LESSON NOTES

Beginner S1 #6
Which Delicious Swedish Dish do
you Want?

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

# 6
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 SWEDISH

1. Servitör: Vill du beställa?

2. Lisa: Ja... Är kycklingsalladen stor?

3. Servitör: Ja, den är ganska stor.

4. Lisa: Och tonfisksalladen?

5. Servitör: Den är mindre.

6. Lisa: Jaha, så kycklingsalladen är större än tonfisksalladen?

7. Servitör: Precis.

8. Lisa: Då tar jag en kycklingsallad, tack.

ENGLISH

1. Waiter: Would you like to order?

2. Lisa: Yes... Is the chicken salad big?

3. Waiter: Yes, it is quite big.

4. Lisa: And the tuna salad?

5. Waiter: It is a bit smaller.

6. Lisa: I see, so the chicken salad is bigger than the tuna salad?

CONT'D OVER

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7. Waiter: That's right.

8. Lisa: Then I will take a chicken salad, thank you.

VOCABULARY

S w e dish English C lass

större bigger adjective

än than conjunction

mindre smaller adjective

beställa to order verb

kycklingsallad chicken salad noun

stor big adjective

ganska quite adverb

tonfisksallad tuna salad noun

precis precisely adverb

ta take verb

SAMPLE SENTENCES

Lisas fötter är större än Annas. Lisa är längre än Anna.

"Lisa's feet are bigger than Ana's." "Lisa is taller than Anna."

Lisa väger mindre än Anna. Vad ska jag beställa?

"Lisa weighs less than Anna." "What should I order?"

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Jag beställde kycklingsalladen. Det är en stor portion.

"I ordered the chicken salad." "It is a big portion."

Det va ganska dyrt. Jag beställde inte tonfisksalladen.

"It was quite expensive." "I did not order the tuna salad."

Anna väger precis lika mycket som Kvinnan tar en påse med sallad.
Lisa.
"The woman is taking the bag of salad."
"Anna weighs exactly the same as Lisa."

VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE

tonfisksallad/kycklingsallad ("the tuna salad"/"the chicken salad")

There is nothing particular special about the word tonfinsksallad or the word kycklingsallad. In
the dialogue, however, you may have noticed that these words have -en at the end. This is an
ending in Swedish that means "the." Tonfisksalladen and kycklingsallad belong to the group
of common gender nouns that take the ending -en in their definite singular form.

att beställa ("to order")

The verb att beställa appears in this lesson's dialogue when we talk about ordering food. As
with the English verb "to order," we can also use this verb when we talk about other things
that we have or will order: things such as books, tickets, and so forth. There is also an
antonym for the verb att beställa, which is the verb att avbeställa. It can be a good word to
know if you find yourself in a situation where you want to cancel a something that you have
ordered.

GRAMMAR

The Focus of This Lesson Is Comparative Forms of Adjectives.

Jaha, så kycklingsalladen är större än tonfisksalladen?

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"I see, so the chicken salad is bigger than the tuna salad?"

In the dialogue of this lesson, the two comparative forms of the adjectives stor ("big") and liten
("small") have been introduced: namely, större ("bigger") and mindre ("smaller"). Being able to
use comparative forms is very important when you want to talk about the differences between
two things. Before we look more closely at the comparative forms of the two adjectives
presented in this lesson's dialogue, let us have a look at the structure of the sentence above.
In the sentence above, the comparison is between the two nouns kycklingsalladen ("the
chicken salad") and tonfisksalladen ("the tuna salad"). As in English, we place the subject that
the adjective in its comparative form is referring to in front of the adjective, and we place the
thing that it is compared against after the adjective in its comparative form. In the above
sentence, kycklingsalladen ("the chicken salad") is placed before the comparative adjective
större ("bigger"), and tonfisksalladen ("the tuna salad") is placed after it; therefore, it is the
chicken salad that is bigger compared to the tuna salad.
Let us now look at the two adjectives stor ("big") and liten ("small"). The good news is that
both of these adjectives are common in Swedish, so learning them at a early stage can be
good. They are, however, irregular in their comparative (higher degree) and superlative
(highest degree) forms, so you need to memorize them. Let us look at how to decline them.

Degree Swedish "English"

Base form stor "big"

Comparative större "bigger"

Superlative störst "biggest"

Degree Swedish "English"

Base form liten "small"

Comparative mindre "smaller"

Superlative minst "smallest"

Declension of Regular Adjectives

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Even though the two adjectives introduced in this lesson take an irregular form when
changed into their comparative and superlative forms, most other adjectives simply take the
ending -are in their comparative form and -ast in their superlative form. There is, however,
also an exception to this rule, and it is when the adjective ends in -er, -el, or -en. In these
cases, we drop the -e in front of the -r, -l, or -n when we add the -are and -ast. Let us look at
some examples.

For Example:

Adjective Comparative Superlative

billig ("cheap") billigare ("cheaper") billigast ("cheapest")

vacker ("beautiful") vackrare ("more beautiful") vackrast ("most beautiful")

enkel ("easy") enklare ("easier") enklast ("easiest")

vuxen ("grown up") vuxnare ("more grown up") vuxnast ("most grown up")

CULTURAL INSIGHT

The Swedish Word That Is "Just Right"

In this lesson's dialogue, we talked about how something is in comparison to other things,
and we looked at the words större and mindre. There is however, another word in Swedish
that is quite uniquely Swedish that we can use to describe how something is. The word that I
am referring to is lagom, and it does not really have an English equivalent. We can best
translate lagom as "just enough," "not too much, not too little," or "enough to go around." The
word and the use of it is said to have originated from the Vikings when sharing a jug of beer
among each other; everyone took only a lagom amount of beer so that there was enough for
everybody. It is special because it does not have either a negative or a positive connotation
and it rather indicates a sort of balance. When communicating with Swedish people, knowing
the word lagom can be very useful since people often use it in a variety of different contexts.

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For example, when talking about food, something can be lagom starkt ("spicy enough") or
lagom salt ("salty enough"). Or when talking about the weather, it can be lagom varmt ("warm
enough") or lagom kallt ("cold enough").

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