Lesson 5

Vocabulary

mer(a) ['me:r(a)]	more
mest [mest]	most
än [än]	than
lika...som [li:ka] [såm]	as...as
för...sedan [fö:r] [sen]	ago
om [åm]	in (time)
i [i:]	for (time)
under ['under]	during
innan [*inan]	before
ett år - [å:r]	year
en väg -ar [vä:g]	way/road

Adjectives - Compare

The comparative forms of a Swedish adjective is formed in almost the same ways as is an English adjective. In English, you can either add -er and -est (high, higher, highest), or you can say more and most (boring, more boring, most boring). In Swedish, you add -are and -ast where possible, and otherwise, you say mer and mest.

• The adjective kort is thus compared like this:

kort- kortare - kortast

• The adjective intressant = interesting is like in English compared with more and most:

intressant - mer intressant - mest intressant

• Adjectives ending with unstressed -en, -er or -el drop their e (like with the definite article).

vacker - vackrare - vackrast
trogen - trognare - trognast (=faithful)

• Some adjectives are irregular and some have umlaut:

liten - mindre - minst
dålig - sämre - sämst
bra - bättre - bäst
stor - större - störst
lång - längre - längst
hög - högre - högst
mycket - mer(a) - mest

• If you want to say the best car, you have to inflect the adjective, and here it's the weak pattern that is to be used. Regular adjectives attach -e, irregular ones attach -a. Adjectives in the second form never inflect.

den korta bilen
den kortare bilen
den kortaste bilen

den vackra bilen
den vackrare bilen
den vackraste bilen

den dåliga bilen
den sämre bilen
den sämsta bilen

• The adjective liten has the first form lilla when it is inflected weakly.

ett litet barn
det lilla barnet

• The expression as...as is lika...som in Swedish

Mitt hus är lika stort som ditt. - My house is as big as yours.

Verbs - The Imperfect and the Perfect tense

Swedish is very similair to English in constructing the past tenses. And the tenses are also employed pretty much the same way in both languages. The perfect tense consists of the present tense of the verb ha (to have) + the supine form of the main verb. As in English, you get the past perfect by using the imperfect form of ha instead of the present tense. The imperfect is formed by attaching a suffix to the stem.

Group 1+2:

• The imperfect tense is formed by adding -de to the stem, unless the stem ends with a voiceless consonant (f, k, p, s, t etc.) then you attach -te.

• The supine is formed by attaching -t to the stem.

Ireggular verbs:

• As this group consists of irregular verbs, you can't give any rule what forms there are. But in the imperfect, most verbs get no suffix. They just change the stem-vowel. In the supine, most verbs change the stem-vowel again, and attach -it or -at.

Example:

Verb:	Stem:	Imperfect:	Supine:	Perfect:	Past perfect:
tala (1)	tala-	talade	talat	har talat	hade talat
ringa (2)	ring-	ringde	ringt	har ringt	hade ringt
köpa (2)	köp-	köpte	köpt	har köpt	hade köpt
vara (i)	var-	var	varit	har varit	hade varit
springa (i) (=to run)	spring-	sprang	sprungit	har sprungit	hade sprungit
komma (i)	komm-	kom	kommit	har kommit	hade kommit
ha (i)	ha-	hade	haft	har haft	hade haft
göra (i)	gör-	gjorde	gjort	har gjort	hade gjort
bli (i)	bli-	blev	blivit	har blivit	hade blivit
äta (i)	ät-	åt	ätit	har ätit	hade ätit
se (i)	se-	såg	sett	har sett	hade sett

You can take a look at my List of irregular Swedish verbs.

Exercise - Translate the following sentences into Swedish

1 - I was in Sweden ten years ago.
2 - For how many years have you been here?
3 - What did you do before you came here?
4 - I had bought the ten biggest cars before they saw me.
5 - He ran the shortest way to the better of the two resaurants.

Click here for answers

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