Få versus kan: permission in Swedish

Okay, so let's look at another interesting word, and that's the word få, få.

Få means get, but it has to do with permission. So when I say "Can I do it?", how would you say that: "Can I do it?"?

You might say: Kan jag göra det? And that would be correct: "Can I do it?" If you say "Kan jag göra det?", that would mean literally "Can I do it?" It really conveys two different meanings in English as well as in Swedish. It means "Can I do it?" as in "Am I allowed to do it?", but it could also mean "Can I...?

Can I physically do that thing? Am I able to do it?" There's really two different meanings that's contained in that "can". And it's the same thing in Swedish. If you say "Kan jag göra det? Kan jag göra det?" It's "Am I allowed to do it?", or it's like, "Oh, am I physically able to do it?" And then there's a different word, and that's the word får.

So if you say: Får jag göra det? then the only meaning that's really implied there is the other meaning, the meaning that has to do with permission: "Am I allowed to do that?" Får jag göra det? Får jag göra det? "Can I do it?", but in the meaning of permission, "Am I allowed to do it?" Får jag göra det?

Using that logic, how would you say, "You can never do that again", meaning "You're never allowed to do that again"? Du får aldrig göra det igen.

And of course you could use kan, and say: Du kan aldrig göra det igen. And that would also work, but kan has two meanings, whereas får only has that one meaning: you're not allowed to do it. Du får aldrig göra det igen. Okay, so you can use får to convey the meaning of "may" as well.

It's like saying, "You can sleep now", meaning "You're allowed to sleep now". So how would you say that, "You can sleep now. You may sleep now. You're allowed to sleep now" using "får"? And to say "sleep", you would say "sova". sova Du får sova nu.

Another useful word is to talk about what your hopes are. So, to say "to hope", you would say "att hoppas", "att hoppas".

"to hope". And "hope" itself, the word "hope" is "hopp". But in this case, we're going to look at the verb, so "I hope": "jag hoppas". And it's the same for the remaining ones: "du hoppas", "han hoppas", "hon hoppas", and so forth, and it means "they hope".

Okay, so let's look at "hoppas" and we can look at sentences that use "att". Now these are very common sentences when you're using "that" in English and you're connecting on. Okay, but before we begin with those sentences, let's look at "hoppas" again, "hope".

So, to say "I hope so", the "so", you would say "it". "I hope it" is what you will say literally in Swedish. So, how would you say that? "I hope it". Jag hoppas det.

And "det" is the sort of abstract, we're not talking about a an object, so we say "Jag hoppas det", "I hope so".

Okay, what about if you want to say "I hope that you can come"? And in English you have sort of the option of omitting or removing that "that". So if you remove "that" in English and you say "I hope you can come", the meaning is still retained, right? It says the same thing. In Swedish you can do the same thing.

So you can say "that you can come" or you can remove it. So let's not remove it first. So when you have this optional "that", the optional "that" you could remove or not remove, then you use "att" in Swedish. So given that, how would you say "I hope that you can come" in Swedish?

Jag hoppas att du kan komma. Jag hoppas att du kan komma. I hope that you can come. But of course you can remove the "att" in Swedish and you can also, just like in English you can remove it. Okay, so what do you get then if you remove the "att", what do you say?

Jag hoppas du kan komma. Jag hoppas du kan komma.

"I hope that they can eat." Jag hoppas att de kan äta. And of course, "Jag hoppas de kan äta" would sound perfectly normal. Just like in English you would say, "I hope they can eat." Let's continue on.

"We hope that you can be with us." Vi hoppas att du kan vara med oss. And of course "with" is "med" and "hope" - "hoppas".

"She hopes that she can go home tomorrow." Hon hoppas att hon kan gå hem i morgon.

So do you remember how to say "says"?

Säger, säger. So, "He says that we shall go now." Han säger att vi ska gå nu.

So let's practice some adjectives. "Your friend is interesting." To say "friend" in Swedish, you would say "vän", "vän".

So how do you say "Your friend is interesting"?

Din vän är intressant. What about if you're talking about plural, you people, "Your friend is interesting. Your friend is interesting." for plural?

Er vän är intressant.

Now if you want to say "your interesting friend", you would have the same order as in English, but you would add on an a, ett a, "a", at the end of "interesting." So instead of saying intressant, you would say intressanta.

So how would you say "your interesting friend"?

Din intressanta vän.

So how would you say "your glad friend" or "your happy friend"?

Din glada vän.

What about "your big friend"? And "big" was, of course, stor, stor. So how would you say "your big friend"?

Din stora vän. How do you say "His car is big"?

Hans bil är stor.

"his big car" Hans stora bil.

"his big car that he loves" And think about this "that": it's the "that" that connects sentences.

So, if you forgot the word, it's som, som. So, how would you say "his big car that he loves"?

Hans stora bil som han älskar. And "love" is, of course, älska, so hans stora bil som han älskar.