|
 |
Swedish verb conjugations - I’m dumb :( | ||
Tags: Swedish | Verbs/Conjugation | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| ALS Senior Member United States Joined 5901 days ago 104 posts - 131 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian, Finnish, Russian | Message 1 of 10 06 January 2009 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I'm trying to work on verb conjugations and I just can't figure it out. The weird ones like "supine" and "past participle" are confusing the heck out of me as to what on Earth they're for. Can someone explain them to me in moron terms please so I can understand it?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SlickAs Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5974 days ago 185 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Swedish Studies: Thai, Vietnamese | Message 2 of 10 06 January 2009 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | ||
|
The verb usage in Swedish are almost identical to English, only simpler since there are no continuous tenses (when you put -ing on the end of a verb in English. "She was working hard" for example ... doesn't exist in Swedish).
So in terms of "grammar words": in English ... the basic form of the verb is the infinitive (eg. to be), the present tense is easily understood (I am), the past tense similarly (I was), the perfect tenses use the auxilery verb to have (I have been ... perfect or present perfect, I had been ... past perfect or pluperfect). Now the word you used in the perfect tenses ("been" for the verb to be) can be called the supine. Swedish looks similar to English. So if you see a rule for Perfect that goes: "har + supine" and pluperfect that goes "hade + supine" that is the same as in English (Jag har varit sjuk: I have been sick, or Jag hade varit shuk: I had been sick ... in this case the supine is varit in Swedish and been in English). Participles: these are where you modify verbs to describe the state of a noun. So a past participle is not the same as a supine (but the reason for your confusion is that they are usually conjugated the same in English). So for example "A closed door", we have taken the verb "to close", added a d to the end (rule for past participle in English : infinitive + d) and placed it before the noun: a closed door. In Swedish: en stägd dörr. Past participles are a little more complex in Swedish than English, and are made by adding a d, t or dd to the end of infinitives as can be explained better by your text book than by me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ALS Senior Member United States Joined 5901 days ago 104 posts - 131 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian, Finnish, Russian | Message 4 of 10 06 January 2009 at 6:40pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Great explanation, thank you. Two questions though, what's the difference between present and perfect participle? Also, what form do you use in place of the English continuous form?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SlickAs Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5974 days ago 185 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Swedish Studies: Thai, Vietnamese | Message 5 of 10 06 January 2009 at 7:05pm | IP Logged | ||
|
For the continuous they just use the present tense ... if they really need to indicate that it is happening right now, they will just add a "nu", now to the end of the sentence. Hon duschar nu (She is showering now ... note that to say in English as a translation "She showers now" sounds a bit clumsy, not in Swedish, that is the only way of saying it).
Simple explanation of the present and past participle is just to point out their congugations in English. Remember it describes a noun, is not a verb. Here is an example: Present participle "My spending money". Past Participle "My spent money.". Or "A working dog" is a dog that works ... you would think of a farm-dog or something. It does not nessesarily mean that the dog is working right now at this instant, but rather it describes the dog. Same as "the closed door" using a past participle explains the state of the door. But it also could mean that the dog is in the middle of working, thus the "present participle". And for some things that is exactly what it means "The laughing woman" is the woman who is laughing: en skrattande kvinna ... en kvinna som skrattar. Since we have it in English in an identical form as Swedish, I dont need to explain when to use one and when to use the other, I am sure a text book will do it, but you already have all the intuition you need from your native language. The rule for forming the present participle in Swedish is infinative + ande (or infinative + ende after a stressed vowel) eg arbeta --> arbetande, but gå --> gående Edit: oh, and although the present participle is conjugated the same as the continuous in English, do not confuse them. Same as the past participle is conjugated the same as the supine in English, but they are actually 2 different things. Edited by SlickAs on 06 January 2009 at 7:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ALS Senior Member United States Joined 5901 days ago 104 posts - 131 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian, Finnish, Russian | Message 6 of 10 06 January 2009 at 7:16pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Wonderful, thank you! Now I can practice verb inflections without wanting to pull my hair out.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 7006 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 10 06 January 2009 at 7:38pm | IP Logged | ||
|
More info about participles here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participle As for the coninuous/progressive form, we simply use the present (or past) tense: Jag går - I go/I'm going Jag gick - I went/I was going 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SlickAs Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5974 days ago 185 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Swedish Studies: Thai, Vietnamese | Message 8 of 10 06 January 2009 at 8:12pm | IP Logged | ||
Ha! Reading that, I realise that I have simplified participles a bit. But not too much. It got me thinking about Swedish participles though. They get modified just like adjectives. So here are some complications: You can use it in a sentence like this: Dörren är stängd (the door is closed) or en stängd dörr (a closed door) ... both using the past participle. For definate it requires a modification: den stängda dörren (the closed door). However if the noun were neuter (like fönstret ... window) we would need to say stängt. And for plural we would need stängda also (Dörrarna är stängda [The doors are closed] or de stängda Dörrarna [the closed doors]). Not too hard, but a bit more involved than English. Edited by SlickAs on 06 January 2009 at 9:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2025 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
