inte riktigt vad du menar. Vad är ett SL-kort? |
| Kellie: Which means “I don’t quite understand what you mean. What’s an SL-card?” |
| Vicky: Other ways to ask for clarification more generally could be Jag hänger inte riktigt med. Kan du förklara? |
| Kellie: meaning "I’m not quite following you. Could you explain?" |
| Vicky: or Jag förstår inte alls. Kan jag få lite mer detaljer, tack? |
| Kellie: "I don't understand at all. Could I have some more details, please?" Ok, let’s look at the last topic for this lesson- interjections. Interjections are words you use either when you want to express a feeling, a sound, or to greet or answer someone. We'll look at situations, such as the one in this lesson's dialogue, when we want to react to something we have been told or asked. |
| Vicky: In the dialogue we had Jaha! |
| Kellie: meaning “Oh okay!" |
| Vicky: Exakt! |
| Kellie: "Exactly!" |
| Vicky: Tyvärr! |
| Kellie: "Unfortunately not!" All these interjections will come in handy in situations when you don’t just want to answer with yes or no, but want to add something to clarify what you mean. Vicky, could you list some other common interjections? |
| Vicky: Sure. For example Nehe? or Jasså?, which both mean “really?” Precis! means “Exactly!” |
| Kellie: Ok, let’s conclude this lesson with a couple of sample sentences. |
| Vicky: Kan du tala långsammare? |
| Kellie: "Could you speak more slowly?" |
| Vicky: Usch! Vet du hur jag kan döda den här kackerlackan? |
| Kellie: "Ew! Do you know how I can kill this cockroach?" |
Outro |
| Kellie: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Vicky: Bye! |
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