What do you think think means?

In Swedish, the word "think" has three significantly different meanings (at least three, there might be more meanings that I can't think of right now). If you mean that your mind is occupied with the act of thinking about something, as in "ponder", you say "jag tänker", whereas if you use the word think to express your opinion about something you say "jag tycker". The third meaning is "I believe", which is "jag tror" in Swedish.

To make things complicated, even if "att tänka", "att tycka", and "att tro" may all be translated with "to think" in certain contexts, they also quite often mean something else than "to think". Below are some sample sentences using the words "tänka", "tycka" and "tro" in various ways.

Vad tycker du?
What do you think (as in "What's your opinion?")

Tror du på spöken?
Do you believe in ghosts?

Vad tänker du på?
What are you thinking about?

Jag tror dig.
I believe you.

Jag tror på dig.
I believe in you.
Or, in fact, also used for "I believe you" (as in "I believe that you are telling the truth")

Vad tycker du om?
What do you like/enjoy?

Vad tycker du om att göra [på fritiden]?
What do you enjoy doing [in your spare time]?

Vad tycker du om Tom Cruise? (Also "Vad anser du om Tom Cruise?", and in spoken language sometimes "Vad gillar du Tom Cruise", but the latter one is not considered "correct" Swedish)
What do you think about Tom Cruise?

Tycker du om Tom Cruise? (Also "Gillar du Tom Cruise?")
Do you like Tom Cruise?

Note that in the meaning "do you like X", you need to put the stress on the word "om" if you use "tycker du om X?" rather than "gillar du X?". The same goes for "vad tycker du om", as in "what do you like/enjoy", i.e., you stress the word "om". In the meaning "what do you think about X", you instead stress either the word "du" (what do YOU think about X"), "vad", or "X", but definietly not "om".

Swedes have a weird habit of using the phrase "jag tror inte det" (and similar forms) when we mean "no" and want to sound polite. Directly translated to English, I think it sounds rude rather than polite (although I might be wrong -- English is not my native tongue after all), but in Swedish it is a polite response.

Seller: "Vill du köpa nåt?"
Passenger: "Jag tror inte det"

"Would you like to buy anything?"
"I don't think/believe so."

I once heard, sitting on a bus (long distance), the guy selling sandwiches, beverages and snacks onboard replying "believe is something you do in church, do you want anything or not??" when hearing "I don't believe so" in response to his question if a pontential customer wanted to buy anything. So when we start to think about the expression "jag tror inte det", we obviously also see that it's a strange way to say no. But it's nevertheless widely used.

Hur tänker du nu? 

Literally "How do you think now?", actually meaning just that (although it sounds rather ridiculous in English). It's mainly used when someone doesn't understand how someone else came to a certain conclusion. So he/she is indeed interested in understanding the process of thinking in the other person's head.

Note that "Hur tänker du nu?" usually, but not always, implies that you disagree, at least to some extent. Especially if you stress the word "hur" ("how") when you speak the sentence. Or it could just mean that you are totally lost, but not necessarily because the person you are listening to is wrong, but because you cannot follow his/her logic (for any reason). When used with the latter purpose, the word "nu" is often stressed.

In the sentences below, "jag tänker" means "I imagine" or "I have in mind".

Jag hade tänkt mig en liten tårta, annars blir det nog för dyrt.
I had a small cake in mind, otherwise it will probably be too expensive.

Jag tänker mig en liten tårta för att hålla kostnaden nere.
I have a small cake in mind to keep the cost down.

Some examples using the imperative form of "tänka", i.e. "tänk":

Tänk att du alltid ska ha rätt!
(Loosely translated) You're right, as always!

Tänk, imorgon har vi varit gifta i 20 år.
Realize this, tomorrow we've been married for 20 years.

Tänk vad roligt vi ska ha det på Disneyland!
Imagine how much fun we'll have at Disneyland!

Tänk först, handla sen.
Think first, act later.

Tänk igenom ditt svar noga/noggrant.
Thoroughly think your answer through.

I wonder how we (Swedes) think about these things compared with people who have English as their mother tongue, or any other language that has the same word for all meanings. Research shows that our languages shape the way we see the world, and I'm sure it does.

As always, don't hesitate to comment if you have questions or thoughts about this subject, or want me to give examples of the usage of a particular word.

/Malin

Whetted appetite

Mentioning my newly started blog to some of my colleagues, and the discussion that followed, whetted my appetite for posting more.

Today I want to give some examples on how to express quantities in Swedish. I want to point out that the purpose of this blog is to provide examples of correct Swedish sentences and expressions, with – and sometimes without – translations and/or examples on contexts when the sentences/expressions would be appropriate.

Vissa tycker att det är okej, andra inte - Some people think it's OK, others don't

Jag kände igen några av låtarna på konserten, men de flesta var nya för mig - I recognized some of the songs at the concert, but most of them were new to me

Somliga går med trasiga skor - Some people walk in worn out (literally "broken") shoes (a title of a famous song by singer-songwriter Cornelis Vreeswijk)

Hur många kom på festen? - How many showed up at (literally "came to") the party?

En massa jobb försvinner när Scania lägger ner sin fabrik - A lot of jobs will disappear when Scania close down their plant.
NB: "En massa" means "många" (a lot of), but is mostly used in spoken language.

