First of all; You did GREAT! Way better than most English-only speakers. Secondly, this was your best video, Connor! I haven't laughed this much all week... I have a son (18 y.o.) who is learning Swedish at the moment, and he is asking the same questions. "Why is it mute here, but not here?", "Why is it s and sh?", "Why is 'kök' pronounced with sh sound, but 'kille' as a kay sound, both are followed with soft vowel?" and so on, every day. And down the line are the "en" and "ett" (both meaning "a") and word chosen depending on the noun, but no known rules (at least to Swedes), just "feel it".
Wow, that took guts! Pro tip, do not ask a swede “hur mår du?” and expect it to be a rhetorical question. You’ll most likely get a long, honest answer 😄
Yeah, the rhetorical would be more like "hur är läget?" or "allt bra?", but that also depending entirely on your relation to the person you're asking. If it's a friend i sincerly want to know, but if its just someone you meet from time to time at events or whatever, everything is just rhetorical ;)
This speaker has a west coast Gothenburg accent also which effects some tones and skipped letters and contractions. It will be slightly different on the east coast, and north and south VERY different.
In the so called "finlandswedish" dialect we usually pronounce every letter and don't often make the letters r and s into a "sch" sound, like for example in varsågod.
Honestly, they should have used someone with a very proper Uppsala accent since it's pronounciations are the most faithful to the phonetical alphabet and therefore makes it much easier to learn how letters are used, especially å, ä and ö.
@@robinbrannstrom you're right about the r and s sounds, but finlandssvenska gets weird about other letters like k, which is often pronounced like "ck", a, which is often pronounced like "ah" , e, which is often pronounced as "eh", and l, which almost becomes "rl". Much better than småländska or stockholmska but isn't Uppländska the easiest to use as a foundation when learning swedish since everyone understands it, it makes å, ä and ö very distinct and it's so formal?
@@maltegodkas4931 yeah, I think they should have used some kind of "standard" swedish which is not influenced by any major dialects. I was just pointing out how the finlandssvenska dialect often sounds, but I don't think that would have been useful at all to a learner of swedish that is probably going to Sweden and not Finland :)
You actually did great, and an astute observation concerning rs! It's true, when s follows r it becomes a "sh"-sound in Swedish, so the name Lars Fors would for instance be pronounced like "Laash Fosh". A tip I read years ago (that improved my English): Languages and dialects are spoken with more or less emphasis on different areas of the mouth. American English is often spoken from very far back in the mouth (which can make it hard to roll r's), whereas Swedish is more front-heavy. Maybe it sounds weird to think of it like that, but for me it works quite well. It already sounds like your kinda doing it naturally, but anyways. Regarding å ä ö, they all represent sounds that are used in English (but expressed by various combinations of letters instead of stand-alone letters): 1) Å is like oo in "floor"; ou in "four"; a in "yawn"; oa in "oar"; o in "ore"; au in "audio" (it can also sound like a short o) 2) Ä is like a in "care"; ai in "chair"; ea in "bear" (it can also sound like a short e) 3) Ö is like u in "turn"; ea in "earn"; i in "girl"; e in "concern"; o in "attorney"; ou in "journal" (when short, it sounds like an "uh")
The "S" behind the "R" forms a "SCH"-sound, but that's only in the middle and the north of Sweden, where they rolled their R's. For example, the word FÖRSÖKER (TRYING) becomes FÖSCHÖKER in those parts of Sweden. In the south we have a more french-sounding R, more harch.
Indeed... I would also say that "dig" is more formal to some degree, it also sounds sort of "old-timey" when spoken. It is much more common to see in written form rather than spoke. "Dej" is more informal. And while not necessarily wrong to use in written form, it is usually recommended to use "dig" instead... unless that has changed since I was in school back in the mid 80's to late 90's. XD Also... in certain dialects, under certain circumstances, "dej" ends up being pronounced as "daj" instead, like down here in Skåne (atleast in the part I live in). XD
When it comes to the silent letter in "Jag" or "God", it's not wrong to say the whole word. It's just when we speak fast we skip the g and the d at the end of these two words. But sometimes we use them when we speak slower, so it's just a preference when to say the whole word. That's also why she skiped the g in "Jag" at one time and then used the g in "Jag" at another time.
You can say "Jag" with the "g" sound, but it disappears sometimes when you speak fast. I also think that the "s" will have a "sh" sound if there is a "r" before.
The g can be dropped. In written language it's important but it's not commonly used when speaking. Swedish spoken language and written language should be seen as 2 "separate" things. One is for direct communication the other is for avoiding misunderstandings in written information. As of late it seems like people actually are beginning to talk more like it's written. Seems a bit strange, but there we are :)
In informal speech, words that end on an /r/ usually get their /r/ omitted. There are also quite a few cases of liason in Swedish. It is a phenomenon that is otherwise much, much more wide spread in French. It means that some words sort of "merge together" when pronounced. In Swedish, this happens a lot when a word that ends in /r/ is followed by a word that begins with /d/. For instance, "Hur är det?" is usually pronounced more like "Hu-rä-re." "Ser du?" is more like "se-ru."
@Connor, great job! Did you know, that Swedish is the most widely spoken second language in Finland and it has status as co-official language? So now you must learn to speak Finnish also :D (mission impossible, I think :)
For sure she is form Gothenburg or around. Further up north we don't pitch up like that at the end of every sentence. Well done with you pronunciation though! 😃 "Jag förstår" "Peter Forsberg"......that was hilarious! 🤣
Dude you are a natural! really if that is your first attempt at speaking Swedish its a very good one. Yeah you got some accent but less so than some native English speakers that i have meet who have lived for years in Sweden. You almost get the vocals right on your first try, not bad at all. If you put some effort in to it I bet you that you can learn passable Swedish pretty damn quickly.
Great job Connor! Keep up the good work! The "s" sounds different when it is together with an "r". Similar to what you did when you said "Peter Forsberg", where the s sounds different... Good and quick in seeing what words are which when learning the words! Well done!
