Learn how to give orders and instructions
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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 2 - Whipping Up a Delicious Dessert in Sweden. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to give orders and instructions using the imperative. |
| Elin: Yes, and the conversation takes place at Emma and David’s apartment. |
| Becky: The conversation is between Emma and her partner David, and they are using informal Swedish because they already know each other. |
| Elin: Okay. Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Emma: David, kan du läsa det här kladdkakereceptet åt mig? |
| David: Visst. Smält smöret. |
| Emma: Okej. Och sen? |
| David: Vispa socker och ägg. |
| Emma: Klar. Och nu? |
| David: Blanda i kakao, salt, vaniljsocker, mjöl och smöret. |
| Emma: Vad det allt? |
| David: Ja. Grädda kakan i ugnen i 20 minuter. |
| Becky: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Emma: David, kan du läsa det här kladdkakereceptet åt mig? |
| David: Visst. Smält smöret. |
| Emma: Okej. Och sen? |
| David: Vispa socker och ägg. |
| Emma: Klar. Och nu? |
| David: Blanda i kakao, salt, vaniljsocker, mjöl och smöret. |
| Emma: Vad det allt? |
| David: Ja. Grädda kakan i ugnen i 20 minuter. |
| Becky: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Emma: David, kan du läsa det här kladdkakereceptet åt mig? |
| Emma: David, can you read this chocolate mud cake recipe for me? |
| David: Visst. Smält smöret. |
| David: Sure. Melt the butter. |
| Emma: Okej. Och sen? |
| Emma: Okay. And then? |
| David: Vispa socker och ägg. |
| David: Whip the sugar and egg. |
| Emma: Klar. Och nu? |
| Emma: Done. And now? |
| David: Blanda i kakao, salt, vaniljsocker, mjöl och smöret. |
| David: Mix in the cacao, salt, vanilla sugar, flour and the butter. |
| Emma: Vad det allt? |
| Emma: Is that it? |
| David: Ja. Grädda kakan i ugnen i 20 minuter. |
| David: Yes. Bake the cake in the oven for 20 minutes. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Wow, now I want some mud cake! What was the Swedish name for it? |
| Elin: In Sweden we call it “kladdkaka” and it literally translates to “gooey cake”. Actually, the fact that the cake is so gooey is what makes it so popular among Swedes. |
| Becky: So do a lot of Swedes eat mud cake? |
| Elin: Yes, and there are a lot of different recipes out there. In fact, there’s an entire cookbook that is dedicated to just “kladdkake” recipes. |
| Becky: I’d love to see that book! |
| Elin: You should try to make one, it’s very easy, and I have left a recipe for “kladdkaka” in the lesson notes for this lesson. |
| Becky: Great! |
| Elin: I definitely recommend eating it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. |
| Becky: I’ll remember that! Now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is... |
| Elin: kladdkakereceptet [natural native speed] |
| Becky: chocolate mud cake recipe |
| Elin: kladdkakereceptet [slowly - broken down by syllable] kladdkakereceptet [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att smälta [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to melt |
| Elin: att smälta [slowly - broken down by syllable] att smälta [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: smör [natural native speed] |
| Becky: butter |
| Elin: smör [slowly - broken down by syllable] smör [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att vispa [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to whip |
| Elin: att vispa [slowly - broken down by syllable] att vispa [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: socker [natural native speed] |
| Becky: sugar |
| Elin: socker [slowly - broken down by syllable] socker [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: ägg [natural native speed] |
| Becky: egg |
| Elin: ägg [slowly - broken down by syllable] ägg [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: mjöl [natural native speed] |
| Becky: flour |
| Elin: mjöl [slowly - broken down by syllable] mjöl [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: vaniljsocker [natural native speed] |
| Becky: vanilla sugar |
| Elin: vaniljsocker [slowly - broken down by syllable] vaniljsocker [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: klar [natural native speed] |
| Becky: done |
| Elin: klar [slowly - broken down by syllable] klar [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last... |
| Elin: att grädda [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to bake |
| Elin: att grädda [slowly - broken down by syllable] att grädda [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: Let's take a closer look at the verb “att smälta”. |
| Becky: That’s the same thing as the English verb “to melt”, right? |
| Elin: Yes it translates to “to melt” when we use it to talk about food or baking, but in some cases it can also be translated as the English verb “to digest”. |
| Becky: Hmm, that’s a little odd - do you have an example? |
| Elin: Yes! If for example, you want to express that it’s hard for you to take in some information, you would say “it’s hard for me to digest”. |
| Becky: And how would you say that in Swedish? |
| Elin: You would say, “det är svårt för mig att smälta”. |
| Becky: I see! What’s next? |
| Elin: The next word we need to talk about is the interjection “klar”. |
| Becky: Which means “done”. |
| Elin: Yes, and it’s used to communicate that you have completed something. |
| Becky: But this word can be used in another totally different context, right? |
