Learn how to use the passive voice
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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 9 - Is Somebody Missing in Sweden? In this lesson you’ll learn how to use passive voice. |
| Elin: The conversation takes place over the phone. |
| Becky: It’s between Emma and her daughter’s kindergarten teacher Maria, and they are using informal Swedish, since they know each other. |
| Elin: Great! Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Emma: Ja det är Emma. |
| Dagisfröken: Hej Emma. Det här är Maria, Elsas dagisfröken. |
| Emma: Hej Maria! Är allt okej? Har någonting hänt? |
| Dagisfröken: Nej inget har hänt. Jag undrar bara vem som ska hämta Elsa idag? |
| Emma: Det är måndag, så hon ska hämtas av David. |
| Dagisfröken: Han har inte kommit än. |
| Emman: Vad konstigt. Hon hämtas alltid av sin pappa på måndagar. |
| Dagisfröken: Ska jag försöka ringa David? |
| Emma: Nej, jag åker från jobbet nu. Jag är där om en kvart. |
| Becky: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Emma: Ja det är Emma. |
| Dagisfröken: Hej Emma. Det här är Maria, Elsas dagisfröken. |
| Emma: Hej Maria! Är allt okej? Har någonting hänt? |
| Dagisfröken: Nej inget har hänt. Jag undrar bara vem som ska hämta Elsa idag? |
| Emma: Det är måndag, så hon ska hämtas av David. |
| Dagisfröken: Han har inte kommit än. |
| Emman: Vad konstigt. Hon hämtas alltid av sin pappa på måndagar. |
| Dagisfröken: Ska jag försöka ringa David? |
| Emma: Nej, jag åker från jobbet nu. Jag är där om en kvart. |
| Becky: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Emma: Ja det är Emma. |
| Emma: Yes, this is Emma speaking. |
| Dagisfröken: Hej Emma. Det här är Maria, Elsas dagisfröken. |
| Kindergarden teacher: Hi Emma. This is Maria, Elsa’s kindergarden teacher. |
| Emma: Hej Maria! Är allt okej? Har någonting hänt? |
| Emma: Hi Maria! Is everything okay? Has anything happened? |
| Dagisfröken: Nej inget har hänt. Jag undrar bara vem som ska hämta Elsa idag? |
| Kindergarden teacher: No, nothing has happened. I’m just wondering, who is picking up Elsa today? |
| Emma: Det är måndag, så hon ska hämtas av David. |
| Emma: It’s Monday, so she will be picked up by David. |
| Dagisfröken: Han har inte kommit än. |
| Kindergarden teacher: He’s not here yet. |
| Emman: Vad konstigt. Hon hämtas alltid av sin pappa på måndagar. |
| Emma: That’s strange. She is always picked up by her dad on Mondays. |
| Dagisfröken: Ska jag försöka ringa David? |
| Kindergarden teacher: Should I try to call him? |
| Emma: Nej, jag åker från jobbet nu. Jag är där om en kvart. |
| Emma: No, I’m leaving work now. I’ll be there in 15 minutes. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: I’m a bit curious about how the kindergarten system works in Sweden - could you tell us a bit about that? |
| Elin: Absolutely! The Swedish word for kindergarten is “daghem”, but Swedes tend to use the abbreviation “dagis” more often. |
| Becky: And what age are the children who attend kindergarten? |
| Elin: There are between 1 and 5, and parents who work or study have the legal right to put their children in kindergarten, after the child has turned 1 year old. |
| Becky: And children between the ages of 4 and 5 are entitled to be there 15 hours a week, without having to pay any fees. For any additional hours spent at kindergarten, the parents of the child usually pay a fee that’s based on their income. Who runs these kindergartens - are there private companies? |
| Elin: Well, there are kindergartens run by private companies, but the majority are run by the local governments, and over 80 percent of all children enrolled in a kindergarten in Sweden, attend these. |
| Becky: Ok, that’s all good information. 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: dagisfröken [natural native speed] |
| Becky: kindergarden teacher |
| Elin: dagisfröken [slowly - broken down by syllable] dagisfröken [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: någoting [natural native speed] |
| Becky: anything |
| Elin: någoting [slowly - broken down by syllable] någoting [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att hända [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to happen |
