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Some Swedish grammar mistakes just seem to stick around, even after you’ve been learning the language for years. So in this episode, we’re looking at five mistakes I hear Swedish learners make all the time.
We’ll talk about adjective agreement, the V2 rule and word order in indirect questions. We’ll also look at why it’s den här boken but min bok.
These mistakes usually won’t stop people from understanding you, but fixing them can make a big difference if you want to improve your Swedish grammar.
Study materials and exercises:
Learn Swedish Library (slowswedish.com/learn-swedish-library)
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Hej sankompisar! Välkomna till veckans avsnitt av Learn Swedish with Katrin. I listen to a lot of Swedish learners speak Swedish, especially in my Speak Swedish program. And after a while, you start noticing the same mistakes again and again. It doesn't really matter if someone has been learning Swedish for six months or several years.
There are certain grammar mistakes that just seem to stick around. So today I've picked five grammar mistakes that I hear often. None of these are severe enough to make someone not understand you. We get what you're saying. But if you want to work on grammar-specific things, I recommend starting with these.
To follow along in the transcript and do this week's exercises, make sure to sign up for your Learn Swedish membership. It only costs ten dollars per month. Go to slowswedish dot com to learn more. Let's start with mistake number one. Using the wrong form of the adjective. Most Swedish learners learn adjective agreement pretty early.
We learned this in episode three and four about n and et, and then in episodes like nineteen, how are you feeling? You learn that an adjective can change depending on whether the noun is an N word, an et word or plural. En gammal bilthues gamla bilar gamla. From my personal experience, this becomes more of an issue the later in the sentence the adjective shows up.
If the adjective comes before the noun, the mistakes decrease a bit. For example, I hear sentences like dit was dom a gammal hol den stinkt de chens contig Jaer Ferdit. The rule about adjective agreement doesn't disappear just because the adjective isn't standing directly in front of the noun. You still need to think about what the adjective is describing, and a lot of people seem to forget that dit goes along with it and den goes along with an.
So we want to see deta svårt. Dom är gamla holl den stängd. Det känns konstigt. Ja är färdig. And this also means that two almost identical sentences kan use different forms. Jag är färdig. Jobbet är färdigt. Vi är färdiga. Hon är sjuk barnet är sjukt ni är sjuka So when you use an adjective ask yourself what am I describing?
An n word, an et word a person several people or things. The adjective still needs to agree. Mistake number two is word order, and more specifically the V two rule. You probably already know that the verb comes in the second position in a Swedish main clause. Or you should at least recognize it, because we've talked about it before.
But when you're actually speaking, it's very easy to forget. A simple sentence might be Yoikhem F de I went home after that. But if I move F de D to the beginning, I can't just move it there and leave everything else in the same order. You have to say F de Yik ya hem not Fte Yaikhem. The same thing happens with words like Ida Igor doa and kans.
Igor jobade ja hemma. Då sog vi filmen kanske yla hun de. If you start a sentence with something that answers when where what how whom or why the verb comes next. And this becomes especially easy to forget when the first thing in the sentence is not just one word but an entire clause Narjakom hem when pratade vi om jobet.
I very often hear Narja kom hem vi pratade om jobbet. But narjakom hem takes the first position in the main class it answers the question when after that we need the verb pratade and then the subject vi. När jag kom hem wen pratade vi. När mötet var slut vände att vi hade ätit den tittade vi på en film.
Om det regnar when or condition standar ja hemma. Mistake number three is putting a complete question in the middle of a sentence. Let's start with a normal question Wem erhun Who is she? But I often hear learners say Yog undrar vem erhun here vem aerhun is still using the word order of a question but it's not a complete question anymore.
It's part of a bigger sentence. So instead we say ja undrar vem hun er And this happens all the time. Hur säger man det? How do you say that? Ja vet inte hur man säger det. I don't know how you say that? Vad är klockan? What time is it? Vet du vad klockan är. Do you know what time it is. Var bor han?
Jag vet inte var han bor. So my tip is simple. Never put a complete question in the middle of a sentence. Unless the sentence starts with the question word var and so on. We don't want the verb next to it. Wem er hun the sentence starts with the question word followed by the verb Ja Vietinte wem hun a question verb is part of a subordinate clause, so the verb does not come directly after it.
Mistake number four is using den or dom with the wrong form of the noun. If you point to a specific thing in Swedish using den, de or dom, the noun is normally definite too. So we don't say den bil we say den bilen dit huset doma sakerna. And the same thing happens with den her, deher and domher den här boken de här paraplyet dom här skona.
I often hear learners get the first part right and then leave the noun in the indefinite form. Den här bok de här parapli de här små saker. But Swedish wants the definite noun here Boken Parapliet sakerna. So if you use den det dom either with her or without always use the definite noun. If this feels tricky, don't worry.
We are doing a deep dive into demonstrative pronouns in a few weeks. And now we get to mistake number five, which is especially annoying because now you basically have to do the opposite. After possessive words like min mit mina and din dit dina we do not use the definite form of the noun. So I often hear things like min boken, mit huset dit barnet mit jobbet minaskona.
But here we need the indefinite form of the noun Min bok mit hus dit barn mit job minascor And I completely understand why learners mix these last two rules up because compare den här boken min bok de här huset mit hus dom här skona mina scor. With den her de her and dom her the noun is definite, but with min mit mina din dit din and other possessives the noun is indefinite.
When talking about this or that we want to be super extra definite. So we say this the house that the dog, but when we talk about our things, the possessive pronoun is definite enough. So those are five grammar mistakes that I hear all the time when Swedish learners speak. Forgetting adjective agreement, forgetting the V2 rule, putting complete questions in the middle of a sentence, forgetting the definite noun after demonstrative pronouns, and using definite nouns after possessive pronouns.
And if you make any of these mistakes, don't worry. The reason they're in this episode is because I hear them all the time. All students make these mistakes. You're not alone. Understanding the rule is one thing. Remembering to use it while you're actually speaking Swedish is something completely different.
And now it's time to practice. You'll find this week's exercises together with a transcript at slowswedish.com. To access all of the study materials, join Learn Swedish for only ten dollars per month. Read more and sign up at slowswedish.com. Hey doo!
