This video is kind of a "study with me" and also me being confused by Swedish pronunciation haha Instagram: @marie.rimae Contact Email: marierimaesocial@gmail.com
That is a good point, the long vowels are: ä is like ai in hair and pair, å is like ou in four, ö is like i in bird, first. Just realized that if you replace the sound with the letter it will spell swedish words, except for pär which is a boys name.
If you know how it sounds, it is easier to understand how the pronunciation of the word is. As non native English speaker, Swedish is much more logic than English, where a lot of times you have to know how the pronunciation is of the word.
@@Vinterfrid Right all 24 vowels. That list mostly consists of a single letter.. the letter A... hardly leaving room for E I O U Y Å Ä and Ö. And that's despite 3 different Ys.
it's so painful when people get that wrong. they don't look different because they are "edgy" or "fance", they look different because they are different letters.
I'm Norwegian, but to me it sounds like you are progressing fast. When learning Scandinavian languages, it can be fun to translate the nouns literally. Like sjöstjerna = sea star, sköldpadda = shield toad
I'll just say this, if you ever plan on learning German do that FIRST, it's next to impossible to do it after you learn Swedish because the similarities may seem to be obvious but often words mean very different things.
I think it would be a good idea to learn the 3 small "dirty" letters: Æ Ø Å or Ä Ö Å. When an English speaker sees these letters, they stall and panic. The silly thing is, that they are very easy to pronounce, and can be learned in a few minutes, and then you will be able to pronounce Malmö correct. Öl = Beer. You see, learning Ö is very important. 😉
@@Gert-DKEasy for an english person? In Dutch we have the same sounds in the forms of uu eu and ui, ij, ei, ee and e. Ive never seen people struggle harder than with the first three.
@@gloriascientiae7435 I am not sure what you are saying. But learning Æ, Ø and Å only takes a few minutes, regardless where you are from. Our D is very difficult, it can be pronounced in 17 ways, but if it is in the start of a word, it's the same as English.
You do know that swedish differentiate between long and short vowels? "Tjäna" is long, "känna" is short. And the double "nn" marks the difference. Now I'm looking forward to when you discover pitch accent :) And you are doing great. I am really impressed.
@@_Wolfsbane_ I guess you live nearby Ramlösa. As far as I know most say Raaamlösa instead of Rammlösa. Same with Osby, people not living nearby say Ooosby instead of Ossby. I listened to a SR historypod and they mentioned a monestary (that I can't remember now) not far from Stockholm and it was pronounced with a short vowel in the pod but not spelled like a short vowel. The people talking in the pod were from the Stockholm area.
First thing to learn is that å, ä, and ö are not variations of a and o. It's not like the German Umlauts, they are completely different letters. It's a bit similar, albeit oposite, to that w is regarded as a variant of v in Swedish, which is why one tell-tale of a Swedish accent is that we sometimes pronounce words like "we" or "weather" wrorg
Ä and Ö were originally umlauts (or omljud in Swedish) and they still appear as umlauts in many situation (för example, Ö in Möss is an umlaut of U in Mus; yes U becomes a variant of O at umlautation). But yes, they are classified as district letters a not as letters with diacritics (trema in this case, often called diaeresis or umlaut by mistake). Umlauts are exactly what it says on the tin, a sound being changed to make an inflected word easier to pronounce (of course, in some cases the inflection part has disappeared leaving only the umlaut as indication that the word is inflected). Å is just a long A that has developed into a distinct vowel.
@@laxsjo.wiki: "German uses letter-diacritic combinations (Ä/ä, Ö/ö, Ü/ü) using the umlaut and one ligature (ẞ/ß (called eszett (sz) or scharfes S, sharp s)), but they do not constitute distinct letters in the alphabet.", which is inline with what I was taught in German class
In my Swedish for foreign beginner students class I often write A O U Å on the board, just to remind the students that it's only when these letters follow K or G that you really pronounce them with the hard sounds. This will work 95% of the time, and if you just remember that "kebab" is an exception it will work closer to 99% of the time.
Yeah, that's a general theme of Swedish spelling: Knowing the rules helps very much because in the majority of cases they will be followed, but there will usually be a ton of exceptions too. (and then you have the fact in informal swedish we often don't actually pronounce words like they are written anyway).
You are actually doing really really well. Much better than you give yourself credit . I am half danish and speak danish as a native and understand Swedish, If you continue this way you will be able to be understood both in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. I am impressed.
Yes, once you got it and understand how it should be your pronunciation is actually spot on and very very good! Agree that our pronunciation rules and schemes are sometimes (=often) a bit funky and irregular but you are definitely on the right track. Be happy you are studying Swedish and not Danish because it is a nightmare to pronounce, haha. I understand almost perfectly written Danish but almost nothing when I hear a Dane speak… (I’m a Swede from Stockholm). They seem to have it easier to understand Swedish than we to understand Danish. Nevertheless, lovely people the Danes. Best wishes and good luck with your Swedish lessons!
Don't fool her, once she knows Swedish she will understand spoken and written Swedish and Norwegian and written Danish, but she will still have no clue what the Danes are saying... that applies to native Swedes as well. 😉
@@antioch4019 Exactly, written danish is understandable. However spoken danish is nearly impossible. I'll never forget when we were driving to germany via denmark, i had been asleep going across the ferry and when we stopped for gas at the gas station i woke up and had to use the bathroom. They required to get the key from the cashier in order to go. So i went in speaking swedish thinking we were still in sweden. He understod me well enough, but i got so taken aback when he replied in danish. I hadn't realised we had crossed into denmark. So i switched to english due i didn't understand him. And he keept replying in danish and i just didn't understand. He had to show me that the key was hanging next to the bathroom. I feelt so stupid after that lol.
@@peterliljeholmen5703i think it depends where u live in Danmark and where u live in Sweden. Cuz non of my danish friends ( i know a lot of danes) from different places can understand when i speak Swedish. (sometimes they understand words tho) anyway im from southern Sweden (kalmar) and i understand them almost fluently. Bc how we spoke before here in småland has a lot of similarities to how they speak and we also are closer to them. And i think the danes that understand swedish is mostly working close to Sweden or in Sweden or live in danish places that have a lot of swediah history too🤷♀️
As somebody who knows quite a few languages, I can say that pronunciation is extremely important. Not only do you avoid misundertandings like förstöra and förstora, but you also get a better feel for the language. I would definitely recommend a phonetics course or at least taking a look at general phonetics to learn how sounds work and then special Swedish phonetics.
As a Swedish person that learned English before we had it in school, I can say the same about English. Mean comes in two versions, for instance, the meaning of and to be nasty to someone. There are so many of those. About the skj, stj, sch sounds: my little niece who's three is having the same sort of problems, which is not a diss against you, it's just remarking on the fact that it seems to follow the same pattern when learning Swedish. I think you're doing really well. I hope you enjoy the two tonal variants in Swedish. Two words that are spelt the same, but mean two completely different things, depending on what tone you use. My favorite is gift, which means poison or married. Which I personally think is intentional but I guess we'll never know. :P
@@ILoveCatsAIot I learned English well before RUclips was around, would have been 1989-90. My mom said I learned it at around 8-9 years old to be able to read video game manuals, funnily enough.
9:26 But they are not spelled or pronounced the same way. Saying they look almost the same is like saying that Car and Bar almost looks the same. They're also only different from one letter hehe. It is very important to understand that O and Ö are very different in the sound
I must say. I am really impressed by a lot of your insights in things a native swedish speaker just takes for granted. But i dont envy you gerting to all the compound words that completely changes meanings.
I moved from England to Sweden three years ago. This video is a great reminder of my own journey with the language. It gets easier! You're doing great.
I started Swedish for some back to back trips there, and stumbled on the same issue as you. Fortunately the vocabulary is fairly easy, especially since I read a lot and knew some German. It helped I had a native Swedish person working for me, who could help when I needed it, or just to vent with.
