Learn about adjective degrees and comparing objects
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Kellie: Hi everyone, and welcome back to SwedishPod101.com This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 9 - Decorating Your Swedish Home. Kellie here. |
| Vicky: Hej! I'm Vicky. |
| Kellie: In this lesson, you’ll learn about adjective degrees and comparing objects. The conversation takes place at a store. |
| Vicky: It's between Frida and Lennart. |
| Kellie: The speakers are co-workers, so they’ll use informal Swedish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Frida: Du Lennart, vilken bordsduk tycker du passar bäst till porslinet? |
| Lennart: Hmm, få se. Eftersom porslinet är vitt och blått så kanske den ljusblåa duken är bäst. |
| Frida: Men blir det inte lite skrikigt med blått på blått? Jag tycker nog att den vita är finast. |
| Lennart: Vit duk är alltid säkrast, men är inte det lite tråkigt? |
| Frida: Äsch, du det finns väl tråkigare saker än vita dukar! Fult porslin till exempel. |
| Lennart: Det är sant. Vad tycker du om den vita duken med guldkant då? Den är väl vacker? |
| Frida: Å, det har du rätt i. Den är simplare än den blåa, men roligare än den vita. Och den passar bra ihop med porslinet! |
| Lennart: Kör på det! |
| Kellie: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Frida: Hey Lennart, which tablecloth do you think best suits the china? |
| Lennart: Hmm, let's see. Since the china is blue and white, maybe the light blue cloth is best. |
| Frida: But isn't it a bit gaudy with blue on blue? I think the white is probably the prettiest. |
| Lennart: White cloth is always the safest, but isn't it a little boring? |
| Frida: Oh, aren't there more boring things than white table cloths? Like ugly china. |
| Lennart: That's true. So what do you think about the white cloth with the gold lining then? Isn't that beautiful? |
| Frida: Oh, you're right. It's simpler than the blue one, but more fun than the white one. And it goes well with the china! |
| Lennart: Go for it! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Kellie: Vicky, Swedish interior design is well-known all around the world. Could you tell us something about it? |
| Vicky: Swedish design is famous for its simplicity, usefulness, and beauty. The design is centered around functionality, clean lines, and elegance. For example, big carpets are normally not used in Swedish homes and both furniture and architecture should be simple with clean lines. |
| Kellie: If I’m not wrong, one of the most famous furniture shops in the world, IKEA, is Swedish. |
| Vicky: That’s right! IKEA sells simple furniture in many different shapes and the pieces are all user-friendly and easy to assemble. IKEA furniture has clean designs and is still gentle on your wallet. |
| Kellie: Are there other famous brands or shops? |
| Vicky: String is another famous furniture maker from Sweden and it’s recognized worldwide for its simple yet striking shelf systems. A2 is a fresh and young brand that makes practical yet very unconventional furniture. |
| Kellie: How do you say “unconventional” in Swedish? |
| Vicky: okonventionell |
| Kellie: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Kellie: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Vicky: bordsduk [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: tablecloth |
| Vicky: bordsduk[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: bordsduk [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have.. |
| Vicky: porslin [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: china |
| Vicky: porslin[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: porslin [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have.. |
| Vicky: skrikig [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: gaudy |
| Vicky: skrikig[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: skrikig [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have.. |
| Vicky: säker [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: safe |
| Vicky: säker[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: säker [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have.. |
| Vicky: guldkant [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: gold lining |
| Vicky: guldkant[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: guldkant [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have.. |
| Vicky: att passa [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: to go well |
| Vicky: att passa[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: att passa [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Next we have.. |
| Vicky: att vara sant [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: to be true |
| Vicky: att vara sant[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: att vara sant [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: And lastly.. |
| Vicky: Få se. [natural native speed] |
| Kellie: Let's see. |
| Vicky: Få se. [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Vicky: Få se. [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: Få se. |
| Kellie: meaning "Let's see." |
| Vicky: få se is an expression that you use in conversation when you’re not sure what to say or when you need to think about what to say. It can also be used with the meaning of “let's find out.” |
| Kellie: It can be used both in formal and informal speech. |
| Vicky: Right, but it’s not used in writing. |
