Learn how to change neuter gender nouns into their definite plural form
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Elin: Hej allihopa! I’m Elin. |
| Becky: Hi everyone, I’m Becky. Welcome back to SwedishPod101.com. This is Upper Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 19 - You Can’t Eat Those Swedish Apples! |
| Becky: In this lesson you’ll learn how to put neuter gender nouns into their definite plural form. |
| Elin: The conversation takes place in Emma and David’s apartment. |
| Becky: It’s between Emma and her partner David. They’re using informal Swedish, since they are a couple. |
| Elin: Great! Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| David: Emma, jag går ut ett tag. |
| Emma: Vart ska du? |
| David: Jag ska till mamma för att hjälpa henne att klippa gräsmattan. |
| Emma: Åh vad bra. Kan ta med dig lite äpplen från hennes trädgård? Jag tänkte göra en äpplepaj till efterrätt. |
| David: Det låter gott, men du vet att de där äpplena är oätbara. |
| Emma: Jaså? |
| David: De är vildäpplen, men jag kan köpa några I affären på väg hem. |
| Becky: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| David: Emma, jag går ut ett tag. |
| Emma: Vart ska du? |
| David: Jag ska till mamma för att hjälpa henne att klippa gräsmattan. |
| Emma: Åh vad bra. Kan ta med dig lite äpplen från hennes trädgård? Jag tänkte göra en äpplepaj till efterrätt. |
| David: Det låter gott, men du vet att de där äpplena är oätbara. |
| Emma: Jaså? |
| David: De är vildäpplen, men jag kan köpa några I affären på väg hem. |
| Becky: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| David: Emma, jag går ut ett tag. |
| David: Emma, I'm going out for a while. |
| Emma: Vart ska du? |
| Emma: Where’re you going? |
| David: Jag ska till mamma för att hjälpa henne att klippa gräsmattan. |
| David: I'm going to my mom's to help her mow the lawn. |
| Emma: Åh vad bra. Kan ta med dig lite äpplen från hennes trädgård? Jag tänkte göra en äpplepaj till efterrätt. |
| Emma: Oh, that's great! Can you bring some apples from her garden? I thought that I would make an apple pie for dessert. |
| David: Det låter gott, men du vet att de där äpplena är oätbara. |
| David: That sounds delicious, but did you know that those apples are inedible? |
| Emma: Jaså? |
| Emma: Really? |
| David: De är vildäpplen, men jag kan köpa några I affären på väg hem. |
| David: They're wild apples, but I can buy some at the store on my way home. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: That was nice of David to go and help his mother! |
| Elin: It sure was! |
| Becky: Is it common for Swedes to help their elderly parents? |
| Elin: Well, I guess it depends on what you compare it to, but Swedes often help their elderly parents. But maybe not to the same extent as people do in other cultures. |
| Becky: I see. Is that because Sweden is such a big welfare state? |
| Elin: I think that’s definitely part of it, and the elderly are also often entitled to receive help from the local government. |
| Becky: Right. But Swedes usually don’t live with their elderly parents, do they? |
| Elin: The most common type of family in Sweden is the nuclear family, with a child or children living together with their parents. So multigenerational households with children, parents, and grandparents under the same roof aren`t that common. |
| Becky: Mmm...that’s what I have heard. |
| Elin: But it’s quite interesting, because a recent study has shown that 4 out of 10 Swedes living in a house, wouldn’t mind having their parents come and live with them, when the parent reached an age where they need help. |
| Becky: Ah, I see. Ok, now, let’s move on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is... |
| Elin: tag [natural native speed] |
| Becky: while |
| Elin: tag [slowly - broken down by syllable] tag [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att klippa [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to mow |
| Elin: att klippa [slowly - broken down by syllable] att klippa [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: gräsmatta [natural native speed] |
| Becky: lawn |
| Elin: gräsmatta [slowly - broken down by syllable] gräsmatta [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att tänka [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to think |
| Elin: att tänka [slowly - broken down by syllable] att tänka [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: äppelpaj [natural native speed] |
| Becky: apple pie |
| Elin: äppelpaj [slowly - broken down by syllable] äppelpaj [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: efterrätt [natural native speed] |
| Becky: dessert |
| Elin: efterrätt [slowly - broken down by syllable] efterrätt [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: vildäpple [natural native speed] |
| Becky: wild apple |
| Elin: vildäpple [slowly - broken down by syllable] vildäpple [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last, |
| Elin: på väg [natural native speed] |
| Becky: on my way |
| Elin: på väg [slowly - broken down by syllable] på väg [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Elin: The first word is the noun “tag”, which means “while” in the dialogue. |