My grandmother is Danish. She met my (Swedish) grandfather very early on in life and they married around the age of 19 or so for her (he was 5 years older). She dealt with the pronunciation pretty well and still do. My grandmother's father though (when they came to visit)... When my mother and her siblings were small, they loved to hear him try to pronounce 77 because of the double "sch" sounds in that number. He could not, for the life of him. I don't blame him. Lol Maybe I've got a great cheat sheet or I'm just good at langauges, but I never had any issues with Danish, understanding it or otherwise. Only trouble I ever had to understand Danish was when I visited Jutland once. But all of my Danish relatives were from the islands, so... Maybe that's why?
it’s very important to recognize that ÅÄÖ is NOT A and O. They’re different distinct letters with their own distinct pronunciations. In the Swedish alphabet they are placed at the end after Z. So in Sweden we say “från a till ö” instead of the English equivalent “from a to z” en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_alphabet
They do it just as wrong in German too. Those are different letters, you also wouldn't read a "Q" like an "O", only cus its similar. And please, if your keyboard doesn't have "ä", write "ae" instead, "ö" - "oe", "ü" - "ue" and "å" - "aa". You also wouldn't like someone to write "aoua" instead of "aqua".
@@Delibrothat's something that they do to simplify teaching the alphabet. In romance languages or in slavic languages ó ò ô õ ö are not separate letters because the accent marks are so many that it would be much more confusing to call them separate letters. Functionally accent marks or "separate letters" are the same, they indicate a different sound from the sound usually represented by the simple latin alphabet
@@Vinterfrid"The correct pronunciation of Swedish letters" - that's the problem though isn't it? O and Å are pronounced the same way in "potta/råtta" or "mål/kol". What about "Mästerverk" where Ä makes an E sound and one E makes an Ä sound? Gets even more ridiculous with "planet" and "planet" where the stress is put on different syllables, or "kön" and "kön" where the K makes a completely different sound.
Phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs exist in English too :) look at the turtles, look out for something, look something up, look down on someone, depend on someone, listen to me, get over it, get in the car, put up with him, the car broke down etc.
Sure. I can only remember one thing in Swedish that you don't have in English, and that is gender on nouns. In Swedish you have 2 genders, common and neuter, while my native language, Norwegian, has 3 (masculine, feminine, neuter). Swedish used to have 3 also, but I get they got too lazy 😂 Like she said it is quite confusing, because what declensions are used are highly irregular. You just have to know them. En flicka (singular indefinitite common) - a girl Flickan (singular definite) - the girl Flickor (plural indefinitite) - girls Flickorna (plural definite) - girls Ett äpple (singular indefinitite neuter) - an apple Äpplet (singular definite) - the apple Äpplen (plural indefinitite) - apples Äpplena (plural definite) - apples But that is not all. It also affect pronouns, adjectives and adverbs. Vilken stor flicka - what a big girl Vilket stort äpple - what a big apple
@@AudunWangen May I ask why many or even most Norwegians still use a kind of Norwegian Danish for writing, in conservative forms even applying the Danish common gender (omitting feminine gender and turning those words to masculine forms)?
@@AudunWangen Did you just speak about using "bokmål" as written language instead of "nynorsk" (which is much rarer, if I can trust the online sources that I know), or about not using the feminine gender in "bokmål"? How widespread is the latter? I as a German have even often read some texts that even denied the existence of feminine gender in Bokmål. (Which I know is wrong.)
@@MarcLeonbacher-lb2oe No, I'm speaking about dialects, and not the written languages. There's feminine in both Nynorsk and Bokmål, so dropping feminine is only apparent in specific dialects.
I'm learning Norwegian, the pronunciation there is a bit easier but overall a very similar language. The grammar is apparently closer to the German than to the English, that helps me as a native German speaker.
Norwegian has 3 genders, while Swedish only have 2. I would think that Norwegian is easier for a German to learn in regards to pronunciation, although we have way more dialects that can make natives hard to understand.
I have never had so much fun watching someone struggling before. Your face.. when you look into the camera.. The pain is real. 🤣🤣🤣 Have you tried listening to Swedish music and reading the lyrics at the same time? I've seen in the comments on videos from Molly Sandén and Laleh that some people learn that way.
The toaster actually makes a lot of sense to me. I'm Belgian and I speak Dutch, and in my language, it's called "een broodrooster". Kind of similar to the Swedish word. :) If you would translate our word literally, it would say "a bread toaster" ;)
Don't know how long you've been at this but you seem to be doing great. You actually pronounced the 'sjö' in 'sjöstjärna' really well (then the 'stjärna' part broke down lol). The sj-sound is one of the hardest ones for foreigners to learn, so good on you. The norwegians spell things a bit easier, we still have a lot of archaic spellings in swedish (which is why K can make so many sounds for example. But hey, it's not like English isn't guilty of this too) :)
The sj-sound is also the part of Swedish that gets specifically practiced a lot in school for native speakers as well. It just might be the universally hardest part about the language.
@@ViktorBengtssonI have no memory of this. Might be a new thing? We practice some spelling of the variosu "sch"-sounds (tj,sj, sk, k, sch etc.) but I don't remember ever spending much time on the pronunciation. It was assumed you knew that already.
@@thehoogard I might have been a bit unclear. I was thinking of practicing how to spell the sound, not how to make the sound. The point was still that there is a disconnect between the one sound and the many spellings. I can't really think of anything else that we practiced nearly as much when it comes to writing.
I myself am Swedish and understand quite well that you struggle with some of the spelling versus pronunciation in Swedish. In many cases, it can simply be explained by the fact that the written language changes at a slower rate than the spoken language. But if we are going to talk about strange spelling, I do think English is much more complicated. For example, what do you think of words like "thought" or "enough"? Try pronouncing these according to the same rules you applied on Swedish 😉. Or words that are pronounced exactly the same but can be spelled in several ways and mean different things such as "hear - here". Or the opposite, words that are spelled the same but can be pronounced in several ways and mean different things; "lead = metal" or "lead to something"? I could continue along this path for a long time but think you would have much more fun if you google, for example, "Absolutely Ridiculous English Spelling" 🤓 ☺️ 🙃 ps. Don't even get me started on French spelling vs pronounciation 🤪.
As a swede, I find it awesome that you are learning swedish :) You seem motivated and I think you are progressing pretty well. Keep up the good work, I like your videos and personality.
You must love the "sju sjösjuka sjömän sköttes av sju sköna sjuksköterskor på det sjunkande skeppet i Shanghai" . :) (Sorry, I had to.) And yes, we love our "there's no rule for HOW to know which article belongs to what word but there is a wrong and a right way to use the definite/indefinite articles". The strongest sadistic streak we have. Lol Also... vägen - the road väggen - the wall We love doing this :) On a serious note, you're making good progress! Good luck with the cooking video! You can do it.
How do YOU pronounce that tongue twister? I guess you say it like "hu höhuka hömän..." and just replace every s-sound with an h. Finnish here. So we pronounce it with the sound in the English word shoe. I suppose it's pronounced similarly in northern parts of Sweden.
@@TheMrGazolineDepending on regional accents, it'll be pronounced either ʃ or ɧ (using the international phonetic alphabet). I'll use mostly ɧ, but for Shanghai I prefer ʃ due to it being closer to the Mandarin pronunciation the spelling is based on.
@@TheMrGazolineIt is similar to sh in shoe but a lot further back in your mouth, if that makes sense. Also with your mouth a bit open. Like, in shoe you use the front on your tongue and have your teeth closed right? Instead open your mouth and use the back of the tongue
in regard to the preposition thing that swedish dose, it is called verb particles and it functions like it is forming a new word with the previous word. This exist in english to some degree as well like eat up.
Swedish is a lot of "You just got to know". Meaning there is no real rule. You just know 😆So having a Swede to help is very good. Swedish is also very weird when you translate literally. Like Shieldtoad 🤔 Swedish food...hmm. I'd say "Flygande Jacob". Its unique and very Swedish 😆 Lastly, your pronunciation is good (for an American), you are getting there. I understood you 9:50 , its not perfect. I would say it differently, but I understood 😄
For what to cook I'd like to suggest "makaronipudding" (macaroni casserole), it basically is the counterpart to "mac 'n cheese". And yeah, the "sje-ljud" (those things you complained about) is something we have drilled into us extensively at start of school, depending on how you count there are 12-20 of them - is highly advised to just rote-learn them early on. Do learn to view "å" "ä" "ö" as distinct vowels as soon as possible as well to break the habit of viewing them as "accents" (probably easiest way to do this would be to learn to recite the alphabet with swedish pronunciation, maybe even as flashcards).
