LESSON NOTES

Beginner S1 #8
Going on a Date in Sweden

CONTENTS
2 Swedish
2 English
3 Vocabulary
3 Sample Sentences
4 Vocabulary Phrase Usage
5 Grammar
8 Cultural Insight

# 8
COPYRIGHT © 2012 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
 SWEDISH

1. Lisa: Jag var på en dejt i lördags, med Johan, från Karins middag.

2. Anna: Hur var det?

3. Lisa: Det var trevligt, men lite stelt.

4. Anna: Jaha. Vad gjorde ni?

5. Lisa: Vi åt middag på en restaurang.

6. Anna: Hur var middagen?

7. Lisa: Maten smakade bra, men det var dyrt.

8. Anna: Betalade inte Johan?

9. Lisa: Nej.

ENGLISH

1. Lisa: I went on a date Saturday with Johan from Karin's dinner party.

2. Anna: How was it?

3. Lisa: It was nice, but a bit awkward.

4. Anna: I see. What did you do?

5. Lisa: We ate dinner at a restaurant.

CONT'D OVER

SWEDISHPOD101.COM BEGINNER S1 #8 - GOING ON A DATE IN SWEDEN 2

6. Anna: How was the dinner?

7. Lisa: The food tasted good, but it was expensive.

8. Anna: Didn't Johan pay?

9. Lisa: No.

VOCABULARY

S w e dish English C lass

att vara to be verb

trevlig nice adverb

dejt date noun

stelt awkward adjective

att göra to do verb

att äta to eat verb

men but conjunction

mat food

att betala to pay verb

dyr expensive adjective

SAMPLE SENTENCES

Det är roligt att vara på semester. Jag kommer att vara utomlands nästa
månad.
"It is nice to be on vacation."
"I’m going to be abroad next month."

SWEDISHPOD101.COM BEGINNER S1 #8 - GOING ON A DATE IN SWEDEN 3

Det är härligt att vara kär. Jag hoppas du får en trevlig resa.

"It is wonderful to be in love." "I hope you will have a nice journey. "

Jag har en dejt med Hassan nästa Situationen var stel.

vecka.
"The situation was awkward."
"I have a dejt with Hassan next week."

Vad ska jag göra? Jag vet inte vad jag ska göra.

“What should I do?” "I don’t know what to do."

Det finns inget att göra. Det är viktigt att äta regelbundet.

"There is nothing to do." "It is important to eat regularly."

Det är soligt ute men kalt. Jag måste gå till affären och köpa mat.

"It is sunny outside but cold." "I have to go to the store and buy some
food."

Jag ska börja laga mat nu. Jag kan betala för mig själv.

"I will start preparing food now." "I can pay for myself. "

Jackan var fin men dyr.

"The jacket was nice but expensive."

VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE

dejt ("date")

The Swedish word dejt is originally borrowed from the English word "date." The pronunciation
of the word is similar, but the spelling is different. The word dejt in Swedish is probably the
most common word to use when describing a meeting between two people who are
interested in each other. However, you can also use the word träff to say that you have made

SWEDISHPOD101.COM BEGINNER S1 #8 - GOING ON A DATE IN SWEDEN 4

an arrangement to meet someone. For example, you can say jag har en träff med Anna Ikväll
("I have a date with Anna Ikväll."). In Swedish, using the word dejt signals that there might be
some romantic interest involved in the meeting, while using the word träff does not
necessarily involve such emotions or intentions.

stelt ("awkward")

The Swedish word stelt literally translates as the English word "stiff," but in this lesson's
dialogue, the word stelt better corresponds to the English word "awkward." In Swedish, we
can use stelt to describe a feeling or a situation as we used it in the dialogue when Lisa says
Det var trevlig, men lite stelt ("It was nice, but a bit awkward"). However, we can also use it
when describing the state of something physical. For example, if you want to say "my leg is
stiff," you would say mitt ben är stelt.

GRAMMAR

The Focus of This Lesson Is to Describe How Something Was by Using the Preterite
Tense.
Maten smakade bra, men det var dyrt.
"The food tasted good, but it was expensive."

Since the focus of this lesson to learn how to describe how something was we will look at how
to change verbs into their preterite tense. We mainly use the preterite tense to describe
actions or conditions that has already happened. In this lesson's dialogue, several verbs
appear in the preterite tense.

