this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2024
94 points (96.1% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27281 readers
1520 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

It's a rare example of English being simpler than other languages, so I'm curious if it's hard for a new speaker to keep the nouns straight without the extra clues.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Swedish has genders, but not male/female but utrum/neutrum.

These are not really rule bound, and has to be learned word by word.

Some words are even double gendered but means different things depending on what gender is used.

Example

"En borr" / "borren" = a drill / the drill

"Ett borr" / "borret" = a drill bit / the drill bit.

But to answer your question, English is in many ways simpler than Swedish, you can specify any article by just putting "the" in front of it. In Swedish you need to select the proper -en/-et suffix with no real hard snd fast rule.

Where english is annoying is compound words.

"Realisationsvinstbeskattning" is the longest word in the Swedish dictionary, it is made up of three separate words,

Realisation - Sale

Vinst - Revenue

Beskattning - taxation

So the word simply means taxation on sale revenue.

According to Guinness book of world records the longest Swedish from 2006 the longest Swedish word is:

nordvästersjökustartilleriflygspaningssimulatoranläggningsmaterielunderhållsuppföljningssystemdiskussionsinläggsförberedelsearbeten

But that is just ridiculous and looks like it comes from a report for the military where someone made the word because they could and enjoyed languages.

Lets break it down into individual words

nord-väster-sjö-kust-artilleri-flyg-spanings-simulator-anläggnings-materiel-underhålls-uppföljnings-system-diskussions-inläggs-förberedelse-arbeten

I am on mobile and the word would take too long to translate here, but it means

"Preparatory groundwork for the discussion on maintenance systems for materials used in the coastal artillery's flight reconnaissance simulator covering the north western costal sector."

The issue with English for a Swedish speaker is the lack of compound words, making Swedes used to separating compound words when writing. Which can have fun results:

Herrskjorta = mens button down shirts

Herr skjorta = Mr. Skjorta

Kassapersonal = Cashier

Kassa personal = terrible staff members

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

I am learning a lot here. I am also Swedish lol. I was however great with the English classes, easily top 3 (okay honestly though I am being humble, I was really dominating those classes up until high school, so hard I dont even remember anyone even being in second or third place)

It sounds obnoxius but its true, if you also had a negative reaction to my story like myself, please find relief in that it was my peak and that I am single since years with heavy substance abuse going on the daily - also let me delete this in a bit okay bye lol