The Swedish verb att bli (to become)

Let's explore the word från or ifrån. So, från, ifrån, that means "from".

And you can use either. Sometimes one is perhaps more preferable in terms of sounding better, in terms of that context. So, to say "I come from Sweden"... You'd say, "I come from Sweden." Do you remember how to say "to come"?

att komma Okay, so how do you then say, "I come from Sweden," and you use från to say "from"?

Jag kommer från Sverige. Jag kommer från Sverige.

"He comes from England." How would you say that? Han kommer från England.

England So that's how you pronounce it. "Where do you come from?" Vart kommer du ifrån? So, ifrån and från, they are more or less interchangeable. Sometimes one is preferred because it sounds better in the sentence.

But essentially, "Vart kommer du ifrån?", "Vart kommer du ifrån? if you were speaking and you said either of these, people would understand and it would be acceptable. Okay, so let's look at av. So let's look at the word av, Swedish word av. Av means "of", but it can mean other things as well.

But for now, let's look at its meaning in terms of being "of".

"We are a part of this world." "We are a part of this world." That's how you'd say it in Swedish, "a part In English you could say we're part of this world and remove the a, but in Swedish you need that a. So how would you say: We are a part of this world, if "part" is del - del, and "of" is av - del av?

Vi är en del av denna värld. So "this" was denna, or it could have been detta. So to say "this", you could say denna or detta, but in this case, it's denna because värld is en värld.

They presented a part of the material. They presented a part of the material.

De presenterade en del av materialet. So we've had this word before: "material" is material - material, and it's ett material. So, de presenterade en del av materialet. I have already presented a part of the material. So do you remember how to say "already"?

Redan. So how do you say, "I have already presented a part of the material"?

Jag har redan presenterat en del av materialet. Jag har presenterat, I have presented. So that's the have-way of going back to the past. And then to say "already", you say redan. Jag har redan presenterat en del av materialet.

Okay, so now let's look at the word To become, att bli. This is an extremely useful word in Swedish because it allows you to say a lot of different things. So, if we for instance want to say, "We become a part of this world," we would use att bli, we would use the changed form.

Now, if you were to guess, what do you think the changed form, the present form of bli is?

Blir. Blir, so you add on an r. After a while, you sort of get an intuition for what sounds correctly when you're speaking Swedish. Okay, so, "We become a part of this world." How do you say that?

Vi blir en del av denna värld. Vi blir en del av denna värld. So a part, en del. Now, to say "glad" in Swedish, it's spelled the exact same way, but you pronounce it in a Swedish way. So how do you think you would pronounce "glad"?

Glad, glad. And that means happy, glad. And to say sometimes you would say ibland, ibland. And that means sometimes. So, how do you say, "I become glad sometimes," or, "I become happy sometimes." It's like saying, "I'm happy sometimes." Jag blir glad ibland.

Jag blir glad ibland. "I become happy sometimes." If you want to switch the order and say, "Sometimes I become glad," or, "Sometimes I become happy," how would you say that in Swedish? And it sounds much more pleasant in Swedish than it does in in English, in terms of uh the having this order, "Sometimes I become glad." Ibland blir jag glad.

So this is important, as we said before: if you have something that's modifying the sentence, and you put that thing in the beginning, then you have to change the word order. So instead of having "Ibland jag blir glad", that's incorrect in Swedish, you would have to switch the order between blir and jag, simply because you put ibland in the beginning.

It was the same thing when we put time modifying word like igår, or imorgon, or nu, or something like that. You have to modify the sentence if you choose to put that word in the beginning. So what was the word for car?

Bil. And of course it's en bil.

How do you say: he is quick, or he is fast?

Han är snabb.

What about: his car is fast?

Hans bil är snabb. Hans bil är snabb. And what about: their car is fast?

Deras bil är snabb.

Okay. He speaks quickly. And if you want to say "quickly," just like "slowly," do you remember what to do?

Yes, you would add on t. So, "quickly" in Swedish would become snabbt, snabbt, with a t in the end. So how do you say: he speaks quickly?

Han talar snabbt. So quick is snabb, and quickly is snabbt.

What about: she speaks too fast?

Hon talar för snabbt.