Att & Som

Roughly translated, both att and som means that.
But they are different in one way,

Att is used in questions or statements that refers to possible or definite outcomes. "Is this going to happen?", "Will he make it?", "This is what we'll do." and so on.

Tror du att han klarar av det?
Do you think that he will make it?

In parts:

Tror du att - do you think that
han klarar av det - he will make it


Som on the other hand is a word to use when you're talking or asking about a subject, a place or an action, but not any kind of question. For example, questions with a request doesn't apply: "Could you fetch me my towel?". Instead, sentences like "There's that girl who won the game last night", and "Is that the dog who bit you?", "The man who would be king".
I hope you understand what I mean, because it is very difficult for me to explain.

Är det den där skivan som du så gärna ville ha?
Is that the album that you wanted so badly?

In parts:

Är det den där - Is that the
skivan - album
som du - that you
så gärna ville ha - wanted so badly

But the words kommer att together means will or going to, gonna:

Jag kommer att köpa en bil idag
I will buy a car today or
I'm going to buy a car today

I hope all this made sense!
Til next time, see you!

Past, Present, Future + PUT

It's been a while since my last post, sorry about that.

Today I'm going to give you some examples about the past, the present and the future tense in Swedish.

"Du borde nog göra den där uträkningen igen."
(You should do that calculation once again.)

"Igår gjorde jag hemläxan. Den var lätt."
(Yesterday I did my homework. It was easy.)

"Vad har du gjort?"
(What have you done?)

More:

Skriva, skrev, skrivit
(Write, wrote, written)

Hoppa, hoppade, hoppat
(Jump, jumped, jumped)

Köpa, köpte, köpt
(Buy, bought, bought)

Läsa, läste, läst
(Read, read, read)

Gömma, gömde, gömt
(Hide, hid, hidden)

PUT

A fun fact, or trivia even: The Swedish language have more than one word for "put" depending on what you're describing. For example, you want to put a DVD back on its shelf. Then "ställa" is used:

"Jag ska ställa tillbaka DVD:n på hyllan"
(I'll put the DVD back on the shelf)

Let's say you want to put down your weapon on the ground (maybe the police caught you with it, robbing a bank?) They'll probably say:

"Lägg ned vapnet på golvet!"
(Put the gun down on the floor!)

See you soon with another post!

"En", "Ett", "Den" and "Det"

The Swedish language doesn't have an equivalent for the English word "the". Instead, the name of the object of matter will be longer.

Example:
a dog - en hund
the dog - hunden
a glass - ett glas
the glass - glaset

As you can see, objects ends either with -en or -et in definite form (singular).
But, how does one know when to put -en or -et after a word? That's up to you to remember. It's one of the more difficult stages in learning Swedish, unfortunately.

All words ending with -en, like hunden, are using Den, when referred to.
All words ending with -et, like glaset, are using Det, when referred to.

Example:
"I bought a new skirt today. Do you like it?"
"Jag köpte en ny kjol idag. Gillar du den?"

Now we know that the word "kjol" means skirt, and that it should end with -en when referred to; kjolen.

When to use "en" or "ett" (which is the words for "a") is easy to know.
If "den" is being used, "en" is the correct word.
If "det" is being used, "ett" is the correct word.


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