Learn how to use Swedish adjectives
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| Hej, jag heter Elin. Hi everybody! I’m Elin. |
| Welcome to SwedishPod101.com’s “Svenska på 3 minuter”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Swedish. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to use the verb att ha, "to have," in the negative form. |
| In this lesson, we will start to learn about Swedish adjectives and how to use them properly. |
| You will see that for adjectives, things in Swedish are just as easy as in English. |
| So the basic rule in order to use adjectives correctly is that in Swedish, adjectives come before the noun. Also the adjective might change with the noun. It also changes if the noun is in plural form. |
| Let’s start with a concrete example - Det är ett roligt spel - "It is a fun game." |
| Here the subject spel is a neuter word, so the adjective roligt is also in the neuter form. Notice how it comes directly before the noun. |
| Let’s see the same sentence with a common subject. It becomes |
| Hon är en rolig tjej - "She’s a funny girl." |
| Here we have removed the “t” from the adjective. In Swedish we often add a t to adjectives to make it neuter but not all the time. It depends on the adjective. |
| Here are a few more examples to show the difference between common and neuter form. |
| Snäll is the common form for "nice", "kind", whereas snällt is the neuter. |
| Vacker is the common form for "beautiful", whereas vackert is the neuter. |
| varm is the common form for "hot", whereas varmt is the neuter. |
| god is the common form for "delicious", whereas gott is the neuter. |
| Now let’s find out how to turn an adjective from singular to plural. Basically the rule is to put an “a” at the end of the adjective to make it plural. |
| But as is often the case in Swedish, there are many exceptions. |
| For example, Julia är snäll means "Julia is kind", so if you turn the adjective to plural it becomes Mina vänner är snälla, which is "My friends are kind. The a is added to the end. |
| To practice this switch, let’s see some examples. |
| If you want to say "My garden is big" you will say Min gård är stor. |
| But if you want to say "My bedroom is big" you will say Mitt rum är stort, you added a t to stor. |
| If you want to say "My brothers are big" you will say Mina bröder är stora. Here, you’re adding an a to stor. |
| So how do I know if the noun is neuter or common? The are no rules. But if you check a Swedish dictionary you will find the letter “N” in parentheses (n) behind neuter nouns. |
| Now it’s time for Elin’s Insights. |
| If you want to emphasize an adjective in Swedish, you can use the word väldigt or jätte before the adjective. For example in väldigt vacker, which is "really beautiful" or jättegott to say "really delicious." |
| In this lesson, we learned how to properly use adjectives in Swedish. |
| Next time we’ll learn the basic uses of the verb att gå, which is "To go," so that you will be able to say sentences like "I’m going to school." Do you already know how to use it? |
| I’ll be waiting for you in the next Svenska på tre minuter lesson. |
| På återseende! |
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