Absolute Beginner Swedish How to Use Welcome to Absolute Beginner Swedish! This e-book with audio lessons is a completely new way to learn Swedish fast! Start speaking Swedish in minutes with the powerful learning methods you will master in this book. Using this e-book is simple. The book is a collection of language learning lessons. Each lesson consists of the following: several audio files, explanation of the lesson, the transcript of the dialog, the Swedish translation of the dialog, key vocabulary, sample sentences, and a detailed explanation of important grammar. The Lesson Track is a completely new way to learn Swedish! The core of this new approach is a radio talk show format which is fun, new and entertaining. Two teachers will guide you through the dialog-centric lesson. You'll learn about language, culture, current events and more. Best of all, you'll start speaking Swedish after just one lesson! Get ready to utterly shock and amaze your friends and family, colleagues, and teachers with the powerful information you learn in this book. Go to SwedishPod101.com to get your lifetime account. Contact Please address all questions or comments to [email protected]. Table of Contents How to Use Lesson 1 - Where is All My Swedish Stuff? Lesson 2 - Why Are Those Swedish Students Riding Around On a Truck? Lesson 3 - Comparing Prices in Swedish Lesson 4 - The Case of the Missing Swedish Keys Lesson 5 - Make Sure You’ve Packed Everything For Your Swedish Trip! Lesson 6 - Is Something Making You Angry in Sweden? Lesson 7 - Finding A Bike To Ride in Sweden Lesson 8 - Did You Like That Swedish Movie? Lesson 9 - Expressing Your Feelings of Joy in Swedish Lesson 10 - Do You Think That Swedish Girl is Cute? Lesson 11 - Swedish Candy Is Worth Fighting Over! Lesson 12 - Talking About Your Week in Swedish Lesson 13 - Let’s Agree...to Agree in Swedish! Lesson 14 - Is There Enough Time To Finish This Swedish Task? Lesson 15 - A Swedish Argument Lesson 16 - A Bit of Swedish Watercooler Gossip Lesson 17 - Keeping Fit in Sweden Lesson 18 - Looking For a Nice Man in Sweden Lesson 19 - Going on a First Date in Sweden Lesson 20 - A Relaxing Weekend in Sweden Lesson 21 - What Do You Think of This Swedish Perfume? Lesson 22 - How’s the Weather Today in Sweden? Lesson 23 - Receiving a Swedish Postcard Lesson 24 - Take Care Not to Hurt Yourself in Sweden! Lesson 25 - Mind Your Manners in Sweden! Where is All My Swedish Stuff? Lesson Track Lesson Review Track Lesson Dialog Track Learn Swedish with our site! You're running late for your first class at a Swedish school, and it's because you can't find a single pen in the house. What happened to them all?! You can't write any notes in Swedish unless you find one...maybe you left them in your car? In this Lower Beginner lesson, you'll learn how to express ownership, from an informal conversation between family members. Visit us at our site, where you will find many more fantastic Swedish lessons and learning resources! Leave us a message while you are there! Line-By-Line Transcript Formal Swedish Anna: Mamma, har du sett min biologibok? Kerstin: Den ligger på köksbordet. Anna: Där är den ju! Har du sett mitt pennskrin? Kerstin: Nej. Jens kanske har tagit det. Anna: Va? Inte nu igen! Kerstin: Jo. Jag såg honom med det i morse. Formal English Anna: Mom, have you seen my biology book? Kerstin: It's on the kitchen table. Anna: There it is! Have you seen my pencil case? Kerstin: No. Maybe Jens has taken it. Anna: What? Not again! Kerstin: Yes. I saw him with it this morning. Vocabulary List Swedish / English / Class mamma mamma, mom noun att se to see verb min my pronoun mitt my pronoun biologibok biology book noun att ligga to be, to lay verb pennskrin pencil case noun där there demonstrative pronoun att ta to take verb vad what adverb Expansion Section mamma ( mamma, mom ) Min mamma jobbar som lärare. "My mother works as a teacher." att se ( to see ) Det är underbart att se dig igen. "It is wonderful to see you again." min ( my ) Jag har tappat min plånbok. "I have lost my wallet." mitt ( my ) Välkomna till mitt hem. "Welcome to my home." Hej, mitt namn är Thomas. "Hi, my name is Thomas." biologibok ( biology book ) Jag måste köpa en ny biologibok. "I have