Comments on: “Som” eller “att”

By: theswedishteacher

theswedishteacher — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 01:17:39 +0000

Good point Becky! I have to think of this one

By: Becky Walkden

Becky Walkden — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 19:48:21 +0000

Hej stranger! Excellent post as usual but I have one question. In this part here where you said,
`Mannen som ni s�ker �r inte h�r.
(The man (who) you are looking for is not here.)
Mannen ni s�ker �r inte h�r.`
what is the subject in the subclause? The man is the subject here. Maybe it is so long since I studies sentence structure, English OR Swedish I am just not getting it.
Anyway, you explained som and att excellently (but I would have been surprised if you didn�t)
Med v�nlig h�lsning
Din student Becky

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By: Rima

Rima — Sat, 19 May 2012 16:10:20 +0000

I wish I had found this site when I was first starting out with learning Swedish! There seems to be a lot more online now than when I first made the move!

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By: theswedishteacher

theswedishteacher — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:42:04 +0000

Hej Marcin and Rickard!

After checking an English grammar, it seems to me like the “som” in the sentence without comma can be translated to “that”, and the “som” in the sentence with comma can be translated to “which”.

Min cykel som jag fick i julklapp har 21 v�xlar
My bike that I got for Christmas has 21 speeds.

Min cykel, som jag fick i julklapp, har 21 v�xlar.
My bike, which I got for Christmas, has 21 speeds.

You can drop “som” if you already have a subject in the sub-clause. Example:
Ange i ditt CV vilka spr�k (som) du beh�rskar.

If “som” is the subject in the sub-clause you need to keep it:
Presentera de efarenheter som �r intressanta med tanke p� tj�nsten du s�ker.

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By: Rickard

Rickard — Sun, 13 May 2012 18:24:29 +0000

Marcin: As a native Swede, I think you are on to something. Your example sentence does indeed suggest that the speaker owns a single bicycle, and the commas serve to strengthen that impression. However, I believe the combination of the possessive and singular in “min cykel” suggests that there is only one bicycle even without commas, so it would not be natural to use that sentence if you owned several bicycles. You would rather say “Cykeln (som) jag fick i julklapp har 21 v�xlar”. (I put the “som” in parantheses there, because it is not really needed, and would probably be dropped by most native speakers.)

The use of commas in Swedish is not very standardized, and partly a matter of style. There are rules, but where a rule says that you could place a comma in a certain position, it is more of an option than a requirement. The rules for English may be more firm, but I probably don’t know them well enough to say that…

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By: Marcin

Marcin — Fri, 11 May 2012 22:20:15 +0000

Is it relevant if we put a comma before “som”? For example:
“Min cykel, som jag fick i julklapp, har 21 v�xlar.”
Does this sentence mean that I have only one bicycle and the fact that I got it for Christmas is just additional information? If there were no commas, would it mean that I have more bicycles? Are the rules for commas in Swedish similar to those in English?

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