You are doing really good! Your pronunciation especially - I would have no problem understanding what you are saying if you were to come up to me and speak like this (and I'm Norwegian!). You would be surprised to learn the connection to many English words here if you dive into the etymology of the words. I think the origin of words is very interesting. E.g. "Jag talar engelska" - the "talar" her is the English word "tell" (same root). "Jag vet" - the "vet" here is the same as "wise" - a word for knowledge - an even older word for "to see". (hence "Vision"). "To see something - is to know".
Yes etymology is really interesting their are many words in English originating from the Scandinavian languages originating from the Viking invasions of the British isles especially still to be found in place names.
@@davidwebley6186 They also share a common roots in germanic. Old english and old norse were almost co-intelligable in the 1100's, according to historic records it did not take much to understand eachother.
I think you did very well :) To solve the sch-sound for the letter S, it appears if an R is in front of it (förstår, ursäkta, norska....) But you sounded good :)
Heyo that was fun :) Also, some of those "s" and "sh" sounds are depending on where in Sweden you live, if no one already wrote that. The higher up you go, the more "sh" sounds you will get xD And the further down, the harder Rrrrr's you will get :) Welcome to Skåne!
@@brynjulfharfager6671 Säkert :) Menar bara att det oftare förekommer "sh" ljud uppåt än neråt i Landet, R:en är överlag ett Sverige fenomen antar jag :P Förutom stockholmare då som inte säger "spoRt" utan "spot" vilket driver mig till vansinne xD Sen vet jag inte om man kan säga att skånigar "rullar" sina R.... skulle mer säga att vi morrar ut dom xD
2 года назад
Tack så mycket for this video! It put a smile on my face! :D
The sh sound in some of the words is when the letters r and s are next to each other. So as you heard the word ursäkta is pronounced ushäkta and since there's no s next to the r in förlåt, you don't prounounce it like that. Don't ask us why necause we don't know, it's just how it is lol. Most people don't even pronounce the r in förlåt, but just says fölåt. I'd love to see you do more of these because it was fun. Good job 👍🏻 Bra jobbat 😄
Swedish is one of the easiest languages for native English-speakers to learn. Grammar is relatively similar, but easier in that verbs have the same form for all the different persons (I, you, he, she, it...). And many Swedish words have close cognates in English.
The sj-sound is fun. It can be spelled as "sj", "sk", "skj", "stj", "ssj", "stg", "xky", "ch", "che", "g", ge", "gi", "j", "sch", "sh", "sc", "si", "ssi", "ti" and "sti" and have several different pronunciations. Clear, right? :)
My gf is from Thailand, and she has problems with rolling R also, so a way to practice this is to repeat the word "Roller coaster" a few times and then try the word with the rolling R.
Your R:s sound abit like the southern dialect of skånska in the beginning and it can vary alot depending on where in sweden just try put the R either further front in the mouth or further back depending on the dialect you want to emulate compared to the english R which is more in the center, front is the more universal way of saying it. I'd say you did pretty good!
Yeah. I'm from Skåne (southern-most part of Sweden) and I can't roll my r's at all. We almost swallow them instead. So the name Lars Fors in another comment I would pronounce LArS FOrS with hard s's.
Firstly, great job with the pronunciation! 2:29 The translation catches the meaning perfectly, a more literal translation would be "no reason/cause". 3:04 Because we're lazy (we have a few different combinations that we're pronouncing that way, nowadays!) :p Also, dialects (or because Worcestershire Sauce). 3:54 Fun fact: if you work with young children, there's a high chance you're going to be called "fröken", no matter your gender or your amount of beard! Honestly, the use of "herr" is rare, "fru" is used more in the meaning of wife and "fröken" is almost only used for teachers before or during elementary school. 4:38 I wouldn't say that any of them are more formal, but the first one is more casual (and rhetorical) and the two other feel gradually more concerned (even if they can be used casually as well). 8:13 Yep! 8:48 Most of the time you don't even need to say år (year) so just Jag är [ålder] = I'm [age] E.G: Jag är 25 = I'm 25. 9:38 Ah yes. I really know that feeling! I can make that noise *tries* but apparently not combined to the other noises in that word T.T 12:30 To me "excuse me" and "pardon me" are a bit too interchangeable and I'd probably translate either to just "ursäkta (mig)". I'd keep "förlåt" for I'm sorry .
If you can't pronounce R in the front of your mouth, but can do it further back (like a French rolling R), go to the south of Sweden. That's close to how they pronounce it in and close to Skåne. If you go northeast from there and end up in Småland, some natives there pronounce it almost like you would pronounce a W. Like if you say wed instead of red, just a little more in the back of the mouth. But your R:s got much better just during the video. You'll pick it up in no time. When you have the "rs" combo it is usually pronounced "sh". We do that with several double consonants. But if you want to enunciate a word to be super clear, you can pronounce it "rs", so it's not really wrong. It's similar to how we usually make whole sentences sound like one long word and skip some sounds in it. It's done in most situations. But if you really want to tell someone something important, you can pronounce each word separately to convey importance or feelings. Like in English if you just say hi to someone with a "How'ya doin?", but if you are concerned about how someone is you would really say "How are you doing?", perhaps even with extra emphasis on the "are". And something that is hard to get for some; Å, Ä and Ö are not A and O with some extra stuff on top. They are their own characters at the end of the Swedish alphabet (... x, y, z, å, ä, ö). It's like a T isn't an I with an extra line on top and an R isn't a P with an extra line. Danish and Norwegian has their own versions of them. But if you want a stranger alphabet, look up Icelandic. They kept a lot that we got rid of a long time ago. - "Talar du svenska?" - "Si!" LOL!
Good work! You did very well to be the first time you try Swedish words, you will not have a hard time learning the language. And I agree with GoldRush some letters we skip when we speak fast. Ha en bra dag / Stefan from Sweden.
The candece can be very different in Swedish depending on where the speaker is from, but generally Swedes use pitch a LOT and tend to greatly emphasize a single word or syllable and sort of rush through the rest of the sentence. That's why a lot of words get shortened or "slurred" almost, like not pronoucing the g at the end of "jag", but it's also why the pronunciations aren't always consistent. It depends on what they're saying in the moment.
