You see, it’s a possessive pronoun. Yes, another one, I know, I know… And it’s also of the “not found in English” variety of personal pronouns, which is precisely why it can be a pain to learn and use it correctly.

So, what is this “sin” exactly? It may mean “his” or “her” or “its” or “their” depending on the subject of the sentence. Because you see, it’s used when the third person possessive pronoun in the sentence refers to the subject of the same clause. Confused? OK, let’s take a look at how it works in real life.

• Åsa är gift med Jonas. – Åsa is married to Jonas.

And this lovely couple will now demonstrate when you use “sin” and when some other possessive pronoun is needed.

• Jonas besöker sin pappa ofta. – Jonas often visits his (own) dad.
• Åsa ringer hans pappa varje dag. – Åsa calls his (Jonas’s) dad every day.

See what I mean? In the first sentence, because Jonas is the subject and his dad is the object, instead of “his” we need to use “sin”. It means “his”, but more like “his own”. And that’s basically the gist of it. If you can’t stick “own” after the possessive pronoun in a sentence, then you must use “hans” or “hennes” or “deras”.

Now, Åsa will provide us with one more example.

• Åsa tvättar inte sin bil. – Åsa doesn’t wash her (own) car. (hehehe, she’s just like me!)
• Jonas älskar Åsa, så han tvättar hennes bil. – Jonas loves Åsa, and so he washes her car. (and Jonas is just like my husband, LOL!)

And that’s basically it. You just need to remember that “sin” can’t be used with the subject. For example:

• Jag känner Åsa. - I know Åsa.
• Hennes man arbetar på vårt kontor. – Her husband works at our office.

See? You can’t say “Sin man arbetar på vårt kontor”.

The easiest way to remember when to use “sin” and when to use a different possessive pronoun is to keep in mind these two simple sentences:

• Jonas älskar sin fru. – Jonas loves his (own wife).
• Jonas älskar hans fru. – Jonas loves his (some other guy’s) wife.

And of course, because it’s Swedish “sin” morphs into “sitt” when it is used with “ett” nouns and becomes “sina” when used with plural nouns.

Now, you see that it’s important to learn how to use “sin” correctly - it can help you stay out of trouble when talking about another man’s wife! Because otherwise, it’s a sin!

Post from: Swedish Blog

Ahhh… Those Swedish personal pronouns… They sure are fun! And don’t worry, they are not as complicated as you think. And by the way, I think I did cover them somewhere on this blog last year.

But since your wish is my command, let’s review those bits, because you are right, they are important, and getting them right makes all the difference between sounding like an idiot and speaking like someone who actually cared enough to learn it properly.

In English, it’s straightforward and easy. Whether you are talking about “my car” or “my children” – “my” stays the same, no matter what.

In Swedish, it’s a bit more involved than that, simply because Swedish nouns are divided into “en” and “ett”. And because most possessive pronouns behave just like adjectives, they need to be treated like adjectives. And hence, most of them get the “t” ending when accompanying “ett” nouns and “a” ending for plural nouns.

Take a look:

• min bil – my car

but

• mitt hus – my house

and

• mina skor – my shoes

Unfortunately, not all possessive pronouns follow this simple pattern. If they did, our lives would be just too easy, right?

Here’s one example:

• hans katt – his cat

and

• hans hus – his house

and

• hans pengar – his money (money is plural in Swedish)

And unfortunately, this one is not the only one. There’s more of them pesky little buggers who don’t like to conform.

Here is the complete table of possessive pronouns:

• my – min – mitt – mina
• your (singular) – din – ditt –dina
• his – hans – hans – hans
• her – hennes – hennes – hennes
• its – dess – dess – dess
• our – vår – vårt – våra
• your (plural) – er – ert – era
• their – deras – deras – deras

“Dess” is the possessive pronoun of “den” and “det” but it’s not used very much. Normally, the concept of “its” is expressed in some other way, like for example:
Jag har en katt. – I have a cat.
But instead of saying “Dess päls är vit.” – Its fur (coat) it white.
We would rather say
Den har vit päls. – It has white fur (coat).