| Elin: att hända [slowly - broken down by syllable] att hända [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att undra [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to wonder |
| Elin: att undra [slowly - broken down by syllable] att undra [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att hämta [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to pick up |
| Elin: att hämta [slowly - broken down by syllable] att hämta [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: vem [natural native speed] |
| Becky: who |
| Elin: vem [slowly - broken down by syllable] vem [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: konstigt [natural native speed] |
| Becky: strange |
| Elin: konstigt [slowly - broken down by syllable] konstigt [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att försöka [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to try |
| Elin: att försöka [slowly - broken down by syllable] att försöka [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: en kvart [natural native speed] |
| Becky: 15 minutes |
| Elin: en kvart [slowly - broken down by syllable] en kvart [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last... |
| Elin: idag [natural native speed] |
| Becky: today |
| Elin: idag [slowly - broken down by syllable] idag [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 expression that we need to address is the expression “en kvart”. |
| Becky: And that means “15 minutes” right? |
| Elin: Yes, it does mean “15 minutes”, but it literally translates to “a quarter”. |
| Becky: I see. So it’s used as a time reference. |
| Elin: That’s right. So in this lesson’s dialog, when Emma said, “I’ll be there in 15 minutes”, in Swedish she said, “jag är där om en kvart”. |
| Becky: Okay! Can it also be used when you want to say things like,”it’s a quarter to three”? |
| Elin: Absolutely, and that would be, “klockan är kvart i tre”. |
| Becky: That’s good to know! What else do you have in store for us? |
| Elin: Next up, we have the pronoun “någonting”. |
| Becky: And that means “anything”, right? |
| Elin: Yes, but it can also correspond to the pronoun “something”. |
| Becky: So in Swedish you don’t differentiate between them? |
| Elin: Precisely. And it might also be helpful to know that Swedes, when talking, are more likely to say “nån ting” instead of “någonting”. |
| Becky: But in writing, it’s more correct to use the longer version? |
| Elin: Yes that’s right! |
| Becky: Ok, now let’s move on to the grammar! |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Elin: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use passive voice. |
| Becky: There are two examples of this from the dialogue, one when Emma said, "It’s Monday, so she’ll be picked up by David,” which was... |
| Elin: “Det är måndag, så hon ska hämtas av David.” |
| Becky: And the other sentence was when Emma said, “she is always picked up by her dad on Mondays”... |
| Elin: Which was - “hon hämtas alltid av sin pappa på måndagar”. |
| Becky: Okay, first let’s review what passive voice is. |
| Elin: Sure. It’s the opposite of an active voice sentence. |
| Becky: And what is an active voice sentence? Do you have an example? |
| Elin: Yes, an example of an active voice sentence would be, “Lisa åt kakan” meaning “Lisa ate the cake”. |
| Becky: Here, the subject of the sentence, in this case “Lisa”, carries out the activity the verb of the sentence describes, so she eats the cake. Now what about a passive voice sentence? |
| Elin: An example of a passive voice sentence would be,”kakan åts av Lisa” meaning “the cake was eaten by Lisa”. |
| Becky: So in a passive voice sentence, the object of the active voice sentence, in this case, “the cake”, becomes the subject. And the subject of the active voice sentence, in this case “Lisa”, will either not be mentioned, or if it is mentioned, will become the agent. Can you explain what we mean by agent please Elin? |
| Elin: Ok, let’s take the passive voice sentence “kakan åts av Lisa” meaning “the cake was eaten by Lisa”. |
| Becky: Here, “Lisa” has gone from being the subject of the passive voice of the active sentence, to becoming the agent of the passive voice sentence. |
| Elin: And the fact that “Lisa” is the agent of the sentence, is marked by the preposition “av”, which means “by”. That always appears before the agent in passive voice sentences. |
