Learn how to change indefinite nouns from singular to plural for the first and second declension
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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 4 - Getting to Know Your Swedish Coworkers. In this lesson you’ll learn how to change indefinite nouns in singular form to plural, in their first and second declensions. |
| Elin: This sounds complicated, but don’t worry because we’ll take you through it step by step. |
| Becky: The conversation takes place in the break room at Emma’s office. |
| Elin: It’s between Emma and her employee Simon, and they are using informal Swedish, since they work together. |
| Becky: Great! Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Simon: Du ser trött ut. Mår du bra? |
| Emma: Nej, jag har ont i axlarna och en fruktansvärd huvudvärk. |
| Simon: Är det något jag kan göra? |
| Emma: Massera mina axlar, är du snäll. |
| Simon: Visst! Känns det bättre nu? |
| Emma: Ja, det känns bättre i axlarna, men jag har fortfarande ont i huvudet. Hämtar du en huvudvärkstablett, är du snäll? |
| Simon: Självklart. Här har du. |
| Emma: Tack! |
| Becky: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Simon: Du ser trött ut. Mår du bra? |
| Emma: Nej, jag har ont i axlarna och en fruktansvärd huvudvärk. |
| Simon: Är det något jag kan göra? |
| Emma: Massera mina axlar, är du snäll. |
| Simon: Visst! Känns det bättre nu? |
| Emma: Ja, det känns bättre i axlarna, men jag har fortfarande ont i huvudet. Hämtar du en huvudvärkstablett, är du snäll? |
| Simon: Självklart. Här har du. |
| Emma: Tack! |
| Becky: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Simon: Du ser trött ut. Mår du bra? |
| Simon: You look tired. Are you okay? |
| Emma: Nej, jag har ont i axlarna och en fruktansvärd huvudvärk. |
| Emma: No, I have sore shoulders and I have a terrible headache. |
| Simon: Är det något jag kan göra? |
| Simon: Poor you! Is there anything I can do? |
| Emma: Massera mina axlar, är du snäll. |
| Emma: Rub my shoulders, please. |
| Simon: Visst! Känns det bättre nu? |
| Simon: Sure! Does it feel better now? |
| Emma: Ja, det känns bättre i axlarna, men jag har fortfarande ont i huvudet. Hämtar du en huvudvärkstablett, är du snäll? |
| Emma: Yes, my shoulders feel better, but I still have a headache. Will you get me a painkiller, please? |
| Simon: Självklart. Här har du. |
| Simon: Of course. Here you go. |
| Emma: Tack! |
| Emma: Thanks! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: It sounded like Emma and Simon had a nice conversation about their children in this lesson’s dialog. |
| Elin: Yeah, they’re just getting to know each other a little more. |
| Becky: So Elin, I noticed that Emma and Simon were using informal Swedish. Is that typical around the workplace? |
| Elin: Well, I’m glad you asked! Yes, Swedes are generally quite informal, so it’s not unusual for people who work together to use informal Swedish. |
| Becky: Ah, I see! And is it also common for people who work together to socialize during the breaks? |
| Elin: Yes, and it’s quite common for people who work together to gather in the break room at their workplace during their lunch or coffee break, to relax and have a bit of a chat about current affairs. |
| Becky: That sounds nice, but are there any topics that are more suitable than others? |
| Elin: Well, I guess my advice would be to stay away from topics that might be too controversial, like politics or religion. |
| Becky: So what kind of topics would be safe? |
| Elin: I guess in general, it would be good to choose a subject that a lot of people can relate to, and which are less likely to cause controversy, like hobbies, food, books and films. |
| Becky: Great! Listeners, keep that in mind. 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: några [natural native speed] |
| Becky: any |
| Elin: några [slowly - broken down by syllable] några [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: barn [natural native speed] |
| Becky: children |
| Elin: barn [slowly - broken down by syllable] barn [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: flicka [natural native speed] |
| Becky: girl |
| Elin: flicka [slowly - broken down by syllable] flicka [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: pojke [natural native speed] |
| Becky: boy |
| Elin: pojke [slowly - broken down by syllable] pojke [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: inga [natural native speed] |