| Becky: You mean when David told Emma, “Emma, I’m going out for a while”? |
| Elin: That’s right! That was “Emma, jag går ut ett tag”. |
| Becky: But I have also heard this noun used in other sentences, where it didn’t mean “while”. |
| Elin: That’s true, “tag” can also mean “grip” or “hold”. |
| Becky: Ah, so what would “don’t lose your grip” be in Swedish? |
| Elin: “Tappa inte taget”. |
| Becky: How would you say, “He grabbed hold of Anna’s arm”? |
| Elin: “Han grep tag i Annas arm”. |
| Becky: Great! Now, let’s move on to the next word! |
| Elin: The next word we need to talk about is the verb “att klippa”. |
| Becky: This verb was used in the dialog when David said that he would help his mother mow the lawn. |
| Elin: That’s right, “att klippa” can correspond to “to mow”, but the usage of the verb “att klippa” isn’t as restricted as the verb “to mow”. |
| Becky: What do you mean? |
| Elin: Well, you can also use it like you would the verb “to cut”, to say things like, “Can you cut this paper into two pieces”. |
| Becky: How would you say that? |
| Elin: “Kan du klippa det här pappret i två delar”. |
| Becky: I think I understand. So could you also use it if you wanted to say, “I have to cut my nails”? |
| Elin: Yes, and that’s, “jag måste klippa mina naglar” |
| Becky: Great! Now let’s move on to the grammar! |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to how to change neuter gender nouns into their definite plural from. In the previous lesson, we learned the rules for changing common gender nouns into their definite plural form. But the rules for changing the neuter gender nouns into their definite plural form are a bit more complicated, than for changing common gender noun into their definite plural form. So Elin, where do we start? |
| Elin: We’ll start by looking at neuter gender nouns, that end in a vowel in their indefinite singular form. |
| Becky: You mean the nouns that take the ending –n in their indefinite plural form? |
| Elin: Yes, that’s right. To change these into their definite plural form, you add the ending –a. |
| Becky: Okay, how about an example? |
| Elin: That’s a good idea. The noun “ett äpple” meaning “an apple”, is a neuter gender noun that ends in a vowel. The indefinite plural form is therefore “äpplen” meaning “apples”. |
| Becky: We then need to add the ending –a to make it into its definite plural form. |
| Elin: That’s right! So “äpplen” meaning “apples” becomes “äpplena” meaning “the apples”. |
| Becky: That wasn't too hard, but let’s practice it. |
| Elin: Listeners, repeat after me please. “Äpplen” [pause], “äpplena”[pause]. |
| Becky: Now, do you have any other examples of neuter gender nouns that end in a vowel? |
| Elin: Yes, other examples are the nouns, “ett bankkonto” (meaning “a bank account”) and “ett knä” meaning “a knee”. |
| Becky: How would we change the noun for “a bank account” to its definite plural form? |
| Elin: The indefinite plural form of “ett bankkonto” (a bank account) is “bankkonton” meaning “bank accounts” and to change this into its definite plural form, we need to add the ending –a. So “bankkonton” (bank accounts) becomes “bankkontona” (the bank accounts). |
| Becky: Listeners, repeat after Elin please! |
| Elin: “Bankkonton”[pause], “bankkontona”[pause]. |
| Becky: Great! But let’s try one more - how do we change the noun for “a knee” to its definite plural form? |
| Elin: The indefinite plural form of the noun “ett knä” meaning “a knee” is “knän” meaning “knees”. So to change it to its definite plural form, we add the ending –a. So “knän” (knees) becomes “knäna” (the knees). |
| Elin: Listeners repeat after me, please! |
| Elin: “Knän”[pause], “knäna”[pause]. |
| Becky: Ok, now we also have to talk about the neuter gender nouns that end in a consonant in their indefinite singular form, and don’t take an ending in their indefinite plural form. |
| Elin: These include nouns like “Ett år” meaning “a year”, “ett problem” meaning “a problem”, and “ett hus” meaning “a house” all belong to this group. |
| Becky: Ok, and how do we change these to their definite plural form? |
| Elin: You simply add the ending –en. So the noun “ett år” (a year) becomes “åren” (the years). Listeners repeat after me! |
| Elin: “Ett år” [pause], “åren”[pause]. |
| Becky: How about the noun for “a problem”? |
| Elin: “Ett problem” (a problem) takes the ending –en and becomes “problemen” (the problems). |
| Becky: Listeners, repeat after Elin! |
| Elin: “ett problem”[pause], “problemen”[pause]. |
| Becky: Finally, how about the noun for “a house”? |
| Elin: “Ett hus” becomes “husen”. Listeners, repeat after me! |
| Elin: “Ett hus”[pause], “husen”[pause]. |
| Becky: As always, listeners, check the lesson notes to reinforce what you’ve learned in this lesson! |
Outro |
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| Becky: Okay that’s it for this lesson. Thanks for listening everyone, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Elin: Hej då! |
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