There is also a mysterious (at least mysterious to many Swedish learners) pronoun “sin” but I think we should cover it in its very own special post.

PS. Today is the LAST DAY to enter my Midsommar Book Contest!!! The deadline is midnight EST (Eastern Standard Time in the US). So don’t miss out!!!

Scroll a few posts back to get the details!

Post from: Swedish Blog

And the attraction I’m talking about? Världens Längsta Linbana (the world’s longest ropeway) in Norsjö. Well, technically it’s between Örträsk and Mensträsk, but since nobody’s ever heard about those places, we’ll stick with Norsjö – much easier to find on the map.

What’s the longest ropeway in the world doing in the woods, you might ask? Hmmm… It’s a long story.

It started with a mine (gold, silver, copper, zinc, and lead) in Kristineberg. Back in the olden days, the ore had been transported to Boliden by road – about 100 kilometers (or 10 Swedish miles). But then WW2 happened and with it came severe shortages of fuel and rubber. In other words, road transport became pretty much impossible. But the world still needed that ore. And even more so than before. The problem of how to transport it to the coast was solved in a rather ingenious way.

“Hey, let’s build a ropeway,” someone said. And the rest is history.

And boy, did they build a ropeway, or what? 96 kilometers of it. Through the woods and over the lakes. It took 1500 men two years to finish it.

So how did they transport that ore using a ropeway? They simply loaded it into buckets and moved those buckets on a cable. Kind of like that:

These days 13 kilometers of this ropeway are used for moving tourists. Not in buckets, of course (but hey, now THAT would be an attraction, don’t you think?), but in comfortable cabins. The trip takes about an hour and a half and you can even order lunch. Or bring your own picnic along. And a camera – don’t forget about the camera!

And the best part? If you go towards the end of the season, you can see all the best hjortron patches from the air!

Yeah, yeah, nice bucket of hjortron. (Seen from the air).

And here’s the official website of Världens Längsta Linbana with all the relevant info. Enjoy!

Post from: Swedish Blog

You’ve survived one whole year with me! And frankly, I couldn’t have done it without you. Your comments, support, suggestions, and just plain being there and reading what I have to say ten times a month is more than what any blogger could have asked for. Because what’s a blog good for if no one ever reads it, right?

So, while we’re on the subject of age, let’s learn how to say how old we are in Swedish (well, not “we” because you’re not supposed to ask a lady’s age, but just in general) , OK?

• Swedish Blog är ett år (gammal). – Swedish Blog is one year old.

See? It’s easy. Very similar to English. That final “gammal” is not even necessary. Just like we would say in English that someone is (for example) 14, with “years” and “old” being understood and omitted.

Same in Swedish. You could say that:

• Han är 14 år. - He is 14. And that’s good enough.

Notice anything interesting about that final “år”? Even though it looks like a singular noun, in reality it’s not.

Take a look:

• år (def. året, pl. år, pl. def. åren) - 365 dagar * - year

This is the kind of stuff that happens with many “ett” nouns, and unfortunately, there’s no way around it - you just need to learn it.
And how do we ask about someone’s age?

• Hur gammal är du? – How old are you?

And our young friend would answer:

• Jag är 14 år. - I am fourteen.

But what happens if the object about whose age we are inquiring happens to be an “ett” noun? Then of course, instead of “gammal”, we have to say “gammalt”.

• Hur gammalt är ditt barn? – How old is your child?

“Barn” is an “ett” noun, and so the adjective “gammal” acquired one “t” at the end.

But wait a sec. Now take a look at this:

• Hur gamla är dina barn? – How old are your children?

“Barn” is one of those pesky nouns, just like “år”, that look the same in both indefinite singular and plural forms. But because “gammal” morphed into “gamla”, we know we are talking about more than one of your children here.

And this is how a simple birthday celebration turned into a grammar lesson. Ouch!

Har den äran på födelsedagen, Swedish Blog! – Happy Birthday Swedish Blog!

* A year with 366 days is called “skottår”.