Well, I’ve been to Sweden 20 times, never needed to speak Swedish a single time Haven’t met a single Swede that didn’t speak English They automatically start speaking English to foreigners Pretty much like that in all Scandinavian countries
I live in Sweden, and sometimes had colleagues that wanted to learn swedish. Some of them actually said that the most difficult thing about wanting to learn swedish, is that all swedes immediately starts to talk english with them. That's a bit sad. Now I do my best to ask people I meet if they want me to speak english or swedish.
The "d" in "God Kväll" is mostly silent because people are just too lazy to use it. If you want to pronounce the "d", then go right a head. It's like the Australian greeting "G'day, mate".If you write it, it´s "God Kväll" but when speaking, most people would say "Go' Kväll", I guess. Does that make any sense?
@@Michal_Peterka Surely that depends on the word. Perhaps even sjö would be interesting. Or telling people you work as a sjuksköterska . I used to get my own back by getting Swedes to say they had seen their Fifth Huge Squirrel 😉
Deutch and tysk are the exact same word actually, just separated by around 2000 years of language evolution. Both words comes from the proto-germanic word "þeudō" which meant people.
The 'd' in "God dag/god kväll, usually becomes silent. In more formal settings though, it is, as a rule, pronounced. A bit like the australians 'G'day'.
The r's change depending on following letter rs become sh For rt rd rn, say the english words abort, board, born. To say the last letters (t,d,n) on their own, your tongue are against your teeth. But if you say the whole words, you say the last letters with your tongue curled up backwards into that pit/bump in the roof of the forwards section of your mouth thanks to the preceding r. For swedish it's the same thing, except that the r-sound is removed, so you say the t, d and n as if there was a preceding r, but without the r-sound. For rl it's kind of like the previous example, you curl your tongue back. But from sitting here saying words out loud it feels like the r sometimes has more of a presence than it does with rt,rd,rn. Sometimes the r is gone (but influences the L), and sometimes there is a bit of an r-sound preceding the rl-sound. Seems to vary from word to word
At middle school (10-13 year olds) we were just learning French (2yr of French) and they gave us a test to see how good we were at picking up other languages, so they gave us a Swedish test. Those who did well went on to learn French and now German. But why they didn't just run a German test I don't know.
3:52 - If you want to skip anything, then skip "Herr / Fru / Fröken" [Mr. / Mrs. / Miss]... Unless you plan to watch old black 'n' white movies Formal titles haven't been used since the 1960s. You're on first name basis with everyone (with few potential exception, e.g. courthouses, parliament, and the Royal family)
I love this, not many videos like this to be found. Like in English, a lot of letters aren't pronounced in Swedish. And often the g in jag is not pronounced, but here she was inconsistent and did both. But that also shows that both are ok. 2:00 Of course you wouldn't know, but you can not use snälla like that, we would use "tack" in that case, "thanks". It's the RS that turns in to a SH. She did not say j with d like in English at the "ja" (yes). Also not sure if it's the microphone, but sounds like your K's aren't strong enough at the end of words. I got some laughs, but you did really good for the most part. With just a bit of practice and learning to roll R then you'd be pretty damn good. Ursäkta is more like excuse me, and förlåt is more like sorry.
Hey! You're very perceptive to the nuances of pronunciation. It's fine if you can't roll your r's... We have a whole region in the south where they don't. Very well done! The conundrum of how to pronounce 'jag': you can choose pretty freely; by pronouncing the 'g' you give the word a little more stress. Ex: "*I* miss you" ("jag saknar dig") / "I *miss* you" ("ja sAknar dig") - emphasis on the capital letter. Ex2: "*I* love you! ("jag älskar dig") / "I *love* you" ("ja Älskar dig"). Also: when the 's' is preceded by an 'r' it turns it into a 'sh' sound, to not have to do so much acrobatics with your tong. It's enough of that as it is with Swedish. It helps if you push the formation of words forward in you mouth, closer to your teeth than your larynx.
I think on the whole Connor you very first attempt at pronouncing Swedish went pretty well. The thing is Swedish is a 2 tone language. In English when we pronounce a word we begin on a high then the sound tails off. In Swedish many words have their 2nd or 3rd syllables pronounced higher giving the 2 tone or rhythmic like effect. This can take a while to master but Swedes are very forgiving . Also the letters å , ä and ö are not like our or even Swedish letters a and o with accents but totally separate letters in the Swedish Alphabet. I love the sound of Swedish and it always surprises tourists to the UK when I can speak to them in their language as not many British folk can speak Swedish as it is a pretty small although interesting language. I speak with an Halländska accent or dialect which can sound different to those in Stockholm as I used to live on the west coast of Sweden.
The sh instead of s is due to us using not wanting to prnounce r and s right next to each other since it’s a mouthful. So ”Norska” becomes something like ”Nåshka”. Do note this might not apply to some dialects.
"Hur är det?" (how are you?) is rethorical but "Hur mår du?" is less as the latter is closer to "are you feeling well?" So in that case you could answer more sincere about if you are ill or feeling sick. It actually depends on how you pronouce it.
Well you see in sweden we dont say everything exactly as its spelled, also shes got a dialect where some letter might be silent, In other parts of Sweden that letter can be heard. Thats a big difference from america. I noticed there are not a huge variation of dialects in america. In Sweden we got lots of dialects. I woud say she got a more western Swedish tone when she speaks. Thats also a thing, In sweden we got several tones. So a word that spelled the same can be a total different word on how you use the tones. For exampel the word banan = Banana can become banan = the track depending what tone you woud use. Stegen = the ladder can also become Stegen = the footsteps.