| Elin: Yes, “klar” can also be an adjective, and in that case it means “clear” instead. |
| Becky: Okay, so if I wanted to say “the sky was clear” how would I do that? |
| Elin: It would be “himlen var klar”. |
| Becky: Great! Anything else? |
| Elin: We also need to talk a bit about the verb “att grädda” meaning “to bake”. |
| Becky: And that’s a verb you used when you’re talking about baking something like a cake in the oven, right? |
| Elin: Precisely! |
| Becky: But isn’t there another Swedish verb that sounds quite similar to the English “to bake”? |
| Elin: You must be thinking of the verb “att baka”, and I’m glad you asked, because the verb “att baka” might be a bit confusing for non-native speakers, because of the resemblance to “to bake”. |
| Becky: So how is the verb used? |
| Elin: In Swedish the verb “att baka” is used when we talk about the overall activity of baking a cake, bread or buns. |
| Becky: So that’s the verb we use when we want to say things like, “Malin likes to bake”? |
| Elin: Exactly! And that would be “Malin tycker om att baka”. But this verb can’t be used when we are talking about the action of baking something in the oven. Then, we need to use the verb “att grädda”. |
| Becky: So how would you say, “Kalle bakes the cake in the oven”? |
| Elin: That is “Kalle gräddar kakan in ungen”. |
| Becky: Ok, thanks for explaining that! Now let’s move on to the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Elin: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to give orders and instructions using the imperative. |
| Becky: For example, when David said, “melt the butter” in the dialogue. |
| Elin: Yes, and that was “smält smöret”. |
| Becky: And he also said, “Whip the sugar and egg”. What’s that in Swedish? |
| Elin: You would say “vispa socker och ägg” |
| Becky: So in this lesson, we’re learning to form the imperative. |
| Elin: Yes and just like in English, the imperative form in Swedish is the same as the basic form of the verb. |
| Becky: But the imperative form in Swedish isn’t identical to the infinitive form, right? |
| Elin: That’s right, the imperative has its own unique form. |
| Becky: So how do we form the imperative in Swedish? |
| Elin: In most cases, you’ll be able to form the imperative if you know the infinitive form, and the present tense of a verb. |
| Becky: Hmm, I have a feeling that this might get difficult! |
| Elin: Actually it’s not that difficult, but let’s go through it step by step, to make it more clear. |
| Becky: That sounds like a good idea. Where do we begin? |
| Elin: Let’s start with the verbs that end in -ar in their present tense, like the verb “betalar” which means “pays”, and “blandar” which means “mix”. |
| Becky: Okay. And how do we change them into their imperative form? |
| Elin: Actually, the imperative form of these verbs is identical to the infinitive form. So since the infinitive form of the verb “to pay” is “att betala”, the imperative form is “betala”. |
| Becky: And how about the verb “to mix”? |
| Elin: The infinitive form of the verb “to mix” is “att blanda”, which makes the imperative form “blanda”. |
| Becky: That’s great news! But maybe we could try to put the imperative form of this verb into sentences to make it clearer. |
| Elin: That sounds like a good idea. The important thing to remember here, is that when giving instructions using the imperative form, we place the verb at the beginning of the sentence. |
| Becky: Ok, so how would you say, for example, “pay immediately”. |
| Elin: Well, you would start with the verb “to pay” in its imperative form ”betala”, and follow it with the word for “immediately” which is “omedelbart”. So “pay immediately” becomes “betala omedelbart”. Listeners, repeat after me. |
| Elin: “Betala omedelbart”. [pause] |
| Becky: Great! Now let’s keep looking at how to form the imperative. |
| Elin: Good idea! Next up, we have the verbs that don’t end in -ar in their present tense, but instead end in -er or -r, such as “hjälper” which means “helps” and “går” which means “goes”. |
| Becky: And how do we change them into their imperative form? |
| Elin: It’s actually very simple; you just remove the ending -er or -r. So “hjälper” becomes “hjälp” and “går” becomes “gå”. |
| Becky: Okay, and how would I say, “go home”? |
| Elin: You would usually start the sentence with the verb “go” followed by the Swedish word for “home”, which is “hem”. |
| Becky: So “go home”, becomes? |
| Elin: “Gå hem”. Let’s practice that one more time. Listeners, repeat after me! |
| Elin: “Gå hem”. [pause] |
| Becky: Ok, and what’s next? |
| Elin: Next up, we have verbs with a verb stem that end in an -r. The present tense of these verbs is the same as the imperative form. |
| Becky: Do you have any examples of verbs that belong to this group? |
| Elin: Of course! This group includes verbs such as “lär” meaning “teach’ or “gör” meaning “do”. |
| Becky: So how would you say, “don’t do that”? |
| Elin: You would start with the verb “gör” followed by the negation “inte” meaning “not”, and end the sentence with the Swedish word for “that”, whihc is “så”. |
| Becky: And if we put that together? |
| Elin: “Don’t do that” in Swedish is “gör inte så” |
| Becky: Great! Listeners, repeat after Elin! |
| Elin: “Gör inte så”. [pause] |
| Becky: Ok, well that’s all for this lesson. Make sure you check the lesson notes to reinforce what you’ve learned. |
Outro |
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| Becky: Thanks for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Elin: Hej då. |
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