PS. Even though it’s after Midsommar, it’s not too late to enter my Midsommar Swedish book contest!!! If you a reader from a country other than Sweden where Swedish books are hard to come by, all you need to do is to leave a comment under this post telling me IN SWEDISH why I should send the book to YOU (and not to someone else)! Good luck!!!

Post from: Swedish Blog

When it comes to travel, you can’t get any cheaper than going by bus.

Well, yes, I suppose there are even cheaper ways to travel – like buying your own donkey, but somehow I can’t imagine it would work very well in a country like Sweden. Though again, you never know. I think a couple of years ago there was a guy who traveled across Scandinavia on a mule. Anyway… let’s stick to buses for now. The crisis is bad but not THAT bad just yet.

I admit it, I like buses. And it’s not just because I’m a cheapskate. If you ride a bus during the day, you get to see a whole bunch of places and amazing scenery that otherwise you wouldn’t even know existed. One summer, just for the heck of it, I rode buses all the way from Kiruna to Stockholm.
As a bus traveler, I am partial to länstrafik buses. Those are the massive, mostly blue, mostly doubledeckers plowing the Swedish “outback”. Needless to say, I like to sit upstairs and watch the world go by as we zoom to Mo i Rana in Norway, or to Haparanda on the Finnish border. In many places in northern Sweden, those länstrafik buses will be your only choice, and unfortunately, their prices will also reflect this fact.

The further south you go, your options in bus travel increase tremendously. Here are a few bus companies ready to take you almost anywhere in Sweden and beyond.

• Bus 4 You

Yes, this is “bus” with only one “s”. From Stockholm, this company can take you to Göteborg, Oslo, Malmö and many other destinations in between. Unfortunately, their website is only in Swedish.

• Ybuss

I know this provider very well, I’ve spent many a long night (and day) on their buses going between Umeå and Stockholm. This is probably the cheapest option on this particular route, and those buses are always filled up with student crowds commuting to and from UMU. What’s nice about Ybuss is that they also stop at Arlanda airport, and hence provide a very attractive alternative for those in Norrland connecting to charter flights.

Not exactly a summer photo, I know, but this just goes to show you that buses in Sweden run year-round, even in conditions that would cripple traffic in most other countries.

• Swebus Express

is in cahoots with Ybuss these days, and thanks to that you can have a more or less seamless travel experience all the way down to Köpenhamn and beyond. What’s good about Swebus is that their website is multi-lingual.

• GoByBus

is a company previously known as Säfflebussen and you will frequently hear folks refering to it by its old name. No worries, it’s one and the same.

Covers southern Sweden, as well as Oslo and Kastrup (that’s the international airport in Copenhagen).

• Svenska Buss

again mostly southern Sweden, but it goes as far north as Sundsvall.

• Tapanis Buss

This is another one of my favorites.

This one is a long-distance institution in its own right. It can take you all the way from Haparanda (or rather Torneå – as its Finnish twin is known in Swedish) to Stockholm for only 570 SEK one way (no student discount on this route).

One thing to keep in mind when trying to book bus tickets on-line. Some bus websites accept search queries without Swedish letters å, ö, and ä, but many do not (the ones that don’t have a drop down box with destinations), so don’t get frustrated when the search results look like total nonsense. Just type in your search parameters again using Swedish letters and you will be on your way in no time.

Happy travels (by bus)!!!

Post from: Swedish Blog

But, it’s not airports I wanted to talk about today.

To celebrate the beginning of summer, I have something special planned for you.

I don’t know about you, but for me it just wouldn’t be summer without a dorky summer pop hit, beach and summer reading. You just can’t have a summer break and NOT read a funny, lighthearted book. Do you agree?

And I remember how some of you complained about how hard it is to get Swedish books abroad.

So, I’m going to help you out a bit with this book problem! To celebrate the beginning of summer, I thought a little something special was in order.

And tah-dah! We have our first annual Swedish Blog midsommar book contest.
The book you can win is “Populärmusik från Vittula” by Mikael Niemi. Which just happens to be one of my most favorite books, ever.

