Swedish verbs: förstå, säga, försöka

So, to say that you understand something that's very useful, because when somebody asks you something, you can say, "I don't understand." So, that's very useful when you're practicing Swedish. So, to say understand, you would say förstå, att förstå. So, "I understand": jag förstår.

"You understand": du förstår. And then, of course, you can just say the remaining ones: han förstår, hon förstår, den/det förstår, ni förstår, de förstår, vi förstår. And that means "we understand." "Säger" means "to say": att säga.

So, "I say": jag säger, jag säger. "You say" becomes du säger. And then, of course, the remaining ones you know: han säger, hon säger, and so forth. So, säger is to say. And it's probably one of those few words that sound pretty much identical even though they're spelled differently: säger, it's spelled with ä and g.

But säg, which is say, you can hear the English and the Swedish is very, very, very close. "To say": att säga. If you want to use the imperative, the order, you would say: säg, säg. And that's pretty much like say, say. They sound virtually the same.

How do you say, "I understand"? Jag förstår.

What about, "I understand him"?

Jag förstår honom.

Jag förstår honom. Him is honom.

What about, "we understand her"? Vi förstår henne.

And, "I don't understand"? That's very useful. Jag förstår inte. Jag förstår inte. The inte always comes after the changed verb.

And if you want to say, "I don't understand what you're saying," and we of course, we said saying was säger when you change the verb. So, how do you say, "I don't understand what you're saying," to one person?

Jag förstår inte vad du säger.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" As a question: "Do you understand what I'm saying?" Förstår du vad jag säger? Förstår du vad jag säger?

So, to say "try" in Swedish, you would say försöka, att försöka. And when you change that verb, it becomes försöker, försöker.

So, how would you say, "Do you understand what I try to say?" So, it's what I'm trying to say, "Do you understand what I'm trying to say?" Förstår du vad jag försöker säga?

"Say something." How would you say that?

Säg något or säg någonting.

"Say nothing." Säg ingenting or säg inget, inget.

"What should I say?" Vad ska jag säga?

"What would I say?" Vad skulle jag säga? It's like, "What was I going to say?" Vad skulle jag säga?

"It says a lot." Det säger mycket.

"It says a lot about you." And to say "about" in Swedish you would say "om". That's the most common way, "om". So how do you say: "It says a lot about you"?

Det säger mycket om dig. Det säger mycket om dig.

What about: "It says a lot about them"?

Det säger mycket om dem.

And of course you can spell it d-o-m if you prefer.

Det säger mycket om dem.

So in Swedish, you use "one" very often, like talking about something in a general sense, "one should do this", "one should come". You don't usually say that in English, it sounds a bit formal. In Swedish, it's very common, and you would use "man". So how would you say: "One should eat"?

Man ska äta.

How would you say: "Yes, one can go if one wants"?

Ja, man kan gå om man vill. And of course "man", it's used here as sort of this generic way of saying "one", "a person" should do. But "man" literally means "man", so it does mean like "a man", a male person. But in this way it's not really understood as a male person.

It's used to describe generally anyone. And you would say "man". Ja, man kan gå om man vill. "Yes, one can go if one wants". In English when you want to talk about this generic person, you would say "you" very often, so you would say: "Yes, you can go if you want".

I mean that you could go there if you want to, and you're not necessarily talking to one person, you're talking about the ability to go to that place. "Yeah, a person could go there. I mean, if you want to go there you could go there". In Swedish you would say "man". Man kan gå om man vill.

Okay. "Can one live like that?" And do you remember how you say that, like this, like that? Så här, så här. And you can sort of remove the "här", and you can just say "så" as well.

So, how would you say, "Can one live like that?" using just "så"? Kan man leva så?

And, of course, "live" was "leva".

"Can one always live like that?" To say "always" in Swedish, you would say "all the time": All-tid. "Tid" means "time", but the word is connected, and when it's connected, it means "always".

Alltid, alltid. So, how do you say, "Can one always live like that?" Kan man alltid leva så? So, you can see "alltid", it's composed of "all", which is sort of "all", and then "time" is "tid", so "alltid", "always", "all the time".

Kan man alltid leva så?

"Yes, one can do that." Ja, man kan göra det. Ja, man kan göra det.

You can begin the sentence with the last part, but then you need to modify the order, so you could hear somebody say, "Ja," "det kan man göra". "Det kan man göra". And now I've switched the order because I put the "det" in the beginning.

So, if that's too confusing still, just go with the regular sentence structure: Ja, man kan göra det.

"One can ask what one wants." Sounds almost like poetry. "One can ask what one wants." But in Swedish, it would actually come out as a regular sentence. So, how would you say that, "One can ask what one wants"? It's like saying, "You can ask what you want," but you'd say "one" in Swedish.

So, to say "ask" was "fråga".

Man kan fråga vad man vill. Man kan fråga vad man vill.