to buy a new biology book." att ligga ( to be, to lay ) Mina nycklar ligger på stolen. "My keys are on the chair." pennskrin ( pencil case ) Roberto har köpt ett nytt pennskrin. "Roberto has bought a new pen box." där ( there ) Där går en grupp tyskar. "There goes a group of Germans." att ta ( to take ) Det är svårt att ta dig på allvar. "It is difficult to take you seriously." vad ( what ) Vad är klockan nu? "What is the time now?" Vad är din destination? "What's your destination?" Grammar Point The Focus of This Lesson is to Learn How to Express Ownership Har du sett mitt pennskrin? "Have you seen my pencil box?" The purpose of this lesson is to learn how to express ownership. Expressing ownership can of course be done in many different ways. But in this lesson, we'll focus on how to use the pronouns min and mitt correctly. Both min and mitt were used by Anna in this lesson's dialog when expressing ownership. Let's have a look. Examples from this dialogue: 1. Mamma, har du sett min biologibok? "Mom, have you seen my biology book?" 2. Har du sett mitt pennskrin? "Have you seen my pencil case?" As you might have noticed from the sentences presented above, both the pronouns min and mitt correspond to the English pronoun "my." This leads us to the question: Why do we sometimes use min and sometimes mitt if they both correspond to "my"? The difference between min and mitt has to do with the noun that they are referring to. In Swedish, nouns are either common gender nouns or neuter gender nouns. Common gender nouns are sometimes referred to as en-nouns since the prefix en- precedes them. Examples of en-nouns or common gender nouns are: 1. en biologibok "a biology book" 2. en mamma "a mom" 3. en hund "a dog" Neuter gender nouns are, on the other hand, sometimes referred to as ett-nouns since the prefix ett precedes them. Examples of ett-nouns or neuter gender nouns are: 1. ett pennskrin "a pencil case" 2. ett hus "a house" 3. ett barn "a child" In Swedish there are, unfortunately, no rules for how to tell the common gender nouns and the neuter gender nouns apart. So a good thing to do is to always try to memorize the nouns that you learn as either an ett-noun or en-noun. Now let's return to how to express ownership with the help of min and mitt. We'll use a simple sentence structure such as Det är min/mitt + [noun] ("It's my [noun]") to exemplify how to express ownership, depending on whether it's a common or neuter gender noun in its singular indefinite form you are actually referring to. We'll look at how to do that when we want to refer to common gender nouns (en-nouns) such as en biologibok ("a biology book"), en mamma ("a mom"), and en hund ("a dog"). Because we want to refer to common gender nouns (en-noun), we have to use the pronoun min. Let's look at some examples: 1. Det är min biologibok. "It's my biology book." 2. Det är min mamma. "It's my mom." 3. Det är min hund. "It's my dog." Now, if we instead want to express ownership by referring to a neuter gender noun such as ett pennskrin ("a pencil case"), ett hus ("a house"), and ett barn ("a child"), you'll have to use the pronoun mitt ("my"). Let's illustrate this with some examples: 1. Det är mitt pennskrin. "It's my pencil case." 2. Det är mitt hus. "It's my house." 3. Det är mitt barn. "It's my child." Cultural Insight Education in Sweden The Swedish education system consists of nine years of compulsory comprehensive school, or grundskola as it's referred to in Swedish. After grundskolan, you have the Swedish counterpart of high school, which in Swedish is known as gymnasieskola. There are a large variety of different programs offered to the students who start gymnasiet. These programs are both of a practical, as well as of a more theoretical nature, and while some will provide the students with an education that they can put into use directly after graduating, others are more designed to be a stepping stone to further studies at university. The education offered at Swedish high schools is voluntary, but most Swedish youth still attend. In fact, statistics show that as many as ninety percent start high school, but quite a few drop out or graduate with grades that are too poor to get accepted to universities or colleges.