Fasen nu blev jag sugen på makaronipudding, inte käkat det på as länge. Samt lärde mig nå nytt idag, hur det stavas. Har alltid uttalat det: Makronpudding. Kanske har med att jag är ifrån norrland att göra.
I like your content, but since you got a new microphone the sound of you voice is distorted. Maybe lower lower input level of the mic? Keep up the good work 🙂
As a Swede with dyslexia, spelling tj sj sk skj etc. is the most difficult thing there is. I often need to know where the word comes from to remember the spelling of it! You do a great job with your pronunciations! Keep it up!
You are great at this! Keep working it and you'll be fluent in no time. I'm very impressed! Oh, and I never realized the "weirdness" of our verbs usually taking a preposition like that. Thank you for this perspective, I'll make sure to consider that when I try to coach people in my surroundings that are learning the language.
This was so good !! Thank you for this video . I never knew Swedish was dificult to learn. Because i allways knew how to speak it. But your video was the best ever✨️✨️
My dad's American, and you can still tell after 40 years in Sweden, so don't worry about getting the pronounciation perfect. The only way to truly sound like a native Swede is to move here and get a job where you speak Swedish all day at work. Every English-speaker I know whose job involves speaking a lot of English keeps their accent no matter how long they stay here. The en/ett issue really is crazy; 99% of native Swedes just instinctively know which one is right without consciously knowing why, and on the rare occasion where we get one wrong we hear it as soon as the word leaves our mouth and correct ourselves. Why did you decide to learn Swedish btw?
There was a study once that found that it's virtually impossible to sound like a native if you're not fluent in the language by the age of 19. My grandfather moved to Norway from the Netherlands when he was 20 together with his sister. He worked the desk of a newspaper, had a Norwegian wife, children, friends. By the time he was 70 he'd lived 50 years in Norway speaking Norwegian to everyone every single day. And he still ha a Dutch accent, as did his sister whom outlived him by a couple of decades. Wanting to sound like a native speaker is something people just needs to forget about.
I'm not sure I agree with that, I've met some people with close to perfect pronunciation after moving here much later. I think it has more to do with the ability to know what you sound like when speaking, like singers knowing what tone to hit for example. But maybe you are right @@Nabium
@@Ca11mero I get your point about singers, I think you're absolutely right about that. Some people have a talent. That's why I said virtually impossible, I put the world virtually there to signify it as a hyperbole. Sure, some people seem to manage this. Maybe the same kind of people who can easily make parodies of other accents int heir own language or something. But my whole life I've met nothing but the opposite of your experience. Back in school we had this girl from Kurdistan join our class. She spoke fluent before a year was past, and she sounded like a native within two years. Kids just pick it up like that. I've met people like that many times. But people who learn Norwegian after they become adult? I haven't met any single person who truly sounds like a native. It's why when Snatch got Brad Pit as an actor, they had to rewrite the script and write in an Irish traveller. Because they knew they couldn't get an American to pass off as a Londoner. But Irish can be made so incomprehensible that he could slur his way through, and the British crowd wouldn't know any difference. Now hollywood actors have speech couches which helps them with tongue placement, lip movement, gutteral techniques. Everything needed to sound native. And even with speech coaching, even with his talent as an actor, even with slurring and even with everyone non-Irish being impressed with Brad Pit - Irish people can easily tell he's not native. And that's within his own language English, he didn't have to learn any other language - imagine then how much speech coaching is needed before nailing a second language. It's something that requires both talent, and dedication. You have to retrain the tongue to move in minute and precise ways, but also retrain your ear to hear the difference between e and e and e. Our brain will learn to hear sounds in distinct ways. Especially vowels. Meaning when you listen to a second language, the brain hears sounds which are closer to your native language. So to learn a new language, over time you have to seperate between new sounds your brain cannot even seperate as seperate vowels sounds yet. Just think of Danish, how everything sounds the same and all muddled up. It doesn't sound that way to a Danish person because they can distinguis between the vowel sounds, so they clearly hear seperate vowels. But we don't. We just think they're having a stroke or something.
I hope you remember that the consonant in front of a soft vowel is soft (G becomes J K becpmes Sch aso). Soft vowels are E I Y Ä Ö. If these letters are folloed by A O U or Å they are hard, just like they are written.
Sounds good! Here is a short list of what letters and combos thereof we use for the various sh-sounds: K (Känna, Kör etc..), G (garaGe, loGe etc..), J (Jargong, Jour etc..), TJ (Tjäna, Tjärn etc..), SK (Skära, skämmas etc..), SJ (Själv, Sju etc..), STJ (Stjärna, Stjärt etc..), SKJ (Skjuta, skjul etc..), CH Choklad, Chans etc..). I think this is a tremendous feat to even try, Swedish is a very hard language, and as you rightly claim, alot of words needs to be learnt by heart, logic goes bye-bye for the most part. But as a proud Swede myself, I feel I have to ask you WHY? Sweden is one of those countries where people speak english well enough that foreigners can easily get by and even live here for years coping fine without learning the language.
Still you have to learn in what cases to use the "sh-sound". Like köra in the aspect of drive or köra in the aspect of being part of a choir. Loge in the aspect of lodge or loge as in a barn. I think it might be helpful with your list, just wanted to point that out.
I am born and raised in Sweden. You understand swedish grammer better then i did when i was 9 years old, You are smart and a fast learner. Keep it up! Jag tror på dig!
To me as a Swede I find it very confusing when foreigners claim that the sj-sound is like an h. Yo me the sj-sound is related to the sh/tj-sound, just harder and further back. An h is open but sj squeezes your mouth together and your tongue back. It's similar to what you do with the sh-sound further forward in your mouth. For common letter combinations for the sj- and sh-sounds I recommend "Läsa är Lätt".
you should try to cook Kroppkakor, its not easy but its soo good, you eat them with butter, lingonberryjam and cream. takes like two days of preparing for that, you should go for köttbullar och potatismos med sås gjord på skyn från köttbullarna och med inlagd gurka och lingonsylt såklart, Och du ska ha kryddpeppar i köttbullarna för rätt svensk smak.
Jag dör 😂 What on earth made you learn Swedish? You are doing very well anyway so keep up the great work ! Go for the two words Anden and Anden, means two different things.
This is the part of swedish I like to call "Don't make sense out of it, just deal with it" I'm trying to learn finnish right now and I'm in the same existential crisis but with the millions of endings they use for literally every word
"Titta på" is more easily translated to "look at". It may be used as in "watching a show", but many of these terms you have been looking at have more adjacent translations in English that would be easier to understand.
The swedish language have beef with you. ;) Ö is not o. The ö sound is like the i in Bird, but a little more forward in the mouth. The o sound is more like the o in Cool. Very different sounds. And to combine two of your favourites. Check out the words "köl" and "kol". Should be the same according to you. Right? :)
Nice job so far! Yes, there are some rules in Swedish grammar, but a lot based on ancient Swedish and such, which are learned like you say: "by just knowing". A bit similar to the 100-200 irregular verbs in English ;). Lycka till!
You remind me of when I was a SFI teacher. Couldn't help the little sadistic smile when I had to say: you just have to learn it by hart. But you seem to do great. You will get it quite quickly I think.
Haha, keep it up. It's nice to see someone learning a new language. Swedish is my second mother language, the other is finnish. English was my third language and german fourth. Languages are great. Good job. 👍
There are some Swedish dialects that are not so heavy with the "h" sound when there's an "sj" or "sk", so you don't need to master the Swedish shwing. The main thing is to remember that Å, Ä and Ö have nothing to do with A and O. Completely different vowels.
Haha, love this ❤. To be fair, 'vara' and 'är' seems super weird, but then you realize they traslate to 'to be' and 'am/are/is'... soooo, English is not very logical either! 😅
So, one of the things i could suggest is trying to listen to Swedish podcasts. And the one I would suggest is... erm... It is a news program on Swedish radio that uses a fairly simple swedish. I can see if i can find it.