| Becky: no |
| Elin: inga [slowly - broken down by syllable] inga [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: gammal [natural native speed] |
| Becky: old |
| Elin: gammal [slowly - broken down by syllable] gammal [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: också [natural native speed] |
| Becky: also |
| Elin: också [slowly - broken down by syllable] också [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att fylla [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to turn |
| Elin: att fylla [slowly - broken down by syllable] att fylla [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: jo [natural native speed] |
| Becky: well |
| Elin: jo [slowly - broken down by syllable] jo [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last... |
| Elin: precis [natural native speed] |
| Becky: just |
| Elin: precis [slowly - broken down by syllable] precis [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Elin: In this lesson there are two words that we’ll talk more about, and we’ll start with the verb “att fylla”, which means “to turn”. |
| Becky: Yes, I was wondering about that word. I have heard it before, but I’m pretty sure that it didn’t mean, “to turn”. |
| Elin: I understand that you are confused, because “att fylla” can also mean “to fill”. |
| Becky: Ah, that was it. |
| Elin: But in Swedish, you can also use this verb when you want to talk about someone’s age, like Emma does in this lesson’s dialog. |
| Becky: Yes, Emma said, “she just turned five”. |
| Elin: And that was “hon fyllde precis fem”. |
| Becky: Okay, and how would you say, “I turn 30 on Saturday”? |
| Elin: That’s, “jag fyller trettio på söndag”. |
| Becky: Okay. Anything else about this verb? |
| Elin: Yes. In Swedish, you can also use the verb “att fylla” to ask when someone’s birthday is. |
| Becky: Okay, so how would I ask, “when is your birthday?” |
| Elin: That’s “när fyller du år” |
| Becky: And what if the answer was, “My birthday is the 3rd of April”? |
| Elin: You can still use the verb “att fylla” and say, “jag fyller år den 3 april”. |
| Becky: Ok, now let’s move on to the next word. |
| Elin: It’s the adverb “jo”. |
| Becky: And that means “well”. |
| Elin: Yes, it does correspond to the English “well”, but it can also mean, “yes”. |
| Becky: Okay, that’s a bit confusing. How can you tell them apart? When does it mean, “yes” and when does it mean “well”? |
| Elin: Well, when “jo” is part of an answer to a question that contains negation such as “aldrig” which means “never”, or “inte” meaning “not”, it corresponds to “yes”. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example? |
| Elin: Sure! Say that I asked you the question “weren’t you supposed to clean your room”, which in Swedish is, “skulle inte du städa ditt rum”. |
| Becky: Okay. |
| Elin: And I would answer “jo, men jag har inte haft tid”,- here, “jo” then corresponds to “yes” and the whole answer translates to “yes, but I haven’t had time”. |
| Becky: I think I’ve got it! Listeners, make sure to check the lesson notes if you’re still confused about this. For now, let’s move on to the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Elin: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to switch indefinite singular nouns into plural! |
| Becky: I was wondering when we’d get to this! |
| Elin: Yes, in previous series, we haven’t paid much attention to Swedish nouns. |
| Becky: So where should we start? |
| Elin: In Swedish, nouns are divided into 5 declensions which each contain different rules for how the noun changes from its indefinite singular to its indefinite plural. |
| Becky: So how many declensions will we cover in this lesson - all of them? |
| Elin: No, I think that would be a bit overwhelming. We’ll start with the first and second declension. |
| Becky: Perfect! Where do we start? |
| Elin: We’ll start with the nouns belonging to the first declension, which are all common gender nouns. |
| Becky: Do you have an example of a common gender noun that belongs to this declension? |
| Elin: Yes, the common gender noun “flicka” meaning “a girl”, that appeared in this lesson’s dialog. |
| Becky: And how do you change that from its indefinite singular to its indefinite plural form? |
