Swedish prepositions of position

So what was the word in Swedish for thinking, like to think?

att tänka So to think is att tänka.

How do you say "they think"?

de tänker And it takes some time to get that Swedish intuition so you know exactly if it's going to be "tänkar" or something else. In this case, it's tänker. It's "er." So, then of course you know what "we think" is.

vi tänker Okay, so if you want to say "we are thinking of doing it", you don't need the "of". You just say "we think do it". So how would you say that?

Vi tänker göra det. And the "det" is the "it" in a very abstract sort of way. We're thinking of doing it. And you shouldn't get too caught up in the "den" or "det". Just go with what you think is right, and with time you'll get used to what's the correct way of saying it.

What are you, plural, what are you thinking of doing? What are you thinking of doing? How do you say that?

Since we're not thinking in English here, we remove the "are", we don't think about the "of". So what we get is: Vad tänker ni göra?

Vad tänker ni göra?

Vad tänker ni göra?

I am thinking of going home.

How would you say that?

Jag tänker gå hem. Okay, so so far we've talked about here and we've talked about there, and we have also talked about this and that and so forth, but we haven't really talked about positioning things.

You need to know how to say, "I am on, I am near, I am under, I am over". So you need to know how to use these words to describe positioning. So to say on, on, you would say på, på.

And this is really the only one that's substantially different than the English variant. So in English you would say on, in Swedish you would say på. For the remaining ones, they're pretty similar. So for in would be i, i. To say near, you change the "e" to "ä", so you get nära, nära.

To say under, you would say the same thing. So how would you pronounce under in a Swedish way? Same spelling.

Under, under.

Now, imagine you just add two dots over the "o" so you get "ö", and then you get the Swedish word for over. So how would you pronounce that, using an "ö" in the beginning? How would you say over in Swedish?

Över. So, över, over, similar. Under, under, similar. Nära, near. And in, i. The only one that's really different is on.

On is på. Okay, so let's see if we can translate these sentences. We have: "He is standing on the car." To say standing, you would say står, står. And you don't need the is, so står, that's the changed verb: han står. So how would you say: "He is standing on the car?" Han står på bilen.

Bilen is the definite form, the known form. So han står på bilen, he stands on the car.

Now, in Swedish, when you're positioning things, it's very common to use the word for lies, like "the phone lies near his computer". In English you would probably say, "The phone is near his computer," "The phone is close to his computer," something like that. You don't usually use the word "lies", "something is lying somewhere". In Swedish, it's extremely common.

So, den ligger, it lies. So "lies" is ligger, ligger. So how would you say, "The phone lies near his computer"?

So, "the phone" is telefonen.

Telefonen ligger nära hans dator. "His" is hans. So, "near his computer." And "computer" is, of course, dator, dator. You have to think about "data", data, and then it becomes dator.

Even though commonly and incorrectly people might say data to mean computer as well. So, if you're unsure about remembering it, you can just say data. Even though, I mean, computer geeks will be mad, because data is really "data", whereas dator is "computer". But in common everyday parlor, people will just say en data, en data instead of en dator, which is the correct term.

So anyway, the phone lies near his computer. How would you say that? And "lies" is ligger.

Telefonen ligger nära hans dator. "His" is hans. So how did you say "hers"? Hennes. And what about "its"? That one we haven't practiced as much.

It's dess, dess. What about "our computer"? Near our computer.

Nära vår dator. It could be vår or vårt. But because it's en dator, it becomes vår dator. And what about "your computer"?

Din dator, din dator. Don't worry about this, we'll keep practicing and practicing.