Interestingly, to "look on" or "look upon" something is an archaic way to talk about watching something in English as well. Lots of languages have quirks like that, some of which are cognate, but it's interesting to see which languages kept what.
It's awesome that you want to learn our language! And yeah I never thought about it but it's really confusing that the "the" comes at the end. A little tip if you already don't know, if tje word ends with en like "hunden" (the dog) "it's "en hund" (a dog) but if it ends with et "bananskalet" (the banana peel) it becomes "ett bananskal" (a banana peel.) I hope you don't quit, you're doing so well :)
Duolingo has the same words as you showed in the video. I recommend trying to use that for a few weeks as it pronounces the words for you which is nice when you’re starting off with a new language.
You probably be learning more proper grammar than I even learned in my whole life XD Most of us swedes don't know how it works, we just know when it fits and when it doesn't XD with that said, you're doing great, keep it up and don't be afraid of mistakes, they're more afraid of you than you are of it! XD
I'm Swedish and can't wait to see and hear you make some Swedish food. You're doing great.. and in a really enjoyable way (if that's the appropriate expression here...) 😉👍
As a Swede from Stockholm, first and foremost I do wish to applaud you on your ability to make mostly correct sentences from your own head. That does set you apart from many learners. Heck, I still can't quite do that with my own Spanish practice, and I have been studying every day for 2 years now. That said, the pronunciation is awful and you likely know that. Not god-awful as I can certainly tell you are trying and can somewhat distinguish certain sounds even if you can't yet make them. That's a lot better than what is sometimes stereotyped of English speakers. Namely that they don't even try and just say Swedish words as if they were English ones. Pointer wise to your improvement, I can add a few things that should make it easier for you to visualize more correct pronunciation. First being the tricky K sounds. In general, K does make the same sound as in English, but typically not when followed by a vowel. Kök, Köp, and Kärlek make a sound that is extremely similar to the English SH sound. Exceptions exists, such as Keps, Kuk (swear word), and most dialects of Kex although some like the Gothenburg one has that word make a SH sound. As for SK, that makes a very heavily aspirated H sound. Think of making a "sigh" but you close the throat off a little bit more by using the back of the tongue. Funnily enough, this should be the same as the Russian H sound or the Spanish J. SJ and STJ is a similar kind of thinking with the SK sound, but the height of the tongue is closer to the roof of the mouth. I'm not going to lie, I think this sound may take you a while to master. Moving on to Å, Ä, and Ö: they are not the same as A and O. Linguistically; they're umlauts, with the symbol above them distinguishing them as a different sound entirely from the base letter. In Swedish these are considered their own letters. Ä is mostly the same sound as the English expression "Eh..." that you use when you don't quite agree with someone, and the sound is close to the effect you get from an "AE" diphthong. Ö is similar to the English expression "Um..." without the M. Å is closest to "Oh..." and sounds a little bit similar to the British A in Water but this one is probably going to take you a while to master. I know historically, this used to be a diphthong of either "OA" or "AO" so that might give you a jumping off point. Lastly, please do some reading regarding Long and Short vowels. Most of the time they're easy to tell as the short vowels have time for double consonants, while long ones do not. The difference in sound isn't just how long they're held for but rather actual sound quality; meaning a long A does have a different sound than that of a short A. This is what happened in the Känna vs Tjäna example. The Ä in Känna makes a sound closer to an E, while Tjäna is the same sound used for the name of the letter; Ä/"AE".
Swedish and English have some common history, but they are still different languages with different rules, for instance how to pronounce things. The tough part is loanwords, that may or may not follow the rules, for instance kebab should be pronounced shebab according to Swedish rules, but the word is too new in the Swedish language to adapt to the rules. Another word is kex which origins from cake, but this word is pronounced differently in different parts of Sweden, so both kex and shex are correct pronunciations (even though some argue that only one of them is correct).
Hello Marie! Your videos are awesome. A few pointers on pronouncing the Swedish characters... Å is pronounced as the A in "All", Ä is pronounced like the A in "Air", and Ö is pronounced like the E in "Early". Keep up the good work! 🙂
Letters have slightly different pronounciations in most every language, when learning another you have to willfully forget your own one for a while and pickup another from scratch. As a native swede I had real trouble when we started learning english in 4th grade but I stuck with it, read books and listened to english speaking radio (yes this was before the internet) and I got better. Once you become somewhat fluent the drive to try for another might come, it did for me which opening a world of possibilities. Today I speak 5 languages and are learning my 6th. I also picked up Swedish, English and French sign language due to some friends being deaf but still wanting to travel the world. Best of luck in your language learning endeavors, the mind can do much more than people think if you just decide that you will do it!
Nice that your learning Swedish! I would souley focus on pronounciation if I were you, since that can be a bit weird. Hope you have a good journey when it comes to learning Swedish!
I think it would be cathartic for you to watch "Mastering Swedish lesson 1 - 5" (available on RUclips) :) Examples brought up. "Giftorm" means "Venomous Snake", but "Gift orm" means "Married Snake" Tomten på tomten, tog stegen med stegen - means "The Santclaus in the yard, took the steps with the ladder.
Remember that Å, Ä, Ö is not A and O, they are there own letters with there own pronunciations. And yes the "chee"-words are tricky.
Exactly! That should be the very first thing thing to learn - the correct pronounciation of Swedish letters.
That is a good point, the long vowels are: ä is like ai in hair and pair, å is like ou in four, ö is like i in bird, first. Just realized that if you replace the sound with the letter it will spell swedish words, except for pär which is a boys name.
If you know how it sounds, it is easier to understand how the pronunciation of the word is. As non native English speaker, Swedish is much more logic than English, where a lot of times you have to know how the pronunciation is of the word.
@@Vinterfrid Right all 24 vowels. That list mostly consists of a single letter.. the letter A... hardly leaving room for E I O U Y Å Ä and Ö. And that's despite 3 different Ys.
it's so painful when people get that wrong. they don't look different because they are "edgy" or "fance", they look different because they are different letters.
I'm Norwegian, but to me it sounds like you are progressing fast. When learning Scandinavian languages, it can be fun to translate the nouns literally. Like sjöstjerna = sea star, sköldpadda = shield toad
I'll just say this, if you ever plan on learning German do that FIRST, it's next to impossible to do it after you learn Swedish because the similarities may seem to be obvious but often words mean very different things.
I think it would be a good idea to learn the 3 small "dirty" letters: Æ Ø Å or Ä Ö Å.
When an English speaker sees these letters, they stall and panic. The silly thing is, that they are very easy to pronounce, and can be learned in a few minutes, and then you will be able to pronounce Malmö correct.
Öl = Beer. You see, learning Ö is very important. 😉
@@Gert-DKEasy for an english person?
In Dutch we have the same sounds in the forms of uu eu and ui, ij, ei, ee and e. Ive never seen people struggle harder than with the first three.
@@gloriascientiae7435 I am not sure what you are saying. But learning Æ, Ø and Å only takes a few minutes, regardless where you are from.
Our D is very difficult, it can be pronounced in 17 ways, but if it is in the start of a word, it's the same as English.
wouldnt you just experience the same problems but with swedish after?@@michaelmay5453
You do know that swedish differentiate between long and short vowels? "Tjäna" is long, "känna" is short. And the double "nn" marks the difference. Now I'm looking forward to when you discover pitch accent :) And you are doing great. I am really impressed.
Vowel before double consonant is short.
Exactly, except when it's not as in "Ramlösa" and [you know what].
@@_Wolfsbane_ I guess you live nearby Ramlösa. As far as I know most say Raaamlösa instead of Rammlösa. Same with Osby, people not living nearby say Ooosby instead of Ossby. I listened to a SR historypod and they mentioned a monestary (that I can't remember now) not far from Stockholm and it was pronounced with a short vowel in the pod but not spelled like a short vowel. The people talking in the pod were from the Stockholm area.
@@StaffanRudnick Fair enough, what "you know what", then?
@@_Wolfsbane_ Ramlösa has a single m, thus long.
First thing to learn is that å, ä, and ö are not variations of a and o. It's not like the German Umlauts, they are completely different letters.