If you want to watch/listen to the more comedic side of someone trying to learn Swedish, then you could always check out the "Mastering Swedish" series (link to first video at the bottom). It's a British radiopresenter from the mid 00's or earlier who was going to move to Sweden, and his Swedish co-worker put together some audio files to "help" him learn... but of course by trying to make it as hard and as ridiculous for the britt as he could. XD ruclips.net/video/66fULfwb2X4/видео.html
A lot of swedish words are similar to english words. But it was actually english speakers that took some of our words. Of course we took some of their words as well. But a good example of this is "Torsdag" = "Thursday". And that came from the god "Tor" or "Thor" in english. You know the god of thunder from the norse mythology. Also "Friday" comes from the norse mythology. That came from the norse god "Freya". In swedish it "Friday" = "Fredag". This is what I get when I google: Måndag - Monday - named after the Norse God ‘Måne’, which means moon. Tisdag - Tuesday - named after the Norse God ‘Tyr’, a God of War. Onsdag - Wednesday - named after the Norse God ‘Oden’, the King God of Wisdom, War and Death. Torsdag - Thursday - named after the Norse God ‘Thor’, the God of Thunder. Fredag - Friday - named after the Norse Goddess ‘Freya’ or ‘Frigg’, the Goddess of Love and Fertility (also by the way Oden’s wife). Lördag - Saturday - named not after a god, but after the Norse tradition of bathing - called ‘att löga sig’. Söndag - Sunday - named after the Nordic Goddess of the Sun - ‘Sol’ or ‘Sunna’.
Spanish and French people refer to German as Allemagne/Alemania which refers to one of the many tribes living centuries ago in present day Germany.. English say German which is from the Latin word for one of the tribes. Dutch say "Duits" The Swedish word may refer to the "teutons" one of other tribes. and remember in English the letter "c" is pronounced like S or K or CH or SH when combined with H depending and in American english lots of T's get pronounced like D's. There are rules that are not immediately apparent. Thanks so much this introduction!!
A small introduction to the power compound words. No English translation but I'm sure you get the idea from the text written in the pictures. The tale of Barabara who is a master att making rhubarb pies. Maybe a quick reaction to it? The original is on German I think but the languages are close enough for a easy translation, and we're talking about Swedish in this video anyway. ruclips.net/video/qpGZvu0-LBw/видео.html
Swedish orthography correlates very closely with pronunciation. You just need to know a few general rules. 1. Vowels followed by a single consonant are lengthened. The rule always applies except for with some three letter words. 2. Vowels followed by /ck/ or a doubled consonant are short. 3. Many consonants change their quality, or change sound all together, when combined with /r/. Most notably /t/, /s/, /n/ and /d/. 4. /rs/ is pronounced akin to /sh/. 5. /rd/ is a more nasal, lengthened /d/. 6. /rn/ is a more nasal, lengthened /n/. 7. /rt/ is a more hard or palatilized* /t/. 8. A standalone /g/ or /d/ can be pronounced or left silent at the end of words, it's up to personal preference and level of formality. 9. /sj/ and /skj/ are spellings for a sound that only exists in Swedish, as well as Cologne German and a few dialects of Norwegian.
Don't bother about why another language says it "that way" and your home language says it "this way." It's a matter of "equivalence." Linguistic math. Don't translate word for word. Say it in Swedish, German, Italian. etc. When one attains proficiency in another language, new vistas appear: more cultural appreciation, better historical understanding, etc.
The words deutsch, duits and dutch (West Germanic languages) as well as tysk, tyska and Þýska (North Germanic languages) derived most likely from Proto-Germanic „Þiudiskaz“, which roughly translates to „off the people“. Þ probably pronounced like English th.
Two dots over the a seem to produce the "ay" sound. Quite a lot of this would be recognisable to English speakers when spoken, but not necessarily reading it. I see some possible cognates with Irish with "bra" being good". In Irish "maith" is good but "brea" (pronounced bra) is "nice".
First of all; You did GREAT! Way better than most English-only speakers.
Secondly, this was your best video, Connor! I haven't laughed this much all week...
I have a son (18 y.o.) who is learning Swedish at the moment, and he is asking the same questions. "Why is it mute here, but not here?", "Why is it s and sh?", "Why is 'kök' pronounced with sh sound, but 'kille' as a kay sound, both are followed with soft vowel?" and so on, every day. And down the line are the "en" and "ett" (both meaning "a") and word chosen depending on the noun, but no known rules (at least to Swedes), just "feel it".
Wow, that took guts! Pro tip, do not ask a swede “hur mår du?” and expect it to be a rhetorical question. You’ll most likely get a long, honest answer 😄
Släkt med Carin? Komikern.
@@rft416 Jag tror att hon var gift med min kusin. Jag står inte min kusin särskilt nära, därav ”tror”.
@@rft416 Nu har jag fått det bekräftat, det är hon. Jag hann själv inte träffa henne innan de skilde sig.
Jävligt sant haha
Yeah, the rhetorical would be more like "hur är läget?" or "allt bra?", but that also depending entirely on your relation to the person you're asking. If it's a friend i sincerly want to know, but if its just someone you meet from time to time at events or whatever, everything is just rhetorical ;)
You have suprisingly good pronunciation for someone who hasn't been practicing the language before.
This speaker has a west coast Gothenburg accent also which effects some tones and skipped letters and contractions. It will be slightly different on the east coast, and north and south VERY different.
Northern vs southern dialects is like night and day haha.
In the so called "finlandswedish" dialect we usually pronounce every letter and don't often make the letters r and s into a "sch" sound, like for example in varsågod.
Honestly, they should have used someone with a very proper Uppsala accent since it's pronounciations are the most faithful to the phonetical alphabet and therefore makes it much easier to learn how letters are used, especially å, ä and ö.
@@robinbrannstrom you're right about the r and s sounds, but finlandssvenska gets weird about other letters like k, which is often pronounced like "ck", a, which is often pronounced like "ah" , e, which is often pronounced as "eh", and l, which almost becomes "rl".
Much better than småländska or stockholmska but isn't Uppländska the easiest to use as a foundation when learning swedish since everyone understands it, it makes å, ä and ö very distinct and it's so formal?
@@maltegodkas4931 yeah, I think they should have used some kind of "standard" swedish which is not influenced by any major dialects. I was just pointing out how the finlandssvenska dialect often sounds, but I don't think that would have been useful at all to a learner of swedish that is probably going to Sweden and not Finland :)
You actually did great, and an astute observation concerning rs! It's true, when s follows r it becomes a "sh"-sound in Swedish, so the name Lars Fors would for instance be pronounced like "Laash Fosh".
