Learn how to describe someone's appearance and personality
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Engla: Hej allihopa! I’m Engla. |
| Gabriella: Hi everyone, I’m Gabriella. Welcome back to SwedishPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 18 - Looking For a Nice Man in Sweden. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to describe someone’s appearance and personality. |
| Engla: Yes, and the conversation takes place at Kerstin’s work. |
| Gabriella: The conversation is between Kerstin and her co-worker Elisabeth. They are using informal Swedish because they’re co-workers. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Elisabeth: Kerstin känner du någon trevlig man? |
| Kerstin: Hm... Jo faktiskt! Hans vän Mark. |
| Elisabeth: Hur ser han ut? |
| Kerstin: Han har mörkt hår och blåa ögon. |
| Elisabeth: Vad för typ av person är han? |
| Kerstin: Han har humor och ett stort hjärta. |
| Elisabeth: Han låter intressant! |
| -With English Translation- |
| Elisabeth: Kerstin känner du någon trevlig man? |
| Gabriella: Kerstin, do you know any nice men? |
| Kerstin: Hm... Jo faktiskt! Hans vän Mark. |
| Gabriella: Hmm... Well actually, Hans' friend Mark. |
| Elisabeth: Hur ser han ut? |
| Gabriella: How does he look? |
| Kerstin: Han har mörkt hår och blåa ögon. |
| Gabriella: He has dark hair and blue eyes. |
| Elisabeth: Vad för typ av person är han? |
| Gabriella: What kind of person is he? |
| Kerstin: Han har humor och ett stort hjärta. |
| Gabriella: He has humor and a big heart. |
| Elisabeth: Han låter intressant! |
| Gabriella: He sounds interesting! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: So in this lesson, we’ll learn to talk about someone's personality, but tell me Engla, what kind of personality traits do Swedes value, in general? |
| Engla: Hmm...that’s a difficult question, but I guess that Swedes usually don't appreciate things that are too extreme? |
| Gabriella: Extreme? |
| Engla: Well, Swedes don’t really like it when people are too competitive, or when someone insists on telling everyone about all of their accomplishments. |
| Gabriella: So when you’re hanging out with Swedes, you shouldn’t really brag? |
| Engla: That’s right! Bragging is not really socially acceptable. |
| Gabriella: What do Swedes like, in terms of personality traits then? |
| Engla: Being outgoing is often a good thing. |
| Gabriella: Really? Swedes can be quite private though can’t they, so do they really like when people are outgoing? |
| Engla: Haha...yes you’re right. Swedes are pretty private, so when you initially meet someone, it’s okay if you're outgoing, but you also need to be careful that you’re not too familiar. |
| Gabriella: But I want to make friends with Swedes! It sounds tricky to strike the right balance! |
| Engla: Yes, I guess we're a bit tricky, but if you give us some time, we usually warm up after a while. |
| Gabriella: I sure hope so! [laughter] |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gabriella: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is… |
| Engla: att ha [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to have |
| Engla: att ha [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Engla: att ha [natural native speed] |
| Engla: att känna [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to know |
| Engla: att känna [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Engla: att känna [natural native speed] |
| Engla: att se ut [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to look, to look like |
| Engla: att se ut [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Engla: att se ut [natural native speed] |
| Engla: hår [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: hair |
| Engla: hår [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Engla: hår [natural native speed] |
| Engla: öga [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: eye |
| Engla: öga [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Engla: öga [natural native speed] |
| Engla: typ [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: kind |
| Engla: typ [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Engla: typ [natural native speed] |
| Engla: person [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: person |
| Engla: person [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Engla: person [natural native speed] |
| Engla: humor [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: humor |
| Engla: humor [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Engla: humor [natural native speed] |
| Engla: hjärta [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: heart |