It was the winner of the August Prize for the best Swedish novel of 2000 (vinnare av Augustpriset som bästa svenska roman 2000). So, you can say it’s almost a classic.

I picked this book not because I have an extra copy sitting around (thought that’s true, too) but because of its location – a lovely little town called Pajala in the north of Sweden. And you know how much I love the far north! The rest of Sweden is really, well, the rest, if you live in the north.

This book has been translated into English, so if you want to read along with an English version, that’s possible, too. That’s another reason why I decided to give away this particular book, and not another. I want to make this Swedish reading experience as fun for you as possible, so even if you’re not confident you can manage all the way through in Swedish, you can follow along in English when you get tired.

OK, enough of me talking.
Do you want to win it?
All you need to do is to tell me in the comments section, på svenska, in 15 words or less, why I should send this book to you (and not to someone else). The deadline - June 30th.

Easy? Very!
Just remember when you leave your comment to enter a valid email address, it won’t be seen by other blog readers, but it’s visible on my end, and this is the email address, I will use to contact you, OK? Don’t leave your mailing address in the comment - I will ask you for it when my distinguished panel of judges (consisting of me, myself and I) selects the winner.

Oh, and one more thing – the contest is open only to subscribed readers of this blog (to subscribe click in the box to the right - it means that you will be getting new Swedish Blog posts by email) from countries other than Sweden. I know, I know, it doesn’t seem fair. But you guys in Sweden can just saunter down to your local library and read all summer long.

Trevlig midsommar!!!

Post from: Swedish Blog

Still, summer is summer, and as you’ve probably noticed (or know very well, if you’re Swedish) Swedes tend to believe the calendar more than the weather forecast. Why? The calendar is never wrong. And what about the forecasts? Well, we all know how accurate those can be…

However, we won’t let such a petty thing as weather stop us from enjoying our summer, right? But what can stop us from enjoying our summer are hotel prices in Sweden. Let’s face it, they’re high. Or very high. Even with the lower summer rates, it still can be too expensive for many people and families to go out and explore the country.

One alternative is to stay at a hostel instead.

Don’t worry, it’s not just an option for starving backpackers (though a month of exploring Sweden can turn any foreigner into a starving backpacker) anymore. Many hostels have private rooms, some with private bathrooms, even. Sometimes it’s hard to tell when a hotel ends and a hostel begins, because some full-service hotels turn part of their properties into cheaper hostel options.

If you think that as a family you can’t stay in a hostel, you’re wrong. Hostels (at least those in Sweden that I’m familiar with) know that families like to travel, too. Even families with smallish children. Therefore, don’t be surprised if you see many of the hostels here offering “family rooms”. And accepting pets (hey, some families have pets instead of children).

There are two main organizations in Sweden that run their own hostels. One is SVIF (Sveriges Vandrarhem i Förening – Organization of Swedish Youth Hostels) and the other STF (Svenska Turistföreningen – Swedish Tourist Association)

I like them both, and their hostels are pretty much of the same standard, both in terms of comfort, as well as price. Of course, in big cities you can expect to pay more than what you would in the countryside, that goes without saying. But even with that, hostels are a much more affordable option than full-service hotels.

I think that there are many hostel misconceptions, especially among Americans. But in my experience, those who were reluctant to try a Swedish hostel, but soon realized they couldn’t afford to spend every night in a hotel, very quickly came around to the idea of hostels and saw that this type of accommodation in Sweden can be of high standard, clean, safe and super friendly.

Both SVIF and STF have a list of hostels on their websites. And yes, their websites also have English versions. Which organization’s hostel you choose depends solely on you and on where you want to go. For example, in Västerbotten SVIF has only one facility, but STF – four.
And to that you still need to add a whole slew of independent hostel-type accommodation (not belonging to any association). So, in other words, pretty much anywhere you want to go in Sweden, there will be an affordable place to stay nearby.

No excuses! You CAN see Sweden on a budget. True, that budget may be a bit higher than in other European countries, but what other European country can offer you as much as Sweden, huh?