A tip I read years ago (that improved my English): Languages and dialects are spoken with more or less emphasis on different areas of the mouth. American English is often spoken from very far back in the mouth (which can make it hard to roll r's), whereas Swedish is more front-heavy. Maybe it sounds weird to think of it like that, but for me it works quite well. It already sounds like your kinda doing it naturally, but anyways.
Regarding å ä ö, they all represent sounds that are used in English (but expressed by various combinations of letters instead of stand-alone letters):
1) Å is like oo in "floor"; ou in "four"; a in "yawn"; oa in "oar"; o in "ore"; au in "audio" (it can also sound like a short o)
2) Ä is like a in "care"; ai in "chair"; ea in "bear" (it can also sound like a short e)
3) Ö is like u in "turn"; ea in "earn"; i in "girl"; e in "concern"; o in "attorney"; ou in "journal" (when short, it sounds like an "uh")
R and S combined creates the "SCH" sound you're looking for. Really great job by the way! Your Swedish pronounciation is very good! 4/5! 😎
Connor casually pronounces "Italienska" like a true native speaker.
han sa det perfekt tbh
Impressive. You clearly have something of an ear for languages.
The "S" behind the "R" forms a "SCH"-sound, but that's only in the middle and the north of Sweden, where they rolled their R's. For example, the word FÖRSÖKER (TRYING) becomes FÖSCHÖKER in those parts of Sweden. In the south we have a more french-sounding R, more harch.
14:44 ik its confusing, but we actually pronounce the "dig" as "dej" (with swedish prononciation)
Indeed... I would also say that "dig" is more formal to some degree, it also sounds sort of "old-timey" when spoken. It is much more common to see in written form rather than spoke.
"Dej" is more informal. And while not necessarily wrong to use in written form, it is usually recommended to use "dig" instead... unless that has changed since I was in school back in the mid 80's to late 90's. XD Also... in certain dialects, under certain circumstances, "dej" ends up being pronounced as "daj" instead, like down here in Skåne (atleast in the part I live in). XD
When it comes to the silent letter in "Jag" or "God", it's not wrong to say the whole word. It's just when we speak fast we skip the g and the d at the end of these two words. But sometimes we use them when we speak slower, so it's just a preference when to say the whole word. That's also why she skiped the g in "Jag" at one time and then used the g in "Jag" at another time.
Acually inpressed, I would understand a lot of what you said as a Swedish speaker. Good job!
This can’t be the first time you heard Swedish. You did great! 👍
You can say "Jag" with the "g" sound, but it disappears sometimes when you speak fast. I also think that the "s" will have a "sh" sound if there is a "r" before.
Yes
The g can be dropped. In written language it's important but it's not commonly used when speaking. Swedish spoken language and written language should be seen as 2 "separate" things. One is for direct communication the other is for avoiding misunderstandings in written information. As of late it seems like people actually are beginning to talk more like it's written. Seems a bit strange, but there we are :)
Most of the time it's dropped, it sounds weird if you say it in any casual setting and when you're not repeating yourself or something.
Well done! Very impressed!
Thank you! Cheers!
In informal speech, words that end on an /r/ usually get their /r/ omitted.
There are also quite a few cases of liason in Swedish. It is a phenomenon that is otherwise much, much more wide spread in French. It means that some words sort of "merge together" when pronounced. In Swedish, this happens a lot when a word that ends in /r/ is followed by a word that begins with /d/.
For instance, "Hur är det?" is usually pronounced more like "Hu-rä-re." "Ser du?" is more like "se-ru."
This was great watching. Me and my mom watched it. You did a great job!
Du gjorde ett bra försök, ha det så bra!
@Connor, great job! Did you know, that Swedish is the most widely spoken second language in Finland and it has status as co-official language? So now you must learn to speak Finnish also :D (mission impossible, I think :)
Yea am swedish but i have no idea but in Finland u need to teach swedish in school but we don't learn finnish, honestly i don't get that.
Also I learned that Swedish is quite widely spread in The Ukraine. After English, German and Russian.
Lol, id very much like to see that ^^
@@chonabee6810 It's because Finland used to be a part of Sweden for almost 700 years
@@chonabee6810 In some areas in Finland swedish is the first language. Mostly by the northern coast
For sure she is form Gothenburg or around. Further up north we don't pitch up like that at the end of every sentence.
Well done with you pronunciation though! 😃
"Jag förstår" "Peter Forsberg"......that was hilarious! 🤣
Wow! this was actually a really good attempt, i could clearly hear what you were saying! Great job.
Dude you are a natural! really if that is your first attempt at speaking Swedish its a very good one. Yeah you got some accent but less so than some native English speakers that i have meet who have lived for years in Sweden. You almost get the vocals right on your first try, not bad at all. If you put some effort in to it I bet you that you can learn passable Swedish pretty damn quickly.
Your pronunciation was actually quite good!
Your pronunciation is really good for a first timer
Remember that Swedish is a pitch language, meaning that depending if you go up or down in pitch the words have different meaning.
I absolutely love her accent. She sounds like she comes straight from one of the Astrid Lindgren TV shows made some 50 years ago.
Great job Connor! Keep up the good work! The "s" sounds different when it is together with an "r". Similar to what you did when you said "Peter Forsberg", where the s sounds different... Good and quick in seeing what words are which when learning the words! Well done!
You are doing really good! Your pronunciation especially - I would have no problem understanding what you are saying if you were to come up to me and speak like this (and I'm Norwegian!).
You would be surprised to learn the connection to many English words here if you dive into the etymology of the words. I think the origin of words is very interesting.
E.g. "Jag talar engelska" - the "talar" her is the English word "tell" (same root).
"Jag vet" - the "vet" here is the same as "wise" - a word for knowledge - an even older word for "to see". (hence "Vision"). "To see something - is to know".
Yes etymology is really interesting their are many words in English originating from the Scandinavian languages originating from the Viking invasions of the British isles especially still to be found in place names.
@@davidwebley6186 They also share a common roots in germanic. Old english and old norse were almost co-intelligable in the 1100's, according to historic records it did not take much to understand eachother.
"Connor, say something in Swedish!"
"Good moron!"
SCJ Ruth Bader Ginsberg learned Swedish to help a Swedish Lawyer write a book. RBG lived there for a while.