It's a bit similar, albeit oposite, to that w is regarded as a variant of v in Swedish, which is why one tell-tale of a Swedish accent is that we sometimes pronounce words like "we" or "weather" wrorg
Ä and Ö were originally umlauts (or omljud in Swedish) and they still appear as umlauts in many situation (för example, Ö in Möss is an umlaut of U in Mus; yes U becomes a variant of O at umlautation). But yes, they are classified as district letters a not as letters with diacritics (trema in this case, often called diaeresis or umlaut by mistake). Umlauts are exactly what it says on the tin, a sound being changed to make an inflected word easier to pronounce (of course, in some cases the inflection part has disappeared leaving only the umlaut as indication that the word is inflected). Å is just a long A that has developed into a distinct vowel.
@s3668Quite, but it's not what English speakers typically mean with the word "umlaut", most dont call "Mouse" - "Mice" an umlaut.
Isnt ä and ö considered as separate letters in German as well?
@@laxsjo.wiki: "German uses letter-diacritic combinations (Ä/ä, Ö/ö, Ü/ü) using the umlaut and one ligature (ẞ/ß (called eszett (sz) or scharfes S, sharp s)), but they do not constitute distinct letters in the alphabet.", which is inline with what I was taught in German class
Why would it matter though in this case? In German the umlauted vowels are also pronounced very differently than their "normal" versions.
In my Swedish for foreign beginner students class I often write A O U Å on the board, just to remind the students that it's only when these letters follow K or G that you really pronounce them with the hard sounds. This will work 95% of the time, and if you just remember that "kebab" is an exception it will work closer to 99% of the time.
Yeah, that's a general theme of Swedish spelling: Knowing the rules helps very much because in the majority of cases they will be followed, but there will usually be a ton of exceptions too. (and then you have the fact in informal swedish we often don't actually pronounce words like they are written anyway).
@@stoferb876 I think in very few languages all words are pronounced as they are written. Maybe Finnish? Italian, perhaps? Just guessing now, though.
@@stoferb876
What is your excuse for the difference between spelling and pronounciation?
Ours here in Norway is 500+ years under foreign rule...
Or "kex" depending on where you are in the country. You know, just to make it a little trickier with dialects
Vad snackar du om? Det heter tjebabb.
You are actually doing really really well. Much better than you give yourself credit . I am half danish and speak danish as a native and understand Swedish, If you continue this way you will be able to be understood both in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. I am impressed.
Yes, once you got it and understand how it should be your pronunciation is actually spot on and very very good! Agree that our pronunciation rules and schemes are sometimes (=often) a bit funky and irregular but you are definitely on the right track. Be happy you are studying Swedish and not Danish because it is a nightmare to pronounce, haha. I understand almost perfectly written Danish but almost nothing when I hear a Dane speak… (I’m a Swede from Stockholm). They seem to have it easier to understand Swedish than we to understand Danish. Nevertheless, lovely people the Danes.
Best wishes and good luck with your Swedish lessons!
Don't fool her, once she knows Swedish she will understand spoken and written Swedish and Norwegian and written Danish, but she will still have no clue what the Danes are saying... that applies to native Swedes as well. 😉
@@antioch4019 Exactly, written danish is understandable. However spoken danish is nearly impossible.
I'll never forget when we were driving to germany via denmark, i had been asleep going across the ferry and when we stopped for gas at the gas station i woke up and had to use the bathroom. They required to get the key from the cashier in order to go. So i went in speaking swedish thinking we were still in sweden. He understod me well enough, but i got so taken aback when he replied in danish. I hadn't realised we had crossed into denmark. So i switched to english due i didn't understand him. And he keept replying in danish and i just didn't understand. He had to show me that the key was hanging next to the bathroom. I feelt so stupid after that lol.
@@peterliljeholmen5703i think it depends where u live in Danmark and where u live in Sweden. Cuz non of my danish friends ( i know a lot of danes) from different places can understand when i speak Swedish. (sometimes they understand words tho) anyway im from southern Sweden (kalmar) and i understand them almost fluently. Bc how we spoke before here in småland has a lot of similarities to how they speak and we also are closer to them. And i think the danes that understand swedish is mostly working close to Sweden or in Sweden or live in danish places that have a lot of swediah history too🤷♀️
@@antioch4019talk gor urself i understand a lot of danish bc i live in småland
As somebody who knows quite a few languages, I can say that pronunciation is extremely important.
Not only do you avoid misundertandings like förstöra and förstora, but you also get a better feel for the language.
I would definitely recommend a phonetics course or at least taking a look at general phonetics to learn how sounds work and then special Swedish phonetics.
As a Swedish person that learned English before we had it in school, I can say the same about English. Mean comes in two versions, for instance, the meaning of and to be nasty to someone. There are so many of those. About the skj, stj, sch sounds: my little niece who's three is having the same sort of problems, which is not a diss against you, it's just remarking on the fact that it seems to follow the same pattern when learning Swedish. I think you're doing really well.
I hope you enjoy the two tonal variants in Swedish. Two words that are spelt the same, but mean two completely different things, depending on what tone you use. My favorite is gift, which means poison or married. Which I personally think is intentional but I guess we'll never know. :P
Mean is also a statistical term!
Im swedish and had the same problems but I guess video games and youtubers helped alot
@@ILoveCatsAIot I learned English well before RUclips was around, would have been 1989-90. My mom said I learned it at around 8-9 years old to be able to read video game manuals, funnily enough.
@@SynthhInHDalso means cheap
That is not an example of tone
9:26 But they are not spelled or pronounced the same way. Saying they look almost the same is like saying that Car and Bar almost looks the same. They're also only different from one letter hehe. It is very important to understand that O and Ö are very different in the sound
I must say. I am really impressed by a lot of your insights in things a native swedish speaker just takes for granted. But i dont envy you gerting to all the compound words that completely changes meanings.
I moved from England to Sweden three years ago. This video is a great reminder of my own journey with the language. It gets easier! You're doing great.
I started Swedish for some back to back trips there, and stumbled on the same issue as you. Fortunately the vocabulary is fairly easy, especially since I read a lot and knew some German. It helped I had a native Swedish person working for me, who could help when I needed it, or just to vent with.
If you know two germanic languages, you basically understand all of them.
The vocab thing is also true for me who already knows swedish and English and is learning german.
As a Dane, this is glorious! It's always Danish language that gets heckled, so I am glad to see We're not the only ones with an impossible language :)
Sure, but Danish is just fall down drunk Swedish. :P
Danish is a potato language though 🤣
@@Andy76sweThe potato: 🥔
I love Denmark and the Danish people. But your language sounds like youre trying to speak Swedish whilst gargling oatmeal.
My grandmother is Danish. She met my (Swedish) grandfather very early on in life and they married around the age of 19 or so for her (he was 5 years older). She dealt with the pronunciation pretty well and still do. My grandmother's father though (when they came to visit)... When my mother and her siblings were small, they loved to hear him try to pronounce 77 because of the double "sch" sounds in that number. He could not, for the life of him. I don't blame him. Lol
Maybe I've got a great cheat sheet or I'm just good at langauges, but I never had any issues with Danish, understanding it or otherwise. Only trouble I ever had to understand Danish was when I visited Jutland once. But all of my Danish relatives were from the islands, so... Maybe that's why?
it’s very important to recognize that ÅÄÖ is NOT A and O. They’re different distinct letters with their own distinct pronunciations. In the Swedish alphabet they are placed at the end after Z. So in Sweden we say “från a till ö” instead of the English equivalent “from a to z” en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_alphabet
Exactly! That should be the very first thing thing to learn - the correct pronounciation of Swedish letters.
They do it just as wrong in German too. Those are different letters, you also wouldn't read a "Q" like an "O", only cus its similar.
And please, if your keyboard doesn't have "ä", write "ae" instead, "ö" - "oe", "ü" - "ue" and "å" - "aa". You also wouldn't like someone to write "aoua" instead of "aqua".
@@Delibrothat's something that they do to simplify teaching the alphabet. In romance languages or in slavic languages ó ò ô õ ö are not separate letters because the accent marks are so many that it would be much more confusing to call them separate letters. Functionally accent marks or "separate letters" are the same, they indicate a different sound from the sound usually represented by the simple latin alphabet
@@tj2375 I didn't meant how its called, I meant how its spoken. Those letters are spoken differently.