Swedish "English"

var "was"

gjorde "did"

åt "ate"

smakade "tasted"

betalade "paid"

SWEDISHPOD101.COM BEGINNER S1 #8 - GOING ON A DATE IN SWEDEN 5

It is important to note that the preterite tense in Swedish describes both completed and
uncompleted actions, and the ending of the verb stays the same regardless of whether the
action was completed. Before we look at how to change verbs into their preterite tense, we
should mention a few things. First, we can divide the verbs used in Swedish into four groups.
We usually refer to the first three groups as weak verbs, and the fourth group contains
irregular verbs (also referred to as strong verbs). In this lesson's dialogue, three irregular
verbs are introduced: var ("was), gjorde ("did"), and åt ("ate").

Infinitive Imperative Present Preterite Supine

att vara är var

(to be") var ("be") ("is") ("was") varit ("been")

att äta ät åt
("to eat") ("eat") äter ("eating") ("at") ätit ("eaten")

att göra
("to do") gör ("do") gör ("doing") gjorde ("did") gjort ("done")

We will in this lesson only look at how verbs belonging to the first three groups, the weak
verbs, change into their preterite tense and leave the conjugation rules for the irregular verb
for now.

Now let us have a look at the two other verbs that were introduced in this lesson's dialogue.
You may have noticed that these verbs takes the ending -de, and most of the verbs in their
preterite tense in Swedish actually take a -de ending or a -te ending. Now let us look at the
rules for conjugation.
As in the previous lesson, when we talked about how to change verbs into their present
tense, in order to conjugate correctly you need to know the stem of the verb.
1. The first type of verbs that we are going to look at are the verbs whose stem ends in an -a.
The verbs introduced in this lesson dialogue, namely att smaka ("to taste") and att betala ("to
pay"), belong to this group. To change these verbs into their preterite tense, you simply add
the ending -de to the verb stem.

Verb Stem Preterite

smaka smakade

betala betalade

SWEDISHPOD101.COM BEGINNER S1 #8 - GOING ON A DATE IN SWEDEN 6

2. The second type of verbs is verbs that end in a consonant. However, we can divide this
group into two subgroups. The first group is the verbs whose stem ends in a voiced
consonant, which take the ending -de in the preterite tense. Let us look at two verbs that
already have been introduced in previous lessons: the verb att känna ("to know") and att
beställa ("to order").

Verb Stem Preterite

känn kände

beställ beställde

Here, the verb känn also drops one -n when it changes into its preterite tense. This is simply
because you do not use a double -n or -m before a consonant in Swedish.
The second group of verbs whose stem ends in a consonant is the verbs with a
unvoiced consonant: -k, -p, -s, or -t. This kind of verb in the preterite tense take the ending -te.
Two examples of verbs belonging to this group are att köpa ("to buy") and att läsa ("to read").

Verb Stem Preterite

köp köpte

läs läste

3. The third type of verbs is the verbs whose stem ends in a vowel other than -a. This type of
verbs takes a -dde ending in the preterite tense. Here are two examples of the verbs att bo
("to live") and att tro ("to believe").

Verb Stem Preterite

bo bodde

tro trodde

More on the Usage of the Preterite Tense

SWEDISHPOD101.COM BEGINNER S1 #8 - GOING ON A DATE IN SWEDEN 7

In this lesson's dialogue, we have used verbs in their preterite tense to describe actions and
conditions that have already happened. We can also use the preterite to describe actions or
conditions that used to happen or take place in past times. Here is an example.
For Example:

1. Dinosaurierna åt mycket växter.

"The dinosaurs ate a lot of plants."

Sometimes, we also use the preterite instead of the present tense. This is most common when
you are expressing feelings. Here is an example.
For Example:

1. Det var snällt av dig att laga middag.

"It was nice of you to cook dinner."

CULTURAL INSIGHT

What Are the Rules of Dating in Sweden?

Do people in Sweden date? And if so, how do they date? The answer to the first question is
yes: Swedes do date, but how they date is actually what is more interesting. First of all, it is
pretty fair to state that dating in Sweden bears little resemblance to how people in the United
States date. Sure, people do go out and have dinner together or see a movie, but it is not that
common. For a non-Swede, dating might seem like an activity that does not really have any
rules for how people should behave and what you actually do. One reason for this might be
the fact that Swedes do not really like to state that something is actually a date. Of course,
people ask each other out on dates and go on them, but they usually do not use the word
"date" to describe the activity. And this, of course, leaves a lot of room for interpretation, both
for non-Swedes as well as Swedes. Also, since Swedes pride themselves on being a society
where equality between the sexes exists, there are no real rules for who is paying for dinner
or the movie or who is expected to initiate the next move.

SWEDISHPOD101.COM BEGINNER S1 #8 - GOING ON A DATE IN SWEDEN 8