One thing you need to remember – room prices in Sweden are normally given per person, NOT per room! Keep that in mind, and there won’t be any unpleasant surprises later on.
If you plan to stay at a hostel, be sure to call and book ahead. Every year, seemingly all of Sweden and half of the world come up with exactly the same idea of cheap places to stay. This is doubly true in these tough economic times – there will be even more people competing for those affordable bunk beds, especially in the more popular areas.

What else can we do to travel in Sweden without breaking the bank? If you have any tips or suggestions, feel free to comment.

Today’s word:

• vandrarhem (def. -hemmet, pl. -hem, pl.def. -hemmen) – enkelt ställe där man kan övernatta och laga mat, t.ex. när man är ute och reser – hostel

Post from: Swedish Blog

But first things first. What is the passive (passiv) form? And how does it differ from the regular active (aktiv) stuff? At it’s most basic, you can explain it like that:

• I am doing something – that’s active, because I am actually sitting and doing it. I am writing this blog post right now.
• Something is done by me – that’s passive, because all I’m telling you is that this blog post is being written by me right now.

In Swedish it works more or less like that too, except that turning an active sentence into a passive one is much easier than in English. What? You don’t believe me? Take a look:

• Per körde bilen. – Per drove the car.
• Bilen kördes av Per. – The car was driven by Per.

See, it wasn’t that hard. I told you!

In the first active voice sentence “bilen” is the object. This object becomes the subject of the passive voice sentence.

In the first sentence “Per” is the subject. This subject becomes something called the “agent” in the passive voice sentence.

And what happened to the verb? A single “s” grew at the end of it. And voila, now you know how to turn active sentences into passive ones in Swedish.

But you know what? Many Swedish passive voice sentences have no agent whatsoever. And I dare say that those “agentless” sentences are the most common ones. Why is that? Because the agent is not really all that important. We are more interested in WHAT is being done, not in who does it.

Here are some examples:

• Frukost serveras kl. 9 – Breakfast is served at 9AM.
  I couldn’t care less who serves this breakfast, I only want to know what time

• Öppnas här. – To be opened here (or “Open here” as we would say in English)
  You see this one on packages a lot, telling you how to open them.

• Bör förbrukas senast (and date here) – Should be used by (and date here)
  You see this one on almost all food and medicine packages, right?

This is probably the most common way in which Swedish passive voice is normally used: to give instructions, to post notices, or to tell you not to do something, like:

• Får ej vidröras. – Not to be touched (or “Do not touch” as we would say in English).

I’m sure you’ve seen countless examples of this type of passive voice in official correspondence, for example. Letters from Migrationsverket are full of it. So are notices from just about any other governmental agency. They love this type of passive, impersonal voice, especially when telling you what to do.

This is just one way in which the passive form is used in Swedish. We will discuss the rest, along with how to form “s” forms of verbs after midsommar. I think we all deserve a little break from all this recent grammar overload, right?

And yes, it’s MIDSOMMAR next week!!!

Post from: Swedish Blog

But in the meantime, we still have two boring grammar topics to wrap up. So, let’s get started! The sooner we get done with them, the sooner I can show you such exciting places as the longest rope-way in the world, or the world’s largest cheese slicer.

OK, so today, we’re tackling the last installment of past participles. Yes, I know, I know, you must be sick of them by now. But like I said, it’s the LAST installment, and then we are done!!!

The one thing that we need to cover to complete this subject is the definite form of past participles. It’s not really that complicated, but I suppose it all depends on how you look at it.

I told you before that past participles behave just like adjectives. You can even say they are adjectives of sorts – verbs modified to describe nouns.

And all adjectives in Swedish have both indefinite and definite forms, even though sometimes it may look otherwise. So don’t let those adjectives trick you!!!

And don’t let those past participles trick you either, OK?

This is how it looks in practice:
Let’s say your car was filthy (mine frequently is) and you’ve just washed it.
Then you can say that you have:

• en nytvättad bil – a newly washed car

and since “bil” is an “en” noun that’s why you have “en” in front of this phrase.
This is the indefinite form.