@@Vinterfrid"The correct pronunciation of Swedish letters" - that's the problem though isn't it? O and Å are pronounced the same way in "potta/råtta" or "mål/kol". What about "Mästerverk" where Ä makes an E sound and one E makes an Ä sound? Gets even more ridiculous with "planet" and "planet" where the stress is put on different syllables, or "kön" and "kön" where the K makes a completely different sound.
You are progressing nicely. Keep at it!
Hi , as a Dane , i understand almost all you Said in swedish 👍😃 keep up The good Work
As a Swede, I understand almost all she said in Swedish too! 😄 Jokes aside, she's doing great!
Som svensk fattar jag inget av vad du skrev. 🙄
Phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs exist in English too :) look at the turtles, look out for something, look something up, look down on someone, depend on someone, listen to me, get over it, get in the car, put up with him, the car broke down etc.
Sure. I can only remember one thing in Swedish that you don't have in English, and that is gender on nouns.
In Swedish you have 2 genders, common and neuter, while my native language, Norwegian, has 3 (masculine, feminine, neuter). Swedish used to have 3 also, but I get they got too lazy 😂
Like she said it is quite confusing, because what declensions are used are highly irregular. You just have to know them.
En flicka (singular indefinitite common) - a girl
Flickan (singular definite) - the girl
Flickor (plural indefinitite) - girls
Flickorna (plural definite) - girls
Ett äpple (singular indefinitite neuter) - an apple
Äpplet (singular definite) - the apple
Äpplen (plural indefinitite) - apples
Äpplena (plural definite) - apples
But that is not all. It also affect pronouns, adjectives and adverbs.
Vilken stor flicka - what a big girl
Vilket stort äpple - what a big apple
@@AudunWangen May I ask why many or even most Norwegians still use a kind of Norwegian Danish for writing, in conservative forms even applying the Danish common gender (omitting feminine gender and turning those words to masculine forms)?
@@MarcLeonbacher-lb2oe I don't know, but I think it's more common in the Hanseatic cities, like Bergen. I definitely use the feminine form.
@@AudunWangen Did you just speak about using "bokmål" as written language instead of "nynorsk" (which is much rarer, if I can trust the online sources that I know), or about not using the feminine gender in "bokmål"? How widespread is the latter? I as a German have even often read some texts that even denied the existence of feminine gender in Bokmål. (Which I know is wrong.)
@@MarcLeonbacher-lb2oe No, I'm speaking about dialects, and not the written languages. There's feminine in both Nynorsk and Bokmål, so dropping feminine is only apparent in specific dialects.
I hope this is a series
I'm learning Norwegian, the pronunciation there is a bit easier but overall a very similar language. The grammar is apparently closer to the German than to the English, that helps me as a native German speaker.
Norwegian has 3 genders, while Swedish only have 2. I would think that Norwegian is easier for a German to learn in regards to pronunciation, although we have way more dialects that can make natives hard to understand.
As someone currently learning swedish:
I feel you on a spiritual level 😂😂
I am very impressed, you are learning Spanish AND Swedish at the same time! You make it hard for yourself.
I have never had so much fun watching someone struggling before.
Your face.. when you look into the camera.. The pain is real. 🤣🤣🤣
Have you tried listening to Swedish music and reading the lyrics at the same time?
I've seen in the comments on videos from Molly Sandén and Laleh that some people learn that way.
I have replayed the "sked" part 20 times. Its adorable and so funny.
The toaster actually makes a lot of sense to me. I'm Belgian and I speak Dutch, and in my language, it's called "een broodrooster". Kind of similar to the Swedish word. :)
If you would translate our word literally, it would say "a bread toaster" ;)
Dutch and Swedish can be very similar, especially in text.
Förrästen du är så jäkla rolig 😂 Älskar din humor
Don't know how long you've been at this but you seem to be doing great. You actually pronounced the 'sjö' in 'sjöstjärna' really well (then the 'stjärna' part broke down lol). The sj-sound is one of the hardest ones for foreigners to learn, so good on you.
The norwegians spell things a bit easier, we still have a lot of archaic spellings in swedish (which is why K can make so many sounds for example. But hey, it's not like English isn't guilty of this too) :)
The sj-sound is also the part of Swedish that gets specifically practiced a lot in school for native speakers as well. It just might be the universally hardest part about the language.
@@ViktorBengtssonI have no memory of this. Might be a new thing? We practice some spelling of the variosu "sch"-sounds (tj,sj, sk, k, sch etc.) but I don't remember ever spending much time on the pronunciation. It was assumed you knew that already.
@@thehoogard I might have been a bit unclear. I was thinking of practicing how to spell the sound, not how to make the sound. The point was still that there is a disconnect between the one sound and the many spellings. I can't really think of anything else that we practiced nearly as much when it comes to writing.
I myself am Swedish and understand quite well that you struggle with some of the spelling versus pronunciation in Swedish. In many cases, it can simply be explained by the fact that the written language changes at a slower rate than the spoken language.
But if we are going to talk about strange spelling, I do think English is much more complicated.
For example, what do you think of words like "thought" or "enough"? Try pronouncing these according to the same rules you applied on Swedish 😉.
Or words that are pronounced exactly the same but can be spelled in several ways and mean different things such as "hear - here".
Or the opposite, words that are spelled the same but can be pronounced in several ways and mean different things; "lead = metal" or "lead to something"?
I could continue along this path for a long time but think you would have much more fun if you google, for example, "Absolutely Ridiculous English Spelling" 🤓 ☺️ 🙃
ps.
Don't even get me started on French spelling vs pronounciation 🤪.
As a swede, I find it awesome that you are learning swedish :) You seem motivated and I think you are progressing pretty well. Keep up the good work, I like your videos and personality.
You must love the "sju sjösjuka sjömän sköttes av sju sköna sjuksköterskor på det sjunkande skeppet i Shanghai" . :) (Sorry, I had to.) And yes, we love our "there's no rule for HOW to know which article belongs to what word but there is a wrong and a right way to use the definite/indefinite articles". The strongest sadistic streak we have. Lol Also...
vägen - the road
väggen - the wall
We love doing this :)
On a serious note, you're making good progress! Good luck with the cooking video! You can do it.
How do YOU pronounce that tongue twister? I guess you say it like "hu höhuka hömän..." and just replace every s-sound with an h. Finnish here. So we pronounce it with the sound in the English word shoe. I suppose it's pronounced similarly in northern parts of Sweden.
@@TheMrGazolineDepending on regional accents, it'll be pronounced either ʃ or ɧ (using the international phonetic alphabet).
I'll use mostly ɧ, but for Shanghai I prefer ʃ due to it being closer to the Mandarin pronunciation the spelling is based on.
@@TheMrGazolineIt is similar to sh in shoe but a lot further back in your mouth, if that makes sense. Also with your mouth a bit open.
Like, in shoe you use the front on your tongue and have your teeth closed right? Instead open your mouth and use the back of the tongue
I was going to post this one too. It's brutal. Although in my version it's "sjuttiosju sköna sjuksköterskor" 🙂
in regard to the preposition thing that swedish dose, it is called verb particles and it functions like it is forming a new word with the previous word. This exist in english to some degree as well like eat up.
Swedish is a lot of "You just got to know". Meaning there is no real rule. You just know 😆So having a Swede to help is very good.
Swedish is also very weird when you translate literally. Like Shieldtoad 🤔
Swedish food...hmm. I'd say "Flygande Jacob". Its unique and very Swedish 😆
Lastly, your pronunciation is good (for an American), you are getting there. I understood you 9:50 , its not perfect. I would say it differently, but I understood 😄
Bra jobbat! Du är duktig på Svenska och det är kul att höra din åsikt om språket.
We also have words that change meaning completely depending on how they are pronounced. You are doing great. 🙂
For what to cook I'd like to suggest "makaronipudding" (macaroni casserole), it basically is the counterpart to "mac 'n cheese".