You did good. And Peter Forsberg would probably agree!
I think you did very well :) To solve the sch-sound for the letter S, it appears if an R is in front of it (förstår, ursäkta, norska....) But you sounded good :)
Heyo that was fun :)
Also, some of those "s" and "sh" sounds are depending on where in Sweden you live, if no one already wrote that. The higher up you go, the more "sh" sounds you will get xD
And the further down, the harder Rrrrr's you will get :) Welcome to Skåne!
Vi kan rulla våra R gode rejält i norr också. ReuL et åt mä snöRokläpp!
@@brynjulfharfager6671 Säkert :) Menar bara att det oftare förekommer "sh" ljud uppåt än neråt i Landet, R:en är överlag ett Sverige fenomen antar jag :P Förutom stockholmare då som inte säger "spoRt" utan "spot" vilket driver mig till vansinne xD
Sen vet jag inte om man kan säga att skånigar "rullar" sina R.... skulle mer säga att vi morrar ut dom xD
Tack så mycket for this video! It put a smile on my face! :D
The sh sound in some of the words is when the letters r and s are next to each other. So as you heard the word ursäkta is pronounced ushäkta and since there's no s next to the r in förlåt, you don't prounounce it like that. Don't ask us why necause we don't know, it's just how it is lol. Most people don't even pronounce the r in förlåt, but just says fölåt.
I'd love to see you do more of these because it was fun. Good job 👍🏻 Bra jobbat 😄
Swedish is one of the easiest languages for native English-speakers to learn. Grammar is relatively similar, but easier in that verbs have the same form for all the different persons (I, you, he, she, it...). And many Swedish words have close cognates in English.
The sj-sound is fun. It can be spelled as "sj", "sk", "skj", "stj", "ssj", "stg", "xky", "ch", "che", "g", ge", "gi", "j", "sch", "sh", "sc", "si", "ssi", "ti" and "sti" and have several different pronunciations. Clear, right? :)
Well done 🙌🏻! You did a really good job 👍🏻. /Swedish and English teacher
My gf is from Thailand, and she has problems with rolling R also, so a way to practice this is to repeat the word "Roller coaster" a few times and then try the word with the rolling R.
Your R:s sound abit like the southern dialect of skånska in the beginning and it can vary alot depending on where in sweden just try put the R either further front in the mouth or further back depending on the dialect you want to emulate compared to the english R which is more in the center, front is the more universal way of saying it. I'd say you did pretty good!
Yeah. I'm from Skåne (southern-most part of Sweden) and I can't roll my r's at all. We almost swallow them instead. So the name Lars Fors in another comment I would pronounce LArS FOrS with hard s's.
Great job! You learned the pronunciation really quickly. English people often have a harder time to get rid of theAmerican accent”
Firstly, great job with the pronunciation!
2:29 The translation catches the meaning perfectly, a more literal translation would be "no reason/cause".
3:04 Because we're lazy (we have a few different combinations that we're pronouncing that way, nowadays!) :p Also, dialects (or because Worcestershire Sauce).
3:54 Fun fact: if you work with young children, there's a high chance you're going to be called "fröken", no matter your gender or your amount of beard!
Honestly, the use of "herr" is rare, "fru" is used more in the meaning of wife and "fröken" is almost only used for teachers before or during elementary school.
4:38 I wouldn't say that any of them are more formal, but the first one is more casual (and rhetorical) and the two other feel gradually more concerned (even if they can be used casually as well).
8:13 Yep!
8:48 Most of the time you don't even need to say år (year) so just Jag är [ålder] = I'm [age] E.G: Jag är 25 = I'm 25.
9:38 Ah yes. I really know that feeling! I can make that noise *tries* but apparently not combined to the other noises in that word T.T
12:30 To me "excuse me" and "pardon me" are a bit too interchangeable and I'd probably translate either to just "ursäkta (mig)". I'd keep "förlåt" for I'm sorry .
Great job. Really good pronunciation
If you can't pronounce R in the front of your mouth, but can do it further back (like a French rolling R), go to the south of Sweden. That's close to how they pronounce it in and close to Skåne.
If you go northeast from there and end up in Småland, some natives there pronounce it almost like you would pronounce a W. Like if you say wed instead of red, just a little more in the back of the mouth.
But your R:s got much better just during the video. You'll pick it up in no time.
When you have the "rs" combo it is usually pronounced "sh". We do that with several double consonants. But if you want to enunciate a word to be super clear, you can pronounce it "rs", so it's not really wrong.
It's similar to how we usually make whole sentences sound like one long word and skip some sounds in it. It's done in most situations. But if you really want to tell someone something important, you can pronounce each word separately to convey importance or feelings. Like in English if you just say hi to someone with a "How'ya doin?", but if you are concerned about how someone is you would really say "How are you doing?", perhaps even with extra emphasis on the "are".
And something that is hard to get for some; Å, Ä and Ö are not A and O with some extra stuff on top. They are their own characters at the end of the Swedish alphabet (... x, y, z, å, ä, ö). It's like a T isn't an I with an extra line on top and an R isn't a P with an extra line.
Danish and Norwegian has their own versions of them. But if you want a stranger alphabet, look up Icelandic. They kept a lot that we got rid of a long time ago.
- "Talar du svenska?"
- "Si!"
LOL!
Good work! You did very well to be the first time you try Swedish words, you will not have a hard time learning the language. And I agree with GoldRush some letters we skip when we speak fast. Ha en bra dag / Stefan from Sweden.
You did a great job! Bra jobbat!!!!!!
She had the funniest accent! She sounds like someone straight out of the 1950's 😆
She speaks national swedish with a Gothenburg accent, just like I do.
I thought she sounded Norwegian.
awesome video, make a part two pls xD
The candece can be very different in Swedish depending on where the speaker is from, but generally Swedes use pitch a LOT and tend to greatly emphasize a single word or syllable and sort of rush through the rest of the sentence. That's why a lot of words get shortened or "slurred" almost, like not pronoucing the g at the end of "jag", but it's also why the pronunciations aren't always consistent. It depends on what they're saying in the moment.
Lycka till! (Good luck)
Fun video! Good job!
