Updates!

Hello again. It's almost been a year since my last post, which is really embarrassing.

First of all, I'd like to thank every visitor who finds their way to this blog. I get about 100 unique visitors every day, mostly directly from a Google search.

Second of all, I promise to keep this blog updated on a more regular basis. At the moment I'm re-recording all the MP3 files with a better microphone. After that's done, I'll post a new lesson.

Take care! And remember, tell your friends about this place :)

English names that are words in Swedish

Fester - Parties
Rita - To draw (most verbs in Swedish ends with -a)
Ben - Leg AND Legs (this word stays the same in plural)
Tina - To unfreeze, thaw

(in progress, as always...)

English words that mean something else in Swedish

Barn - Children
Eleven - The student
Faster - Father's sister
From - Gentle, Pious, Churchy
Gift - (Married or Poisonous)
God - (Tasty)
Kiss - Wee
Mage - (Stomach AND Tummy)
Man - ('One' in the sense of [one would think so...]) We still share the same word for the gender.
Master - Masts (plural)
Sedan - (Ago, Since, Then)
Ska - Shall, Will
Skull - (Sake, Benefit)
Spark - Kick
Talk - Talcum (powder)
Tar - (Taking)


(this list will always be in progress...)

More verbs

Admire - Beundra
Annoy - Irritera
Construct - Konstruera
Copy - Kopiera
Criticise - Kritisera
Discuss - Diskutera
Disturb - Störa
Release - Frigöra, Släppa
Reflect - Reflektera

Konstruera

photo by Lawrence Whittemore

Verbs

Most Swedish verbs always end with -a (in its first form/base form, e.g "to throw", "att kasta").

Buy - Köpa
Clean - Städa
Dance - Dansa
Draw - Rita
Drink - Dricka
Eat - Äta
Erase - Radera
Kill - Döda
Laugh - Skratta
Lie - Ljuga
Live - Leva
Paint - Måla
Place - Placera
Read - Läsa
Sing - Sjunga
Speak - Prata
Talk - Tala
Think (about something) - Tänka
Think (opinion-based) - Tycka
Throw - Kasta
Watch - Titta
Water - Vattna
Write - Skriva

Sjunga


Kasta


Some verbs don't end with an "a", and the ones I can think of right now are:

Hit - Slå
Flee - Fly
Pray - Be
See - Se
Sew - Sy
Stand - Stå

Some adjectives in Swedish

Sorry for the delay (again). I never seem to post stuff here at a regular basis.
Here are a couple of adjectives:

Big - stor
Small - liten
Fast - snabb
Slow - långsam
Fat - fet, tjock
Thin - smal
Hairy - hårig

Snabb


Liten


Young, younger, the youngest - Ung, yngre, yngst
Old, older, the oldest - Gammal, äldre, äldst
Good, better, the best - Bra, bättre, bäst
Bad, worser, the worst - Dålig, sämre, sämst

100 Höjdare (video clips)

"100 Höjdare" is a Swedish television show made by the journalists Filip Hammar & Fredrik Wikingsson. It means "100 highlights", sort of. The show is based on funny moments, people or events, and has just gone onto its 6th season now.
Here are some clips that I found on Youtube:










For this season, they travel across USA to meet extraordinary people. If you want to see more of these guys, you could do a search for "100.Hojdare.S06" on your favorite torrent site.

6 verbs in present, imperfect and past tense

ta, tog, tagit - take, took, taken
lära ut, lärde ut, lärt ut - teach, taught, taught
riva, rev, rivit - tear, tore, torn
berätta; säga till, berättade; sade till, berättat; sagt till - tell, told, told
tänka; tycka; tro, tänkte; tyckte; trodde, tänkt; tyckt; trott - think, thought, thought
kasta, kastade, kastat - throw, threw, thrown

Possessive pronouns in Swedish 1 - Sin, sitt, sina

Possessive pronouns (Possessiva pronomen)

1. my - min, mitt, mina
2. your - din, ditt, dina
3. his - hans; sin, sitt, sina
4. her - hennes; sin, sitt, sina
5. its - dess; sin, sitt, sina
6. our - vår, vårt, våra
7. your - er, ert, era
8. their - deras; sin, sitt, sina

The words "sin", "sitt" and "sina" are reflexive possessive pronouns in Swedish. According to Wikipedia, "A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that is preceded by the noun or pronoun to which it refers (its antecedent) within the same clause".
Sin is used when defining singular objects, like this:
Han flyttade sin stol - He moved his chair
or
Hon flyttade sin stol - She moved her chair

As you can see, it doesn't differ between genders. But here's the tricky part. Remember en, ett, den and det? The reflexive possessive pronoun changes because of the noun being used in the sentence (in this case, stol becomes stolen when defined, since it's "en stol - a chair" and "stolen - the chair").

Sitt is also used with singular objects, like this:
Hon skadade sitt knä - She hurt her knee

As with sin, sitt doesn't differ between genders either. And the only reason for using sitt in this example is because knä becomes knäet when defined (as the Swedish language doesn't have a word for "the", I hope you know that by now :)

Sina is used with two objects or more, plural. It doesn't change form at all.
Han skrev ett brev till sina föräldrar - He wrote a letter to his parents
Mamman kramade sina barn - The mother hugged her children
Katten slickade sina tassar - The cat was licking its paws

At placement in Umeå

At the moment I'm having placement at Hagaskolan in Umeå, Sweden. I'll be there for a total of 6 weeks, planning lessons and teaching English to 13-year-olds.
Yesterday I prepared 20 English words for my 7th grade students (they're around 13 years old). These are the words they will be tested on next Thursday:

skeleton - skelett
closet - garderob
hide-and-seek - kurragömma
scary - skrämmande
basement - källare
rotten - rutten
janitor - vaktmästare
cleaning - städning
electricity - elektricitet
a couple of - några
doorknob - dörrhandtag
pull - rycka, dra
hinge - gångjärn
cloud - moln
dust - damm
(to) scream - skrika
slumped - hopsjunken
finally - till slut
identify - identifiera
champion - mästare