Swedish prepositions: på and till

So what was the term for a physician, medical doctor?

Läkare. Läkare.

"He is a student, and she is a physician." How would you say that?

Han är en student, och hon är en läkare. So you could, we said, omit the indefinite form, so you don't need to say en, en. So, if you remove it, what would you get then? Han är student och hon är läkare. And that makes perfect sense.

"I work at a hospital." So, to say "at a hospital", you would say "on". You'd use the word for "on" in Swedish. Do you remember how to say "on"?

På. To say "on", you say "på". So altogether, "I work at a hospital"?

Jag arbetar på ett sjukhus. If you generally want to talk about working at a place, you would use "på". So, "Jag arbetar på ett sjukhus." How would you say, "I work at a university"?

Jag arbetar på ett universitet. What about "I study at a university"? So, to study, just like in English, it's related to students. Student, study. In Swedish, you say "student" and then you say "studera", "studera".

"Jag studerar", "I study". So how do you say "I study at a university"?

Jag studerar på ett universitet. And you could say, perhaps more commonly, "I study at the university". So how would you say that, "I study at the university"?

So the university would become universitetet, universitetet.

Universitet, university. the university, universitetet. Jag studerar på universitetet.

So what was the word to say need, need?

Behöver, behöver. He needs, han behöver. So how do you say we need to go to the hospital?

Vi behöver gå till sjukhuset. So to is till, till. You can think about the English till, as well. You say like from here till November, till. So this till, spelt the same, is till in Swedish, and it means to.

So now we go back to the past, and we say I have eaten today.

Jag har ätit idag. And to say ate, you would say åt. So it's irregular. I ate yesterday, jag åt igår. So this may seem a bit complicated, which is why we now can give it a bit more time, and we can talk a little bit more about different verb forms, because so far we've learnt most of the verb forms saying how to say things in the present, in the past, in the future.

So let's talk a little bit more about that in detail. We said one way to go to the past, when we want to express something in the past, we could use have. I have spoken. So how would you say that in Swedish, I have spoken?

Jag har talat. So it's at, a-t, talat. Presenterat, informerat, and so forth. So, you have spoken, for one person? Du har talat. He or she has spoken?

Han, hon har talat. It has spoken? Den, det har talat. You plural have spoken, you people have spoken?

Ni har talat. They have spoken?

De har talat. And finally, we have spoken? Vi har talat. Okay, so this was one way to go into the past. There is actually another way to go into the past, and that is to use the changed form.

So, you have, for instance, in English, if you want to talk about speaking right now, you say speak: I speak, he speaks. But if you want to talk about the past, you can say spoke. So, I spoke, he spoke, they spoke. So, you have a different form for the past.

So, instead of saying I have spoken, you can also say I spoke. Swedish has the same, you also have this tense. So, to say I spoke in Swedish, you would say jag talade. Jag talade.

And that means I spoke.

I spoke, jag talade. So, the remaining ones: you spoke, how do you say that? Du talade. What about he, she spoke?

Han, hon talade. It spoke? Den, det talade. What about you people spoke? Ni talade. And finally they spoke, de talade, we spoke, vi talade.

So, all you did was add on -de: talade. And this is also true for other -ar verbs. So, for instance, how would you say they documented De dokumenterade. What about she presented?

Hon presenterade. So, it's very easy. If you want to say with, what's the word in Swedish, with?

Med.

So, she has spoken with Maria, how would you say that?

Hon har talat med Maria.

So, what about she spoke with Maria?

Hon talade med Maria. We presented yesterday.

Vi presenterade igår.

We informed her yesterday.

Vi informerade henne igår. So don't say "Vi informerade hon igår", it should be "Vi informerade henne igår". And I can also honestly say something here, because it's important to point out, when it comes to this sentence like "We informed her yesterday", in English if I said "We informed she yesterday", obviously that's wrong, and it's wrong in Swedish as well: it should be "Vi informerade henne", not "Vi informerade hon".

But to be honest, this is one of those things where sometimes people actually cheat a little bit. Instead of saying "give it to him", in Swedish they might say "give it to he", "ge den till han" instead of saying "ge den till honom". It's something you can probably get away with, but it's incorrect. But if you were to make that mistake, it's not the end of the world.