| Engla: hjärta [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Engla: hjärta [natural native speed] |
| Engla: att låta [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to sound |
| Engla: att låta [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Engla: att låta [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Engla: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word we're going to talk about is the verb att se. |
| Gabriella: Meaning “to look” right? |
| Engla: Yes, att se means “to look,” if you’re talking about the act of trying to see something with your eyes. |
| Gabriella: So we can't use this Swedish verb when talking about how something appears or seems? |
| Engla: Well, we can use att se, but we also have to use the adverb ut, meaning "out." |
| Gabriella: So “to look” as in "appear" or "seem" in Swedish is? |
| Engla: Att se ut. |
| Gabriella: Great! Now let’s move on to the next word. |
| Engla: Next, we have the word typ meaning “kind”. |
| Gabriella: But that word can also mean other things as well, right? |
| Engla: Yes typ also corresponds to “type” or “sort”. |
| Gabriella: I see. |
| Engla: Actually, typ is also used as a filler in Swedish, similar to how you would use “like” as a filler word in English. |
| Gabriella: Okay. Now let’s move on to the last word. |
| Engla: Finally, we have the verb att låta meaning “to sound”. |
| Gabriella: Oh, I remember that one from this lesson’s dialog. |
| Engla: Yes, that’s correct. This verb also has a completely different meaning as well. |
| Gabriella: Really, what's that? |
| Engla: It can also mean “to allow”. |
| Gabriella: You mean we can use this when saying things like “I allowed Lisa to leave work earlier”? |
| Engla: Exactly! And in Swedish that would be Jag lät Lisa gå tidigare från jobbet. |
| Gabriella: Great! Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to describe someone’s appearance or personality. |
| Engla: That's right, and we learned how to do this in a previous lesson with the help of the verb att vara, meaning "to be." |
| Gabriella: But in this lesson, we’ll instead use another verb, right? |
| Engla: Yes, in this lesson, we’ll use the verb att ha, which means "to have," but in the present tense har. |
| Gabriella: Okay. Let’s start by looking at two of the sentences that appear in this lesson’s dialog, in which personality or appearance is described using this verb. |
| Engla: Right. When Kerstin said Han har mörkt hår och blå ögon meaning “He has dark hair and blue eyes” or when she said Han har humor och ett stort hjärta meaning “He has humor and a big heart”. |
| Gabriella: Now I remember! Should we move on to look more closely at how these types of sentences are constructed? |
| Engla: I think that sounds like a good idea. The type of sentence we’re learning always starts with a personal pronoun such as han for "he", hon for "she," or jag for "I." Or it starts with a name. |
| Gabriella: And what comes after this? |
| Engla: Then we always have the present tense of the verb att ha which is har. |
| Gabriella: And then? |
| Engla: After that, we have the words that describe either someone’s appearance or their personality. |
| Gabriella: I see! How would you say, “a narrow face” in Swedish? |
| Engla: Ett smalt ansikte. |
| Gabriella: And if I wanted to say, “She has a narrow face”? |
| Engla: Hon har ett smalt ansikte. |
| Gabriella: Okay, let me try one more. How do you say, “short hair”? |
| Engla: Kort hår. |
| Gabriella: And “He has short hair”? |
| Engla: Han har kort hår. Let’s now move on and look at how we can describe someone’s personality. |
| Gabriella: Okay, so let me check if I’ve got this right, we're still starting off the sentence with a personal pronoun or the name of a person, followed by the Swedish verb for “has” right? |
| Engla: Correct! This is then followed by words that describe aspects of someone’s personality. |
| Gabriella: I see. How do you say “charm” in Swedish if you want to say something like “She has charm”? |
| Engla: “Charm” in Swedish is charm, and “She has charm” therefore becomes Hon har charm. |
| Gabriella: And how do you say, “a bad temper”? |
| Engla: “A bad temper” is ett dåligt temperament. |
| Gabriella: So “He has a bad temper” in Swedish is? |
| Engla: Han har ett dåligt temperament”. |
Outro |
| Gabriella: Great! That's all for now, but remember to check out our lesson notes to get some more suggestions on words that can be used to describe someone's personality, as well as someone’s appearance. |
| Engla: Great work everyone. Bye! |
| Engla: Hej då! |
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