Reading Astrid Lindgren in Swedish, part 3

So, let's continue on with some more quotes from the body of works of Astrid Lindgren.

Ja, tiden går och man börjar bli gammal. Fram på höstkanten fyller jag 10 år, och då har man väl sett sina bästa dar.

So, this is a quote from Pippi Longstocking, Pippi Långstrump. And she says, "Ja", yes. "Tiden går", time goes or time passes by. "Och man börjar bli gammal", and one starts to get old or begins to get old. Börjar bli gammal. And "man", as you've seen before, of course, it means man, as you know, woman and man.

However, in Swedish, it's used to connect. So, for instance, when you're talking about one needs to do, "man behöver göra", one needs to do. So, it describes things that you want to talk about in a general sense. Then you use the term "man". In this case, she's referring to herself by talking almost about herself in the third person. "Ja, tiden går och man börjar bli gammal." Yes, time goes, and one starts to get old.

"Fram på höstkanten", literally, "fram" as in forward, "på höstkanten", "på" is on, "höstkanten", two words that are combined, "höst" means autumn or fall, "kanten" is the edge. So, at the edge of autumn.

So, she's basically saying at the edge of autumn, I will turn 10 years old. "Fyller jag 10 år." I will turn 10. "Fyller jag" is how you would talk about yourself in terms of reaching a new age. "Att fylla" is literally to fill. So, it's like you're filling, you're reaching a new year.

"Jag fyller år" is what you would say in Swedish when you want to say I'm turning a new age.

I turn 20, jag fyller 20 år.

Och då har man, and then has one, once again the same phrase, one, talking about yourself in this form. Och då har man, and then has one väl sett sina bästa dar. Väl is sort of like well in English, it's once again one of those words that you could omit and the meaning would still be retained.

Och då har man sett sina bästa dar, och då har man väl sett sina bästa dar is more of a informal way of saying it, so väl is something in this sense it's used very commonly when you're speaking. Och då har man väl sett, is to have seen in the past, sina bästa dar, one has seen their best days. She is saying, "Well, I'm going to turn 10 years old soon, and by that time I suppose I've already seen my best years." Näh, nu blir jag arg.

När jag inte har pengar, då kan jag inte dricka sockerdricka. Och när jag har pengar, då får jag inte dricka sockerdricka. När ska jag då dricka sockerdricka?

So this is a quote from Emil i Lönneberga, and he says: "Näh, nu blir jag arg." No, or well, näh, well or no. Nu blir jag arg, now I become angry, arg, angry. När jag inte har pengar, when I do not have money. And once again, remember in Swedish, if you have an adverb you're starting a sentence with like när, something similar to like när, då, ibland, all of these different types of adverbs, which we can cover in a separate lesson on grammar.

However, I think it's important to just note here, they have switched the word order. "Jag har inte pengar." That would be the normal way of saying it. "Jag har inte pengar," I do not have money.

But here it's been switched, and the reason it's been switched is because of the "när" in the beginning. So because of this adverb in the beginning, när, when, then you have to switch the order. "När jag inte har pengar," when I do not have money, "då kan jag inte dricka sockerdricka." Then, då, kan jag inte, I cannot, can I not.

Once again, it has been switched. Inte dricka, not drink, sockerdricka. Sockerdricka is literally sugar drink, and it refers to a soda that was popular at the time and still very popular in Sweden, which is sort of like a soda, sometimes they put a little bit of lime in. It used to have ginger in it traditionally, but nowadays it doesn't.

So it's basically a translucent soda drink.

"Och när jag har pengar," and when I have money, "då får jag inte dricka sockerdricka." Then I'm not allowed to drink sockerdricka. So once again, får is like saying "I can't", but it infers that the person is not allowed to do it.

The reason they can't do it is because they're not allowed to do it. "Då får jag inte dricka sockerdricka." Then I'm not allowed to drink sugar drink. I'm not allowed to drink soda. "När," he poses the question, when, "ska jag då dricka sockerdricka?" am I going to drink sugar drink?

So when am I going to drink soda? If I can't drink it when I have when I don't have money because I don't have money, and when I do have money, I'm not allowed, we would assume, because of his parents, I'm not allowed to drink this soda. So when am I supposed to drink it? It's a very pertinent question.

So let's look at this very interesting word "får", which we translated earlier as being allowed to. "I'm not allowed to": jag får inte. But it's essentially like "you can't". But it's not only can't in the way that you don't literally have the physical ability to do it, no. It's about not being able to do something because somebody's not allowing you to do it.

Så, jag får inte: "I'm not allowed to do it". So you can translate it, as it often is, "I can't". But we need to understand that there is a nuance there, and that Swedish does differentiate, whereas English really doesn't. So let's look at a few examples.

Får jag göra det? Får jag göra det? So what do you think this would mean?

So this would translate as: "Can I do it?" Får jag göra det? "Can I do it?" "Am I allowed to do it?" would also be a good translation, because that's really what it's about.

And I think it becomes even clearer in the second example: Du får aldrig göra det igen. Du får aldrig göra det igen.

So what do you think this is?

Du får aldrig: "You can never" göra det igen: "do it again." "You can never do that again", or "You can never do it again." So, interesting thing here is, in English, if I say that "You can never do that", I could mean you can never do that in terms of your ability. You you don't have the ability to do it.

you can't do it because you don't have the ability to do it, you can't do it. But it could also mean in English, it could also mean you can't do it because you're not allowed to do it. So technically, you could physically do it, but you're not allowed to do it. Får has that second meaning, and only that second meaning, if that makes sense. The meaning of allowance: you're not allowed to do something.

In that sense, you can translate it as "can". But it's important to remember it only covers that one connotation, whereas the Swedish word for "can", kan, it is similar to English: it can mean both things. So you can say, "Kan vi göra det?" "Can we do it?" meaning "Are we allowed to do it?" and it could also mean "Can we do it?" as in "Do we have the ability to do it?" So "can" and "kan" are basically identical, whereas får, when it's used in this way, it only covers the second meaning, the meaning of being allowed to do something.

And it can also mean to get something, as well, just to make things even more complex. What do you think this would mean if we were to say that tyst means silent or quiet? What do you think the meaning would be?

You guessed this, you will be correct: "You may be silent now," or "You can be silent now." That is really "Du får vara tyst nu." "Du får vara tyst nu." So it's sort of, you may be silent now, you can be silent now, you you should be silent now, you get to be silent now.

So it's it's actually a a very polite way of saying to someone, "Du får vara tyst nu." You get to be silent now, you should be silent now. I suppose there are more polite ways in which you could say it as well, because this is very direct.