Learn how to use the past tense and explain and give solutions to a problem
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Kellie: Hi everyone, and welcome back to SwedishPod101.com This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 4 - A Little Accident in Sweden. Kellie Here. |
| Vicky: Hej! I'm Vicky. |
| Kellie: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the past tense and about explaining and giving solutions to problems. The conversation takes place at a workplace. |
| Vicky: It's between Lennart and Frida. |
| Kellie: The speakers are co-workers, so they’ll use informal Swedish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Lennart: Oj, förlåt, jag såg dig inte! |
| FridVicky: Å, du spillde ditt kaffe över hela min vita fina klänning! Jag har ingenting att byta om till! Vad ska jag göra? |
| Lennart: Jag ber så hemskt mycket om ursäkt! Du kan få låna min skjorta. |
| FridVicky: Nej, den vill jag inte ha på mig. Åh, den här klänningen fick jag av min dotter i födelsedagspresent förra året. Nu är den förstörd. |
| Lennart: Det visste jag inte. Hur mycket kostade den? Jag kan köpa dig en ny! |
| FridVicky: Nej, det är okej. Förlåt, jag överreagerade lite. Fläcken går nog bort i tvätten. |
| Lennart: Jag hoppas verkligen det. Säg till annars, så löser vi det. |
| Kellie: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Lennart: Oops, sorry, I didn't see you! |
| FridVicky: Oh, you spilled your coffee all over my beautiful white dress! I've got nothing to change into! What should I do? |
| Lennart: I’m so very sorry! You can borrow my shirt. |
| FridVicky: No, I don't want to wear that. Oh, I got this dress from my daughter for my birthday last year. Now it's ruined. |
| Lennart: I didn't know that. How much did it cost? I can buy you a new one! |
| FridVicky: No, it's fine. Sorry, I overreacted a bit. The stain will probably go away in the wash. |
| Lennart: I really hope so. Let me know if it doesn't, and we'll solve it. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Kellie: Vicky, do Swedes get angry easily? |
| Vicky: Well, Swedes are human, so of course we get upset sometimes. What’s commonly said about Swedes though, is that we don't show it that much. We would rarely start a fight with someone we don't know too well, and wouldn't complain loudly in a restaurant or supermarket. |
| Kellie: But is there any time you like to complain? |
| Vicky: We like to complain about bad service, bad quality, and other things to our friends. |
| Kellie: In other words - Swedes like to avoid conflict but love to complain.... |
| Vicky: (laughs) That’s right! So in general, if you happen to upset a Swedish person, just let them know that you’re very sorry, and didn't mean what you did. It's pretty simple, and Swedes tend to forgive. |
| Kellie: What’s a phrase to apologize with? |
| Vicky: Jag ber om ursäkt, |
| Kellie: which means "I ask to be forgiven." Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Kellie: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Vicky: att spilla [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: to spill |
| Vicky: att spilla[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: att spilla [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have... |
| Vicky: att byta om [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: to change |
| Vicky: att byta om[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: att byta om [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have... |
| Vicky: att be om ursäkt [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: to apologize |
| Vicky: att be om ursäkt[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: att be om ursäkt [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have... |
| Vicky: att låna [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: to borrow |
| Vicky: att låna[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: att låna [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have... |
| Vicky: att ha på sig [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: to wear |
| Vicky: att ha på sig[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: att ha på sig [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have... |
| Vicky: fläck [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: stain |
| Vicky: fläck[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: fläck [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have... |
| Vicky: förstörd [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: ruined |
| Vicky: förstörd[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: förstörd [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have... |
| Vicky: att överreagera [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: to overreact |
| Vicky: att överreagera[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: att överreagera [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have... |
| Vicky: att lösa [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: to solve |
| Vicky: att lösa[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: att lösa [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: And last... |
| Vicky: att säga till [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: to let know, to tell |
| Vicky: att säga till[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: att säga till [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 phrase is.. |
| Vicky: att överreagera |
| Kellie: meaning "to overreact." |
| Vicky:This verb is formed by the words över meaning "over" and reagera meaning "react." |
| Kellie: You use this when you want to express that someone is reacting to something more intensely than they should. It's commonly used in a negative way. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Vicky: For example, you can say... Det är inte så farligt, du överreagerar bara. |
| Kellie: ...which means "It's not that bad, you're just overreacting." |
| Vicky: You can use the över- together with other words as well, to imply that someone is doing something to much. For example, att överanalysera |