Bara för att någon har sagt att det är så betyder det inte att det nödvändigtvis är sant - Just because somebody said so, doesn't make it true

Ingen vill jobba över en fredag - Nobody wants to do overtime on a Friday ("jobba över" or "jobba övertid" both work equally well)

Endast ett fåtal på mötet tyckte att förslaget var bra - Only a few [meeting participants] at the meeting thought the proposal was good.
NB: You can say "Endast ett fåtal mötesdeltagare" or, as above, leave out the word "mötesdeltagare".

Hur mycket kommer du ihåg? - How much do you remember?

Lite mer vatten, tack! - A little more water, please!

Last but not least, my favorite when it comes to expressing quantities:

mycket lite - very little
litet mycket - quite a lot

Confusing? Even more so if you read this little conversation, taking place at the hot dog cart:

Cart operator: "Ketchup?"
Customer:  "Mycket lite"
(The operator puts ketchup on the hot dog, too much according to the customer who feels the need to comment on this)
Customer: "Var inte det där lite mycket??"

You could use a break

If you're at a longer meeting in Sweden, you might hear one of these sentences as a suggestion for a short break:

Jag föreslår att vi tar en kort paus.
Jag föreslår att vi tar en liten bensträckare.
Jag föreslår en bensträckare.
Låt oss ta en bensträckare och så ses vi igen här om tio minuter.
Vi tar en [liten/kort] bensträckare på fem minuter.

The word "bensträckare" literally means "the act of stretching your legs", or "the straightening out of your legs", and is an informal word used synonymously with "a short break". Note that although bensträckare implicitly already is short, "liten" (little) or "kort" (short) might still be used in front of it. In either way, it's in my experience usually not used for breaks longer than ten fifteen minutes.

To politely ask for a short break, you may phrase yourself like this:

Kan man få föreslå en kort paus?
Kan man få föreslå en kortare paus?

The last sentence literally reads, "May I suggest a shorter break", but it's the same as saying that you just need a very short break. Although kortare means shorter, in this context, you are usually not comparing the length of this break to the length of another specific break (unless you say something along the lines of "Kan man få föreslå en kortare paus än den vi hade i morse? Vi har många punkter kvar på agendan"). You simply mean that you would be happy if you would get a break, albeit a very short one.

You might come across the phrase "teknisk paus" ("technical break"). That one is used to humorously refer to an explicit toilet break. Often it's only five minutes long or so, depending on the number of toilets available... 

Jag föreslår en teknisk paus.
Får man föreslå en teknisk paus?
Kan man få föreslå en teknisk paus?

The word "rast" is used mainly for recess (a break between two classes at a school), but also for when you're driving a car and make a stop somewhere to eat, smoke or just stretch your legs. "Paus" is however also frequently used for the latter, in my experience.

Vi tog många raster/pauser på vägen hit.

Another example is the word "rasta", which means to walk your pet, e.g. your dog. Literally to give the dog a pee/poop/stretching-of-legs break.

Jag rastade Fido i morse.
Det är din tur att rasta Fido.
Hunden behöver rastas varje dag.
Förbjudet/Icke tillåtet/Ej tillåtet att rasta hundar i lekparken

Finally, I list examples using the words paus, rast (and words derived from these words), providing little or no further explanation.

matpaus
rökpaus
toapaus
kisspaus
lunchrast
pausmusik
pausunderhållning
pausgymnastik
pausknapp

Ni ser ut att behöva en rast.
Behöver ni en paus eller kan vi gå direkt på nästa punkt [på dagordningen]?
"Ingen rast och ingen ro" - the Swedish way to (mildly) complain that there is too much to do...
Vi höll på i tre timmar utan paus.
Tryck på pausknappen, är du snäll - Please press the pause button
Du bör inte köra med än i en och en halv timme i sträck innan du tar paus/rast.
Barnen hade snöbollskrig på lunchrasten.

Don't hesitate to comment on this post if you have questions or if you disagree with anything I write.

Sometimes quantity is quality

This blog has one main purpose: to provide examples of correct Swedish sentences and phrases that sound natural to me, a native Swede, to help people out there who are learning Swedish to improve their language skills.

I ask you to bear with me when it comes to my English. I know it's not perfect. I'm a bit of a perfectionist (or, you can actually skip the "a bit" part), so this blog will also be therapeutic for me. Instead of not posting, because I'm worried my English isn't perfect, I plan to post many posts. Because sometimes quantity is quality.

The reason I started this blog is because I love languages, and I'm currently studying Modern Greek on my own. It's easy to learn vocabulary, but I lack an on-line resource for simple sentences that demonstrate the usage of the words I learn. And I need examples in order to really understand their meanings. Apart from one or two examples (if I'm lucky) in on-line dictionaries, such examples are in my experience hard to come by without asking a native speaker. Language forums are the closest thing to what I need, but they are mainly used to answer specific questions (of the kind "what does this mean?") rather than providing an abundance of sentences exemplifying how to use certain words.

So, this is my contribution to those who learn Swedish. I hope you find my posts useful. If you need examples on how to use a particular Swedish word, don't hesitate to ask me. Also, alto I'm not a Swedish teacher, please feel free to ask your language questions. I'll be happy to try my best to answer them.

Note that I assume basic knowledge in Swedish, and I also assume that you look up any words you don't know in a dictionary. That is, I don't plan to always translate the sentences. But I want you to know that they are correct, that they sound natural to a Swede, and I will help you understand in what contexts you may use them.

One last thing: My intention is to provide one or more files for download with all my examples, but not until I have enough blog posts to motivate that.

Happy language learning!