Well, I’ve been to Sweden 20 times, never needed to speak Swedish a single time
Haven’t met a single Swede that didn’t speak English
They automatically start speaking English to foreigners
Pretty much like that in all Scandinavian countries
it's a fucking embarassment
I live in Sweden, and sometimes had colleagues that wanted to learn swedish. Some of them actually said that the most difficult thing about wanting to learn swedish, is that all swedes immediately starts to talk english with them. That's a bit sad. Now I do my best to ask people I meet if they want me to speak english or swedish.
The "d" in "God Kväll" is mostly silent because people are just too lazy to use it. If you want to pronounce the "d", then go right a head. It's like the Australian greeting "G'day, mate".If you write it, it´s "God Kväll" but when speaking, most people would say "Go' Kväll", I guess. Does that make any sense?
same with god morgon :)
@@Share87 Yes, thank you. Same with all the "god's"
I was waiting for some words with "sk". :D
It's not lazy, It's slang! Languages change with time. This is just one of those things.
@@Michal_Peterka Surely that depends on the word. Perhaps even sjö would be interesting. Or telling people you work as a sjuksköterska . I used to get my own back by getting Swedes to say they had seen their Fifth Huge Squirrel 😉
Yes. J makes a "Y-sound" in Swedish, whereas Y is actually a vowel (similar to i), and not a consonant at all.
I worked in an office where some Swedes rented some office space & would hear Swedish all day long. All I can remember was Hej door hej tak yer.
@@maudeboggins9834 What the hell was that haha?
@@Nekotaku_TV Hello how are you.
@@Nekotaku_TV Visit an Ikea & it says as you enter & leave "Hejdå". Pronounced Hey door Check it out.
Haven't watched it yet, but this is gonna be a good one.
Deutch and tysk are the exact same word actually, just separated by around 2000 years of language evolution. Both words comes from the proto-germanic word "þeudō" which meant people.
The 'd' in "God dag/god kväll, usually becomes silent. In more formal settings though, it is, as a rule, pronounced. A bit like the australians 'G'day'.
Well this was weirdly entertaining to follow for the entire video :) Kan vi få en till sån här, tack? :)
The r's change depending on following letter
rs become sh
For rt rd rn, say the english words abort, board, born. To say the last letters (t,d,n) on their own, your tongue are against your teeth. But if you say the whole words, you say the last letters with your tongue curled up backwards into that pit/bump in the roof of the forwards section of your mouth thanks to the preceding r. For swedish it's the same thing, except that the r-sound is removed, so you say the t, d and n as if there was a preceding r, but without the r-sound.
For rl it's kind of like the previous example, you curl your tongue back. But from sitting here saying words out loud it feels like the r sometimes has more of a presence than it does with rt,rd,rn. Sometimes the r is gone (but influences the L), and sometimes there is a bit of an r-sound preceding the rl-sound. Seems to vary from word to word
id say in total that was 7/10 :) gj !
If you go to Småland in Sweden the R's are mostly silent xD
Jag förstår.. Peter forsberg? lol
Bra gjort, Connor! Du kan ju svenska riktigt bra! Hej då! 👏😊
Well done, Connor! You're really good in Swedish! Bye! 👏😊
If you can't roll your r:s there are other swedish directs that have trouble with rolling them as well.
At middle school (10-13 year olds) we were just learning French (2yr of French) and they gave us a test to see how good we were at picking up other languages, so they gave us a Swedish test. Those who did well went on to learn French and now German. But why they didn't just run a German test I don't know.
3:52 - If you want to skip anything, then skip "Herr / Fru / Fröken" [Mr. / Mrs. / Miss]... Unless you plan to watch old black 'n' white movies
Formal titles haven't been used since the 1960s. You're on first name basis with everyone (with few potential exception, e.g. courthouses, parliament, and the Royal family)
I love this, not many videos like this to be found.
Like in English, a lot of letters aren't pronounced in Swedish. And often the g in jag is not pronounced, but here she was inconsistent and did both. But that also shows that both are ok.
2:00 Of course you wouldn't know, but you can not use snälla like that, we would use "tack" in that case, "thanks".
It's the RS that turns in to a SH.
She did not say j with d like in English at the "ja" (yes). Also not sure if it's the microphone, but sounds like your K's aren't strong enough at the end of words.
I got some laughs, but you did really good for the most part. With just a bit of practice and learning to roll R then you'd be pretty damn good.
Ursäkta is more like excuse me, and förlåt is more like sorry.
Hey! You're very perceptive to the nuances of pronunciation. It's fine if you can't roll your r's... We have a whole region in the south where they don't. Very well done! The conundrum of how to pronounce 'jag': you can choose pretty freely; by pronouncing the 'g' you give the word a little more stress. Ex: "*I* miss you" ("jag saknar dig") / "I *miss* you" ("ja sAknar dig") - emphasis on the capital letter. Ex2: "*I* love you! ("jag älskar dig") / "I *love* you" ("ja Älskar dig"). Also: when the 's' is preceded by an 'r' it turns it into a 'sh' sound, to not have to do so much acrobatics with your tong. It's enough of that as it is with Swedish. It helps if you push the formation of words forward in you mouth, closer to your teeth than your larynx.
Please in coffea please, yes please is 'tack'. Pleading please is 'snälla'. 'Snälla' is also kind in plural.
Yes, the plural form of the adjective “snäll”. Just to clarify.
The sh on the s depends on the letter before. R and S together becomes like an sh sound. We say RS like one letter.
I think on the whole Connor you very first attempt at pronouncing Swedish went pretty well. The thing is Swedish is a 2 tone language. In English when we pronounce a word we begin on a high then the sound tails off. In Swedish many words have their 2nd or 3rd syllables pronounced higher giving the 2 tone or rhythmic like effect. This can take a while to master but Swedes are very forgiving . Also the letters å , ä and ö are not like our or even Swedish letters a and o with accents but totally separate letters in the Swedish Alphabet.
I love the sound of Swedish and it always surprises tourists to the UK when I can speak to them in their language as not many British folk can speak Swedish as it is a pretty small although interesting language. I speak with an Halländska accent or dialect which can sound different to those in Stockholm as I used to live on the west coast of Sweden.