| Kellie: "to overanalyse" |
| Vicky: att överspela |
| Kellie: "to overact." can also be used to describe an actor who is overacting their role. Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Vicky: att säga till |
| Kellie: meaning "to let someone know." Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Vicky: For example, you can say... Säg till om du inte hinner i tid till föreställningen. |
| Kellie: ... which means "Let me know if you can't make it in time for the show. " |
| Vicky: It can also be used as "to tell someone to do," or "to order," for example Säg till ditt barn att vara tyst! |
| Kellie: “Tell your child to be quiet!" Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Vicky: att lösa |
| Kellie: meaning "to solve," to fix a problem and make something better. |
| Vicky: Att lösa in its imperative form lös is the same as att lysa, the word for “shine” in the past tense, so be careful to not mix them up! |
| Kellie: What’s an example using this word? |
| Vicky: You can say... Om du ringer till polisen, så tror jag de kan lösa det! |
| Kellie: ... which means "If you call the police, I think they can solve it!" |
| Vicky: Att lösa is rarely used as "to unravel," but sometimes it is, as in Om din sko är för tight, lös lite på skosnöret! |
| Kellie: Which means "If your shoe is too tight, untie the shoelace a bit!" Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Kellie: In this lesson, you'll learn about past tense, explaining and giving solutions to problems. When something that creates trouble happens, like in the dialogue, you may need to use the past tense to explain what happened or to excuse yourself. |
| Vicky: For example, in the dialogue Lennart said Jag såg dig inte! |
| Kellie: which means “I didn’t see you!” |
| Vicky: And Frida, who explained what happened, said Du spillde ditt kaffe över hela min vita fina klänning. |
| Kellie: meaning “You spilled your coffee all over my beautiful white dress!” |
| Vicky: Såg is the past tense of se and spillde is the past tense of spilla. |
| Kellie: Let’s look now at how to make sentences in the past tense in Swedish. |
| Vicky: We mainly use the preteritum or past tense to describe actions or conditions that have already happened. |
| Kellie: It is important to note that the preterite tense in Swedish describes both completed and uncompleted actions, and the ending of the verb stays the same regardless of whether the action was completed. But before we look at how to change verbs into their preterite tense, we should mention a few things. First, we can divide the verbs used in Swedish into four groups. |
| Vicky: We usually refer to the first three groups as weak verbs, while the fourth group contains irregular verbs, also referred to as strong verbs. In this lesson's dialogue, three irregular verbs are introduced - var, gjorde, and åt. |
| Kellie: Which mean “was,” “did,” and “ate,” respectively. In this lesson we’ll look at how verbs belonging to the first three groups, the weak verbs, change into their preterite tense and leave out the conjugation rules for the irregular verbs. |
| Vicky: It’s simple. Most of the verbs in their preterite tense in Swedish take a -de ending or a -te ending. |
| Kellie: Let’s go through this group by group. |
| Vicky: The first type of verbs we’re going to look at are the verbs whose stem ends in an -a. To change these verbs into their preterite tense, you simply add the ending -de to the verb stem. |
| Kellie: Are there any examples from this group in the dialogue? |
| Vicky: Yes, we have spillde, which is the preterite of spilla, meaning “to spill” and betalade, which is the preterite form of betala, meaning “to pay.” |
| Kellie: The second type are verbs that end in a consonant. But we can divide this group into two subgroups. |
| Vicky: Right, the first group is the verbs whose stem ends in a voiced consonant, which take the ending -de in the preterite tense. The second group of verbs whose stem ends in a consonant are the verbs with an unvoiced consonant, -k, -p, -s, or -t. This kind of verb in the preterite tense takes the ending -te. |
| Kellie: Can we have an example for the first subgroup? |
| Vicky: att känna, meaning “to feel,” becomes kände in the preterite because its stem is känn. |
| Kellie: And what about the second subgroup? |
| Vicky: att köpa, meaning “to buy,” becomes köpte in the preterite as its stem is köp. |
| Kellie: Ok, let’s take a look at the third group of weak verbs. |
| Vicky: The third type of verbs are the verbs whose stem ends in a vowel other than -a. This type of verb takes a -dde ending in the preterite tense. For example att tro, meaning “to believe,” becomes trodde in the preterite, as its stem is tro. |
| Kellie: Ok. In the second half of the lesson, we’ll see useful apologetic phrases that can come in handy. |
| Vicky: First of all, we should use Ursäkta in formal situations, such as when we bump into someone by mistake. For example, in the dialogue Lennart apologizes by saying Jag ber så hemskt mycket om ursäkt. |
| Kellie: which literally means “I beg so horribly much to be forgiven,” but means something like “I am so very sorry.” |
| Vicky: This phrase is not usually used among friends since it’s a fairly polite phrase. You should use it with strangers or at the workplace. |
| Kellie: What are some expressions we should use when we’ve done something bad? |
| Vicky: Finns det något jag kan göra? |
| Kellie: “Is there anything I can do?” |
| Vicky: Jag hoppas det löser sig! |
| Kellie: “I hope it works out!” What are the answers we should wait for? |
| Vicky: Det är okej. |
| Kellie: “It’s okay.” |
| Vicky: Förlåt, jag överreagerade lite. |
| Kellie: “Sorry, I overreacted a bit.” |
| Vicky: Det blir nog bra. |
| Kellie: “I’m sure it will be fine.” |
| Vicky: Oroa dig inte för det. |
| Kellie: “Don’t worry about it.” |
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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