And yeah, the "sje-ljud" (those things you complained about) is something we have drilled into us extensively at start of school, depending on how you count there are 12-20 of them - is highly advised to just rote-learn them early on.
Do learn to view "å" "ä" "ö" as distinct vowels as soon as possible as well to break the habit of viewing them as "accents" (probably easiest way to do this would be to learn to recite the alphabet with swedish pronunciation, maybe even as flashcards).
Fasen nu blev jag sugen på makaronipudding, inte käkat det på as länge. Samt lärde mig nå nytt idag, hur det stavas. Har alltid uttalat det: Makronpudding. Kanske har med att jag är ifrån norrland att göra.
I like your content, but since you got a new microphone the sound of you voice is distorted. Maybe lower lower input level of the mic?
Keep up the good work 🙂
Yes, she should turn the “gain” (input level) down.
As a Swede with dyslexia, spelling tj sj sk skj etc. is the most difficult thing there is. I often need to know where the word comes from to remember the spelling of it! You do a great job with your pronunciations! Keep it up!
Also double letters i'm 33 and still have problem with double letters
You're doing great learning swedish and your video is both pedagogical and funny.
Det ska bli kul att se matlagningsvideon.
Very interesting. I literally had no idea about how Swedish works.
You are great at this! Keep working it and you'll be fluent in no time. I'm very impressed!
Oh, and I never realized the "weirdness" of our verbs usually taking a preposition like that. Thank you for this perspective, I'll make sure to consider that when I try to coach people in my surroundings that are learning the language.
This was so good !!
Thank you for this video .
I never knew Swedish was dificult to learn. Because i allways knew how to speak it.
But your video was the best ever✨️✨️
My dad's American, and you can still tell after 40 years in Sweden, so don't worry about getting the pronounciation perfect. The only way to truly sound like a native Swede is to move here and get a job where you speak Swedish all day at work. Every English-speaker I know whose job involves speaking a lot of English keeps their accent no matter how long they stay here.
The en/ett issue really is crazy; 99% of native Swedes just instinctively know which one is right without consciously knowing why, and on the rare occasion where we get one wrong we hear it as soon as the word leaves our mouth and correct ourselves.
Why did you decide to learn Swedish btw?
There was a study once that found that it's virtually impossible to sound like a native if you're not fluent in the language by the age of 19.
My grandfather moved to Norway from the Netherlands when he was 20 together with his sister. He worked the desk of a newspaper, had a Norwegian wife, children, friends. By the time he was 70 he'd lived 50 years in Norway speaking Norwegian to everyone every single day. And he still ha a Dutch accent, as did his sister whom outlived him by a couple of decades.
Wanting to sound like a native speaker is something people just needs to forget about.
I'm not sure I agree with that, I've met some people with close to perfect pronunciation after moving here much later. I think it has more to do with the ability to know what you sound like when speaking, like singers knowing what tone to hit for example. But maybe you are right @@Nabium
@@Ca11mero Where do you live?
Sweden :)@@Nabium
@@Ca11mero I get your point about singers, I think you're absolutely right about that. Some people have a talent.
That's why I said virtually impossible, I put the world virtually there to signify it as a hyperbole. Sure, some people seem to manage this. Maybe the same kind of people who can easily make parodies of other accents int heir own language or something.
But my whole life I've met nothing but the opposite of your experience. Back in school we had this girl from Kurdistan join our class. She spoke fluent before a year was past, and she sounded like a native within two years. Kids just pick it up like that. I've met people like that many times.
But people who learn Norwegian after they become adult? I haven't met any single person who truly sounds like a native.
It's why when Snatch got Brad Pit as an actor, they had to rewrite the script and write in an Irish traveller. Because they knew they couldn't get an American to pass off as a Londoner. But Irish can be made so incomprehensible that he could slur his way through, and the British crowd wouldn't know any difference.
Now hollywood actors have speech couches which helps them with tongue placement, lip movement, gutteral techniques. Everything needed to sound native. And even with speech coaching, even with his talent as an actor, even with slurring and even with everyone non-Irish being impressed with Brad Pit - Irish people can easily tell he's not native. And that's within his own language English, he didn't have to learn any other language - imagine then how much speech coaching is needed before nailing a second language.
It's something that requires both talent, and dedication. You have to retrain the tongue to move in minute and precise ways, but also retrain your ear to hear the difference between e and e and e.
Our brain will learn to hear sounds in distinct ways. Especially vowels. Meaning when you listen to a second language, the brain hears sounds which are closer to your native language. So to learn a new language, over time you have to seperate between new sounds your brain cannot even seperate as seperate vowels sounds yet.
Just think of Danish, how everything sounds the same and all muddled up. It doesn't sound that way to a Danish person because they can distinguis between the vowel sounds, so they clearly hear seperate vowels. But we don't. We just think they're having a stroke or something.
I hope you remember that the consonant in front of a soft vowel is soft (G becomes J K becpmes Sch aso). Soft vowels are E I Y Ä Ö. If these letters are folloed by A O U or Å they are hard, just like they are written.
you are doing really well!!
He, he, you are extra adorable in this video! You'll do fine! Greetings from a Norwegian!❤
Sounds good! Here is a short list of what letters and combos thereof we use for the various sh-sounds: K (Känna, Kör etc..), G (garaGe, loGe etc..), J (Jargong, Jour etc..), TJ (Tjäna, Tjärn etc..), SK (Skära, skämmas etc..), SJ (Själv, Sju etc..), STJ (Stjärna, Stjärt etc..), SKJ (Skjuta, skjul etc..), CH Choklad, Chans etc..). I think this is a tremendous feat to even try, Swedish is a very hard language, and as you rightly claim, alot of words needs to be learnt by heart, logic goes bye-bye for the most part. But as a proud Swede myself, I feel I have to ask you WHY? Sweden is one of those countries where people speak english well enough that foreigners can easily get by and even live here for years coping fine without learning the language.
Still you have to learn in what cases to use the "sh-sound". Like köra in the aspect of drive or köra in the aspect of being part of a choir. Loge in the aspect of lodge or loge as in a barn.
I think it might be helpful with your list, just wanted to point that out.
I am born and raised in Sweden. You understand swedish grammer better then i did when i was 9 years old, You are smart and a fast learner. Keep it up! Jag tror på dig!
To me as a Swede I find it very confusing when foreigners claim that the sj-sound is like an h. Yo me the sj-sound is related to the sh/tj-sound, just harder and further back. An h is open but sj squeezes your mouth together and your tongue back. It's similar to what you do with the sh-sound further forward in your mouth.
For common letter combinations for the sj- and sh-sounds I recommend "Läsa är Lätt".
I'm from Northern Sweden and in my dialect we use frontal sh sound like the English sh.
you should try to cook Kroppkakor, its not easy but its soo good, you eat them with butter, lingonberryjam and cream. takes like two days of preparing for that, you should go for köttbullar och potatismos med sås gjord på skyn från köttbullarna och med inlagd gurka och lingonsylt såklart, Och du ska ha kryddpeppar i köttbullarna för rätt svensk smak.
Jag dör 😂 What on earth made you learn Swedish? You are doing very well anyway so keep up the great work !
Go for the two words Anden and Anden, means two different things.
This is the part of swedish I like to call "Don't make sense out of it, just deal with it" I'm trying to learn finnish right now and I'm in the same existential crisis but with the millions of endings they use for literally every word
you are awsome, it took me 3 years to get where you are and i was living in sweden
Bra jobbat ändå. Lycka till fortsättningsvis.
de går ju bra fan! ducktigt jobbat :P
What a treat... reminds me of the time my dad taught me the first primer in swedish when he relocated there in the mid 80s...
as a swedish native person shadow is finding this meeping hilarious!!! so many things for you yet to learn her
🤣 you should try Danish next
Det här var kul 😊
"Titta på" is more easily translated to "look at".
It may be used as in "watching a show", but many of these terms you have been looking at have more adjacent translations in English that would be easier to understand.
Watch on (the telly). Ring up (someone). Come to remember. This makes complete sense to me!
The swedish language have beef with you. ;) Ö is not o. The ö sound is like the i in Bird, but a little more forward in the mouth. The o sound is more like the o in Cool. Very different sounds.