| Becky: Maybe we can try to illustrate the difference between active and passive voice sentences with one more example. |
| Elin: Sure, let’s talk about the active voice sentence “Kalle läste boken”, which means “Kalle was reading the book”. |
| Becky: Okay, so in this active voice sentence, “kalle” is actually the subject and “the book” is the object. |
| Elin: That’s right, but if we make it into a passive voice sentence and say, “boken lästes av Kalle” meaning “the book was read by Kalle”... |
| Becky: ...Then “the book” becomes the subject of the sentence and “Kalle” is the agent of the sentence, marked with the preposition “by”. |
| Elin: That’s right! I think you’ve got it! |
| Becky: Now, let’s talk more about the verbs that appear in passive voice sentences. |
| Elin: Well, in Swedish there is more than one way to form the passive voice, by changing the verbs that appear in the passive voice sentences. |
| Becky: Okay, and what are these? |
| Elin: Firstly, there is the “s-passive voice”, and then you can also create passive voice with verbs in their past participle form. |
| Becky: But in this lesson we’ll only go through how to create passive voice using the “s-passive voice”. So how do we do that? |
| Elin: It’s pretty straightforward. When you use passive voice for verbs in their infinitive, preterit and supine forms, you simply have to add an –s to the end of the verb. |
| Becky: Can you explain a bit more? |
| Elin: Let’s look at the two sentences that we compared before, “Lisa åt kakan” which was “Lisa ate the cake” and “kakan åts av Lisa” which was “the cake was eaten by Lisa”. |
| Becky: What about them? |
| Elin: These are sentences that use the supine form of the verb “att äta”, which is “åt” and means “eaten”. But in the passive voice sentence “kakan åts av Lisa”, an –s is added to the verb. |
| Becky: Now I understand. Let’s get the listeners to practice. |
| Elin: Repeat after me - “kakan åts av Lisa”[pause]. |
| Becky: Do you have another example? |
| Elin: Let’s have a look at one of the verbs that appears in this lesson’s dialog. The verb “att hämta” meaning “to pick up”. |
| Becky: And what are the infinitive, preterit and supine forms of this verb? |
| Elin: They are “att hämta”, “hämtade” and “hämtat”. But if we use them in a passive voice sentence, we need to add an –s to the end of the verb. |
| Becky: And how would that sound? |
| Elin: “att hämtas”, “hämtades” and “hämtats”. Listeners, repeat after me please! |
| Elin: “att hämtas”[pause], “hämtades”[pause],“hämtats”[pause]. |
| Becky: But how about verbs in their present tense? How do they change in a passive voice sentence? |
| Elin: Unfortunately, that’s a bit more complicated. For the first group of verbs that conjugate in the regular way and end in –ar, “a”, “r”, in their present tense, the –r before is dropped before the ending –s is added. |
| Becky: Do you have an example? |
| Elin: Yes! The verb “to pick up” in its present tense “hämtar”, changes to “hämtas”. Listeners, repeat after me! |
| Elin: “hämtar”[pause] “hämtas”[pause]. |
| Becky: And for the second group of verbs that conjugate regularly? |
| Elin: For the second group of verbs that conjugate in the regular way and end in -er, “e”, “r”, in their present tense, the -er is dropped before the ending –s is added. |
| Becky: Can you give us some examples? |
| Elin: Yes, the present tense for the verb “to fry”, is “steker” and this becomes “steks”. |
| Becky: Listeners, repeat after Elin! |
| Elin: “Steker”[pause], “steks”[pause]. |
| Becky: And for the third group of verbs that conjugate regularly? |
| Elin: For the third group of verbs that conjugate in the regular way and end in a -r in their present tense, the -r is dropped before adding the ending -s. |
| Becky: Can you give us some examples? |
| Elin: Yes, the present tense for the verb “to believe”, is “tror” and this becomes “tros”. |
| Becky: Listeners, repeat after Elin! |
| Elin: “Tror”[pause], “tros”[pause]. |
| Becky: Ok. As always, make sure you check the lesson notes to reinforce what you’ve learned in this lesson. |
Outro |
|---|
| 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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