The sh instead of s is due to us using not wanting to prnounce r and s right next to each other since it’s a mouthful.
So ”Norska” becomes something like ”Nåshka”.
Do note this might not apply to some dialects.
"Hur är det?" (how are you?) is rethorical but "Hur mår du?" is less as the latter is closer to "are you feeling well?" So in that case you could answer more sincere about if you are ill or feeling sick. It actually depends on how you pronouce it.
Not it isn't.
Well you see in sweden we dont say everything exactly as its spelled, also shes got a dialect where some letter might be silent, In other parts of Sweden that letter can be heard. Thats a big difference from america. I noticed there are not a huge variation of dialects in america. In Sweden we got lots of dialects. I woud say she got a more western Swedish tone when she speaks. Thats also a thing, In sweden we got several tones. So a word that spelled the same can be a total different word on how you use the tones. For exampel the word banan = Banana can become banan = the track depending what tone you woud use. Stegen = the ladder can also become Stegen = the footsteps.
If you want to watch/listen to the more comedic side of someone trying to learn Swedish, then you could always check out the "Mastering Swedish" series (link to first video at the bottom). It's a British radiopresenter from the mid 00's or earlier who was going to move to Sweden, and his Swedish co-worker put together some audio files to "help" him learn... but of course by trying to make it as hard and as ridiculous for the britt as he could. XD
ruclips.net/video/66fULfwb2X4/видео.html
This guy is very talented
A lot of swedish words are similar to english words. But it was actually english speakers that took some of our words. Of course we took some of their words as well.
But a good example of this is "Torsdag" = "Thursday". And that came from the god "Tor" or "Thor" in english. You know the god of thunder from the norse mythology.
Also "Friday" comes from the norse mythology. That came from the norse god "Freya". In swedish it "Friday" = "Fredag". This is what I get when I google:
Måndag - Monday - named after the Norse God ‘Måne’, which means moon.
Tisdag - Tuesday - named after the Norse God ‘Tyr’, a God of War.
Onsdag - Wednesday - named after the Norse God ‘Oden’, the King God of Wisdom, War and Death.
Torsdag - Thursday - named after the Norse God ‘Thor’, the God of Thunder.
Fredag - Friday - named after the Norse Goddess ‘Freya’ or ‘Frigg’, the Goddess of Love and Fertility (also by the way Oden’s wife).
Lördag - Saturday - named not after a god, but after the Norse tradition of bathing - called ‘att löga sig’.
Söndag - Sunday - named after the Nordic Goddess of the Sun - ‘Sol’ or ‘Sunna’.
Du gör ett ganska bra jobb med att försöka uttala våra ord. (Btw, I'm Swedish)
I really wanna see you try Finnish 😂
Spanish and French people refer to German as Allemagne/Alemania which refers to one of the many tribes living centuries ago in present day Germany.. English say German which is from the Latin word for one of the tribes. Dutch say "Duits" The Swedish word may refer to the "teutons" one of other tribes.
and remember in English the letter "c" is pronounced like S or K or CH or SH when combined with H depending and in American english lots of T's get pronounced like D's. There are rules that are not immediately apparent. Thanks so much this introduction!!
Bra jobbat :D
Excellent job Connor.... now try "Bernard". :)
Lol, literally just started learning Swedish two weeks ago and started with the exact same video
15:41 that was a perfect "jag".
A small introduction to the power compound words. No English translation but I'm sure you get the idea from the text written in the pictures. The tale of Barabara who is a master att making rhubarb pies. Maybe a quick reaction to it?
The original is on German I think but the languages are close enough for a easy translation, and we're talking about Swedish in this video anyway.
ruclips.net/video/qpGZvu0-LBw/видео.html
Really good! next: do Finnish! :D
Swedish orthography correlates very closely with pronunciation. You just need to know a few general rules.
1. Vowels followed by a single consonant are lengthened. The rule always applies except for with some three letter words.
2. Vowels followed by /ck/ or a doubled consonant are short.
3. Many consonants change their quality, or change sound all together, when combined with /r/. Most notably /t/, /s/, /n/ and /d/.
4. /rs/ is pronounced akin to /sh/.
5. /rd/ is a more nasal, lengthened /d/.
6. /rn/ is a more nasal, lengthened /n/.
7. /rt/ is a more hard or palatilized* /t/.
8. A standalone /g/ or /d/ can be pronounced or left silent at the end of words, it's up to personal preference and level of formality.
9. /sj/ and /skj/ are spellings for a sound that only exists in Swedish, as well as Cologne German and a few dialects of Norwegian.
10. The /sh/-sound can be spelled a number of way: /tj/, /sh/, /sch/, /rs/, /kj/ and /k/. Yes, I'm not kidding.
10:10 it depends on the vowel
In Sweden we do not use titles any more , so you do not have to learn to say fru, fröken, herr
you did better then most who are new to swedish
the "s" sounds like "sh" when it's after an "r", the "r" also dissapears
Don't bother about why another language says it "that way" and your home language says it "this way." It's a matter of "equivalence." Linguistic math. Don't translate word for word. Say it in Swedish, German, Italian. etc. When one attains proficiency in another language, new vistas appear: more cultural appreciation, better historical understanding, etc.
You did a great job! Keep training and I bet you will speak fluently pretty soon ;)
Btw she has an accent which is pretty funny😅 btw no we don't have that danish/Norwegian stew in our throat when we speak
Nu kan jag skriva på mitt eget språk.
Actually very good pronunciation for being an American!
The words deutsch, duits and dutch (West Germanic languages) as well as tysk, tyska and Þýska (North Germanic languages) derived most likely from Proto-Germanic „Þiudiskaz“, which roughly translates to „off the people“. Þ probably pronounced like English th.
Two dots over the a seem to produce the "ay" sound. Quite a lot of this would be recognisable to English speakers when spoken, but not necessarily reading it. I see some possible cognates with Irish with "bra" being good". In Irish "maith" is good but "brea" (pronounced bra) is "nice".
I love this
you should really watch Fun Swedish if you want to learn more Swedish 😍
Your Swedish is really good.