| Kellie: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Vicky: Sure. For example, you can say.. Få se om du tycker om din julklapp. |
| Kellie: ..which means "Let's see if you like your Christmas present." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Vicky: att passa |
| Kellie: meaning "to go well with.” |
| Vicky: Actually att passa has several meanings. The first and most commonly used one is when speaking about clothes, like color, size, and so on. |
| Kellie: Can you give us an example? |
| Vicky: Sure. For example, you can say.. Passar skorna eller behöver du en större storlek? |
| Kellie: .. which means "Do the shoes fit or do you need a bigger size?" |
| Vicky: Att passa can also be used when talking about looking after someone, like babysitting a sibling, as in Kan du passa din lillebror medan jag går till affären? |
| Kellie: which means “Can you look after your little brother while I go to the shop?” |
| Vicky: There is one more way to use att passa but it’s mainly slang. The expression Passa till mig, meaning “pass it to me,” is used a lot among children and teens when playing sports. |
| Kellie: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Vicky: att vara sant |
| Kellie: meaning "to be true." |
| Vicky: like the English translation, att vara sant is used when speaking about truth. |
| Kellie: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Vicky: Sure. For example, you can say.. Det är en sann historia. |
| Kellie: .. which means "It's a true story." |
| Vicky: There’s an expression that is för bra för att vara sant, “too good to be true.” It’s often used in the popular Swedish saying Om det är för bra för att vara sant så är det oftast det |
| Kellie: which means “If it's too good to be true, then it's most likely not true.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Kellie: In this lesson, you'll learn about adjective degrees and comparing objects. Vicky, can we start with an example from the dialogue? |
| Vicky: There’s an example in this sentence, ...vilken bordsduk tycker du passar bäst till porslinet? |
| Kellie: meaning “...which tablecloth do you think best suits the china?” |
| Vicky: bäst is an example of an adjective in the superlative degree. Other different degrees of this adjective in Swedish are bra and bättre. |
| Kellie: That’s very similar to English, where “best” comes after “good” and “better.” Let’s remember that superlatives are special forms of adjectives. We use them to compare more than two things. How are they formed in Swedish? |
| Vicky: Generally, we form superlatives using a special ending like -ast or -st, as in vackrast, meaning “most beautiful,” to the more uncommon -erst, for example, borterst. |
| Kellie: which means “furthest away.” But what’s the rule for forming regular superlatives? |
| Vicky: Most adjectives in Swedish take -ast in their superlative form. |
| Kellie: Is there a similar rule for comparatives? |
| Vicky: Yes, most adjectives take the ending -are in their comparative form. |
| Kellie: Let’s remember that comparatives are special forms of adjectives. We use them to compare two or more things. |
| Vicky: One example is tråkigare, the comparative form of tråkig, meaning “boring.” |
| Kellie: Is there an example in the dialogue? |
| Vicky: Yes, in the sentence ...du det finns väl tråkigare saker än vita dukar! |
| Kellie: which means “....aren't there more boring things than white tablecloths?” |
| Vicky: In addition to the rule that most adjectives take the ending -are in their comparative form and -ast in their superlative form, we should also remember that there’s an exception to this rule. When an adjective ends in -er, -el or -en we drop the -e in front of the -r, -l or -n when we add the -are and -ast. |
| Kellie: Could you give us an example for those? |
| Vicky: For example säker, meaning “safe,” in the comparative form becomes säkrare and in the superlative form it becomes säkrast. |
| Kellie: Okay, now let’s see some of the most common irregular adjectives, the ones that have irregular comparative and superlative forms and don’t match any rules. |
| Vicky: We have already seen one at the beginning of the lesson, bra, bättre and bäst. |
| Kellie: which correspond to “good”, “better” and “best.” |
| Vicky: The opposite is dålig, sämre, sämst |
| Kellie: which correspond to “bad,” “worse,” and “worst.” |
| Vicky: Another example is gammal, äldre, äldst |
| Kellie: which mean “old,” “older,” and “oldest.” Now let’s see how to compare objects using comparatives and superlatives. |
| Vicky: Let’s see an example from the dialogue. Den är simplare än den blåa, men roligare än den vita. |
| Kellie: meaning “It's simpler than the blue one, but more fun than the white one.” |
| Vicky: So, considering the adjective stor, meaning “big,” when comparing two objects, the basic structure is X är större än Y. |
| Kellie: meaning “X is bigger than Y.” As for the superlative, we already said that we can use them to compare more than two things, which means that they don’t need to be compared to another specific object, as they are automatically being compared to everything else. |
| Vicky: For example, Det här är min tuffaste utmaning. |
| Kellie: Which means "This is my toughest challenge" and implies “of all the challenges I've faced.” |
| Vicky: Another example is Du är den snabbaste skidåkaren. |
| Kellie: "You are the fastest skier" implies “among the ones here,” or “ones I've ever met.” |
Outro |
| Kellie: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Vicky: Bye! |
Comments
Hide