| Elin: For a common gender noun like “flicka” ”a girl” that ends in an –a, an “a” in its indefinite singular form, you simply drop the final –a and add –or – or “o”, “r” to the ending. So “flicka” becomes “flickor” meaning “girls”. |
| Becky: Okay - That wasn’t too hard. But let’s get our listeners to practice that. Listeners, repeat after Elin! |
| Elin: “flicka”[pause], “flickor”. [pause] |
| Becky: Do you have another example? |
| Elin: Yes, the common gender noun “blomma” meaning “a flower” also belongs to this group. |
| Becky: So if we want to change that to its indefinite plural form, we just drop the –a and add –or? |
| Elin: Exactly! So “blomma” becomes “blommor” meaning “flowers”. Listeners, repeat after me! |
| Elin: “Blomma”[pause], “blommor”[pause]. |
| Becky: Anything more we need to know about the nouns belonging to the first declension? |
| Elin: Yes! There are also some other common gender noun that belong to the first declension that don’t end in –a in their indefinite singular form. |
| Becky: Okay! Do you have any examples? |
| Elin: Yes, here you have nouns like “ros” meaning “a rose” and “våg” meaning “a wave”. |
| Becky: And how do we change these into their indefinite plural form? |
| Elin: For those nouns, you simply add –or. |
| Becky: I see. So how would “a rose” change to “roses” in Swedish? |
| Elin: So “ros” becomes “rosor”. Listeners, repeat after me! |
| Elin: “ros”[pause], “rosor” [pause]. |
| Becky: And how about “a wave” and “waves”? |
| Elin: “våg” becomes “vågor”. Listeners repeat after me! |
| Elin: “våg”[pause], “vågor”[pause]. |
| Becky: Great! Now, let’s move on to the second declension. |
| Elin: The second declensions are a bit trickier, so we’ll won’t be able to cover everything here, but you can find all the information you need in the lesson notes. |
| Becky: So make sure you check those, listeners. Now let’s gets started. |
| Elin: One thing that is common to the nouns in the second declension is that they end in –ar “a”, “r” in their indefinite plural form. |
| Becky: That’s good to know! |
| Elin: Yes, and for those nouns that belong to the second declension and end in an unstressed –e (“e”) in their indefinite singular form, drop that –e and take the ending –ar to make the indefinite plural form. |
| Becky: Does the noun “boy” belong to this group? |
| Elin: Yes, the Swedish term for “a boy”, “pojke”, is an example of a second declension noun that ends in an unstressed –e in its indefinite singular form. So “pojke” becomes “pojkar”. |
| Becky: Let’s get our listeners to practice that one! |
| Elin: “Pojke, “pojkar”. |
| Becky: Any other examples? |
| Elin: Yes, you also have the Swedish word for “an hour” which is “en timme”. |
| Becky: So to change it, we just need to remove the final –e and add the ending –ar? |
| Elin: You are absolutely right, so “timme” becomes “timmar”. Listeners, repeat after me! |
| Elin: “Timme”[pause], “timmar”[pause]. |
| Becky: Anything else? |
| Elin: I think that will do it for now, but remember, if you want to learn more about the second declension nouns and how to change them from their indefinite singular to their indefinite plural, you just have to take a look at the lesson notes! |
Outro |
|---|
| Becky: Okay that’s it for this lesson. Thanks for listening everyone, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Elin: Hej då! |
Comments
HideHi listeners! Hur gammal är du? How old are you?
Hej. Lektionsutskriften visar dialogen från lektion 3. Kan du fixar det, är du snäll?
Hej Evelien,
Vad tråkigt! Du måste sakna att träffa alla dina vänner. Det är många som går igenom samma situation nu. Snart är det förhoppningsvis över! ❤️️
(What a pity! You must miss meeting all your friends. There are many people going through the same thing now. Soon it will hopefully be over! ❤️️)
Vicky
Team SwedishPod101.com
Hej Liza,
You are absolutely right! Sunday is "söndag", and Saturday is "lördag". It should say: “jag fyller trettio på lördag”. Thank you so much for noticing and alerting us. I will send it to our team right away. 😄
Vicky
Team SwedishPod101.com
Jag är sexton år och jag fyller år i april, jag har ofta en lite fest med vänner från mina föräldrar när jag fyller, men på grund av covid jag har inte ha det senaste två år :c
Confused: How come the translation for Saturday is Söntag?? Which is Sunday?!
Becky: Okay, and how would you say, “I turn 30 on Saturday”?
Elin: That’s, “jag fyller trettio på söndag”.
Hej Lizzie,
Vem älskar inte tårta? 😁
(Who doesn't love cake?)