Then let’s say you have more than one car, and only one of them is freshly washed. And you partner asks you which car you’ll be taking to visit grandma Ingrid in Uppsala, and you say that:

• den nytvättade bilen – the newly washed car

Since “bil” is an “en” noun that’s why in its definite form you have “en” (or for some nouns – “n”) attached to the end of it. And that’s why you have “den” instead of “en” opening this phrase.
This is the definite form.

Now let’s talk about houses. I’m not going to paint anything, because we’re moving soon anyway, so who cares. But you might want to paint yours this summer.
In that case you can say you will have:

• ett nymålat hus – a newly painted house

Since “hus” is an “ett” noun that’s why you have “ett” in front of this phrase.
This is the indefinite form.
But then you are driving around the neighborhood (presumably on your way to see mormor in Uppsala) and you see a house for sale that you like much better than your own. You tell your partner, as it frequently happens with partners they haven’t been paying any attention, so you have to repeat which house in the street you like:

• det nymålade huset – the newly painted house

Since “hus” is an “ett” noun that’s why in its definite form you have “et” attached to the end of it. And that’s why you have “det” instead of “ett” opening this phrase.
This is the definite form.

Something else happens with past participles that end in “t”, regardless of whether the noun they describe is “en” or “ett”.

For example:

• en nyköpt lampa – a newly bought lamp (which reminds me I need to go to IKEA and buy one!!!)

This is the indefinite form.
and

• den nyköpta lampan – the newly bought lamp

This is the definite form.

But it would be foolish to go to IKEA to buy only a lamp, and as it happens, I need a new kitchen table, too. And “bord” as we all well know is an “ett” noun, right?

• ett nyköpt bord - a newly bought table

This is the indefinite form.
and

• det nyköpta bordet – the newly bought table.

This is the definite form.

And finally, those pesky irregular past participles, which behave just like your normal garden variety adjectives.
For “en” nouns, it goes like this:

• en omskriven bok – a rewritten book (indefinite)

and

• den omskrivna boken – the rewritten book (definite)

And for “ett” nouns:

• ett omskrivet brev – a rewritten letter (indefinite)

and

• det omskrivna brevet – the rewritten letter (definite)

And I think this finally concludes our past participle session. (Yay!!!)
Next time we will cover the Swedish passive voice and then we’ll be done with grammar for a long, long while. After all, it’s almost summer (even though you couldn’t tell by the weather outside) and we need to relax and talk about fun, summer things!

Post from: Swedish Blog

This installment is about one Swedish institution we all love and cherish - IKEA.

So, you know you’re from Sweden when…

1. You trust IKEA more than your government.
2. IKEA is your home away from home.
3. You grew up in a house looking exactly as if it would have been in the IKEA catalogue.
4. You fear beyond death not getting the IKEA catalogue if you put up a sign for the postman saying that you don’t want any adverts.
5. You know the names of a multitude of IKEA items.
6. You know how to pronounce these names and sigh when non-Swedes don’t.
7. You live abroad and virtually all your furniture is from IKEA, even if there are still no IKEA stores in the country. (Note the word “still” as in: you are expecting IKEA to one day be found in every single country in the world.)
8. You rarely visited IKEA when you lived back in Sweden but once you are abroad you think visiting IKEA is a small trip back home, which makes your eyes damp and feel even more homesick than before.
9. Going to IKEA abroad, you end up loitering in the Swedish Food Market and buying more food than furniture.
10. While on the one hand you praise the Swedish Food Market, you feel betrayed since the “svenska bullar” they sell are clearly not anything like what you had back home.
11. In addition, you just have to stop and explain to the locals shopping in the Swedish Food Market what they are buying and exactly how delicious it is.
12. When living outside the borders of Sweden you panic when IKEA has sold out of “julmust” before Christmas.

Now it’s your turn - feel free to add your own IKEA points to the list.

And tomorrow, if you are eligible to vote in the European parliamentary election, please go and cast your vote - you CAN make a difference.

Happy National Day!!!

Post from: Swedish Blog