And to combine two of your favourites. Check out the words "köl" and "kol". Should be the same according to you. Right? :)
Danish will make you weep 🇩🇰🇩🇰😎
Just learn swedish or norwegian first then put a potato in your mouth. Easy. 😄
Nice job so far! Yes, there are some rules in Swedish grammar, but a lot based on ancient Swedish and such, which are learned like you say: "by just knowing". A bit similar to the 100-200 irregular verbs in English ;). Lycka till!
You made me laugh at my own language.
Wonderful video. Cheers from Sweden!
Bättre än en del svenskar! Tummen upp! 👍
What??? Ha? That sounds nothing like what’s written! a huahuagh? Swedish is weird. Norwegian is much easier (I think). I’m from Holland btw. Hi hi!
Hoi! :)
Really good and impressive work. Keep it up!
You are progressing super well! You should be ready to practice with a local soon with basic daily conversations!
You remind me of when I was a SFI teacher. Couldn't help the little sadistic smile when I had to say: you just have to learn it by hart.
But you seem to do great. You will get it quite quickly I think.
You are doing great! You will pick it up easily!
As a Swede this was so cute ❤ I truly look forward to seeing you progress!
Your "sjöstjärna" was actually quite good - much better then you probably think 🙂
Haha! Glorious!
Kämpa på! Det är roligt att se vad som är svårigheterna med det svenska språket.
Sounds good so far ^_^
You got the key for speaking swedish I hear. Real good!
I had so much fun watching this, thank you.
As a Swede this was hilarious to watch. 😂 I can understand the confusion. But you're doing great!
Haha, keep it up. It's nice to see someone learning a new language. Swedish is my second mother language, the other is finnish. English was my third language and german fourth. Languages are great. Good job. 👍
Det här är så roligt! :D But you're doing good so far!
Ja för sant
Good work! Languages are fun! :)
You are progressing fast, smart girl.
Your swedish is so good! Keep it up!
There are some Swedish dialects that are not so heavy with the "h" sound when there's an "sj" or "sk", so you don't need to master the Swedish shwing. The main thing is to remember that Å, Ä and Ö have nothing to do with A and O. Completely different vowels.
Haha, love this ❤. To be fair, 'vara' and 'är' seems super weird, but then you realize they traslate to 'to be' and 'am/are/is'... soooo, English is not very logical either! 😅
So, one of the things i could suggest is trying to listen to Swedish podcasts. And the one I would suggest is... erm... It is a news program on Swedish radio that uses a fairly simple swedish. I can see if i can find it.
2:30 The surprise is priceless.
As a native Swede, I never had any problem with that one.
Interestingly, to "look on" or "look upon" something is an archaic way to talk about watching something in English as well. Lots of languages have quirks like that, some of which are cognate, but it's interesting to see which languages kept what.
Youre doing great! Swedish can be a bit strange. "Val" written and pronounced in exactly the same way can mean "Election.", "Whale" and "Choice".
But election and choice are related at least
@@PennyAfNorberg Thats true.
When you fully understand the lyrics of Povel Rammel and Robert Broberg you have mastered the Swedish language Keep up the good work!
Pretty impressed with your Swedish, keep it up!
It's awesome that you want to learn our language! And yeah I never thought about it but it's really confusing that the "the" comes at the end. A little tip if you already don't know, if tje word ends with en like "hunden" (the dog) "it's "en hund" (a dog) but if it ends with et "bananskalet" (the banana peel) it becomes "ett bananskal" (a banana peel.) I hope you don't quit, you're doing so well :)
Duolingo has the same words as you showed in the video. I recommend trying to use that for a few weeks as it pronounces the words for you which is nice when you’re starting off with a new language.
You probably be learning more proper grammar than I even learned in my whole life XD
Most of us swedes don't know how it works, we just know when it fits and when it doesn't XD
with that said, you're doing great, keep it up and don't be afraid of mistakes, they're more afraid of you than you are of it! XD
I'm Swedish and can't wait to see and hear you make some Swedish food. You're doing great.. and in a really enjoyable way (if that's the appropriate expression here...) 😉👍
As a Swede from Stockholm, first and foremost I do wish to applaud you on your ability to make mostly correct sentences from your own head. That does set you apart from many learners. Heck, I still can't quite do that with my own Spanish practice, and I have been studying every day for 2 years now.
That said, the pronunciation is awful and you likely know that. Not god-awful as I can certainly tell you are trying and can somewhat distinguish certain sounds even if you can't yet make them. That's a lot better than what is sometimes stereotyped of English speakers. Namely that they don't even try and just say Swedish words as if they were English ones.
Pointer wise to your improvement, I can add a few things that should make it easier for you to visualize more correct pronunciation. First being the tricky K sounds.
In general, K does make the same sound as in English, but typically not when followed by a vowel. Kök, Köp, and Kärlek make a sound that is extremely similar to the English SH sound. Exceptions exists, such as Keps, Kuk (swear word), and most dialects of Kex although some like the Gothenburg one has that word make a SH sound.
As for SK, that makes a very heavily aspirated H sound. Think of making a "sigh" but you close the throat off a little bit more by using the back of the tongue. Funnily enough, this should be the same as the Russian H sound or the Spanish J.
SJ and STJ is a similar kind of thinking with the SK sound, but the height of the tongue is closer to the roof of the mouth. I'm not going to lie, I think this sound may take you a while to master.
Moving on to Å, Ä, and Ö: they are not the same as A and O. Linguistically; they're umlauts, with the symbol above them distinguishing them as a different sound entirely from the base letter. In Swedish these are considered their own letters. Ä is mostly the same sound as the English expression "Eh..." that you use when you don't quite agree with someone, and the sound is close to the effect you get from an "AE" diphthong. Ö is similar to the English expression "Um..." without the M. Å is closest to "Oh..." and sounds a little bit similar to the British A in Water but this one is probably going to take you a while to master. I know historically, this used to be a diphthong of either "OA" or "AO" so that might give you a jumping off point.
Lastly, please do some reading regarding Long and Short vowels. Most of the time they're easy to tell as the short vowels have time for double consonants, while long ones do not. The difference in sound isn't just how long they're held for but rather actual sound quality; meaning a long A does have a different sound than that of a short A. This is what happened in the Känna vs Tjäna example. The Ä in Känna makes a sound closer to an E, while Tjäna is the same sound used for the name of the letter; Ä/"AE".
I recommend watching movies and tv shows in swedish. Even songs with swedish lyrics are a huge help
Swedish and English have some common history, but they are still different languages with different rules, for instance how to pronounce things. The tough part is loanwords, that may or may not follow the rules, for instance kebab should be pronounced shebab according to Swedish rules, but the word is too new in the Swedish language to adapt to the rules. Another word is kex which origins from cake, but this word is pronounced differently in different parts of Sweden, so both kex and shex are correct pronunciations (even though some argue that only one of them is correct).
Hello Marie! Your videos are awesome. A few pointers on pronouncing the Swedish characters... Å is pronounced as the A in "All", Ä is pronounced like the A in "Air", and Ö is pronounced like the E in "Early". Keep up the good work! 🙂
Letters have slightly different pronounciations in most every language, when learning another you have to willfully forget your own one for a while and pickup another from scratch. As a native swede I had real trouble when we started learning english in 4th grade but I stuck with it, read books and listened to english speaking radio (yes this was before the internet) and I got better.
Once you become somewhat fluent the drive to try for another might come, it did for me which opening a world of possibilities. Today I speak 5 languages and are learning my 6th. I also picked up Swedish, English and French sign language due to some friends being deaf but still wanting to travel the world. Best of luck in your language learning endeavors, the mind can do much more than people think if you just decide that you will do it!
Nice that your learning Swedish! I would souley focus on pronounciation if I were you, since that can be a bit weird.
Hope you have a good journey when it comes to learning Swedish!
I think it would be cathartic for you to watch "Mastering Swedish lesson 1 - 5" (available on RUclips) :)
Examples brought up.
"Giftorm" means "Venomous Snake", but "Gift orm" means "Married Snake"
Tomten på tomten, tog stegen med stegen - means "The Santclaus in the yard, took the steps with the ladder.
You know, I’d absolutely love to teach you😂