Vicky
Team SwedishPod101.com
Hej
Jag fyllar år i Februari. Jag brukar festa med några vänner och äta tårta.
Tack!
Hej Ramona,
Inga problem! (No problem!) 👍
Vicky
Team SwedishPod101.com
Tack så mycket!
Ramona
Hej Ramona,
Very good question. I can see how this is confusing! 😅
Actually these phrases are two ways of saying the same thing:
"precis gjort klart" - just finished doing
"precis blivit klar (med)" - just finished (with)
So, really the translation could have been the same in English, it wouldn't really change the meaning of the sentence. It is worth noting the singular and plural of homework in Swedish though. 😇
Vicky
Team SwedishPod101.com
Jag har precis gjort klart min läxa.
"I have just finished my homework."
Jag blev precis klar med mina läxor.
"I just finished my homework."
These two sentences in Swedish are confusing to me. Does the the English word 'have', past tense, change the sentence structure so much? Why is 'med' in one sentence and not the other?
Thanks for your help.
Hej Margareta,
Precis, det stämmer! "Jag fyllde år den här månaden" (My birthday was this month.) eller "Jag fyllde år den 5e augusti" (My birthday was the 5th of August). Jättebra! 👍
VickyT
Team SwedishPod101.com
Hej!
"Jag rättar lite.
"Jag har fyllt år i augusti. Jag är en lejon."
Jag fyller år i augusti. Jag är lejon"."
Hon kanske menar att hon redan har fyltt år den här månaden, i augusti. Om idag är den 17 augusti och man fyller till exempel år den 5 augusti, går det att säga "jag har fyllt år den här månaden"? Om man specificera dagen, använder man preteritum i stället? Säger man "jag fyllde år den 5 augusti"? Svarar du på svenska, är du snäll? 😄
Hej Chris,
Grattis i efterskott! (Late congratulations!)
Jag hoppas du firade rejält med tårta och middag. (I hope you celebrated properly with cake and dinner!) :innocent:
Ha en toppen dag! (Have a great day!)
VickyT
Team Swedishpod101.com
Hej alla!
Jag är sextiofyra år gammal.
Jäg fyllde år förra månaden.
Hälsningar
Chris
Hej Yolande!
Ja, tiden går fort när man har roligt :smile:
Min mamma fyllde också år i augusti och var lejon! Jag tror att lejon är väldigt bra människor :thumbsup: :innocent:
Tack för ditt förslag! Jag ska förmedla ditt förslag till mina medarbetare!
Jag rättar lite.
"Det är fruktansvärd hur snabb tiden flyr."
Det är fruktansvärt hur snabbt tiden flyr"
"Jag har fyllt år i augusti. Jag är en lejon."
Jag fyller år i augusti. Jag är lejon"
Vi ses!
Engla
Team SwedishPod101.com
Hej Engla,
Jag har fyllt sjuttio. Det är fruktansvärd hur snabb tiden flyr.
Jag har fyllt år i augusti. Jag är en lejon.
Jag skulle vilja ha mer lektioner med idiomatiskt uttryck. Det är svårt att hitta dem I ordboken.
Tack för hjälpen.
Yolande
Hej Carol!
"Eller hur" means "right?" or "doesn't he?"/"Doesn't she?"/"Isn't it?" etc.
Word by word, "eller hur" means "or how", just as you said! But we don't use it in that meaning! :smile:
So just use it in the end of a sentence to get agreement!
Lycka till!
Engla
Team SwedishPod101.com
Hej Seohui!
Fler and Mer are basically the same word!
However, you use "fler" mostly for things you can count. For example:
"I want more cars" = "jag vill ha fler bilar"
"I don't need any more books" = "jag behöver inga fler böcker",
while you use "mer" for a greater sum, for example money or food! When you say you want more money, you don't mean "I want more coins" or "I want more bills", you talk about the value, right?
For example!
"I want more food" = "Jag vill ha mer mat"
"I need a little more money" = "Jag behöver lite mer pengar".
I hope you understand :)
Lycka till!
Engla
Team SwedishPod101.com
I don't understand the use of "eller hur" after du har en flicka. I would have thought that "eller hur" would translate to "or how", but that doesn't seem to make sense.