LESSON NOTES

Beginner S1 #21
What’s Christmas Like in Sweden?

CONTENTS
2 Swedish
2 English
3 Vocabulary
3 Sample Sentences
4 Vocabulary Phrase Usage
5 Grammar
6 Cultural Insight

# 21
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 SWEDISH

1. Lisa: Anna, hur firar svenskarna jul?

2. Anna: I Sverige, firar man jul tillsammans med vår familj den tjugofjärde
december.

3. Lisa: Jaha. Men vad gör man?

4. Anna: Man äter julmat, man ger varandra presenter och man tittar på Kalle
Anka.

5. Lisa: Jasså? Inget annat?

6. Anna: Vissa människor går till kyrkan, men inte alla.

7. Lisa: Jasså.

ENGLISH

1. Lisa: Anna, how do Swedes celebrate Christmas?

2. Anna: In Sweden, we celebrate Christmas together with our families on

the twenty-fourth of December.

3. Lisa: I see. But what do you do?

4. Anna: You eat Christmas food, you give each other presents, and you
watch Donald Duck.

5. Lisa: Really? Nothing else?

CONT'D OVER

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6. Anna: Some people go to church, but not everyone.

7. Lisa: I see.

VOCABULARY

S w e dish English C lass

att fira to celebrate verb

våran our pronoun

familj family noun

tjugofjärde i tolfte December 24th date

julmat Christmas food noun

att ge to give verb

varandra each other pronoun

att titta to watch verb

vissa some pronoun

alla everybody pronoun

SAMPLE SENTENCES

Det är roligt att fira jul. Våran dotter heter Sofia.

"It is fun to celebrate Christmas." "Our daughter's name is Sofia."

Det vore trevligt om våra familjer kan Familjen äter middag.

träffas.
"The family is eating dinner."
"It would be nice if our families could meet."

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Skolan börjar den tjugofjärde i tolfte. Exempel på svensk julmat är köttbullar.

" School starts on the 24th of December." "An example of Swedish Christmas food is
meatballs."

Vad kommer du att ge Lisa på hennes Man ska vara snälla mot varandra.
födelsedag?
"You should be nice to each other."
"What are you going to give Lisa on her
birthday?"

Kommer du att titta på fotbolls matchen Vissa svenskar firar inte jul.
ikväll?
"Some Swedes don’t celebrate Christmas."
"Are you going to watch the football game
tonight?"

Nu har jag slagit in alla julklapparna. Jag har bjudit alla från jobbet.

"Now I have wrapped all the Christmas "I have invited everybody from work."
gifts."

VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE

våran ("our")

Våran is a pronoun that corresponds to the English "our." This pronoun might be tricky for non-
native speakers because it changes depending on the noun it is referring to. When it is
referring to a neuter gender noun, then you use vårat, but when it is referring to a common
gender noun, then you use våran. Let's make a comparison between the neuter gender noun
kalas ("party") and the common gender noun middag ("dinner"). "Our party" would then
translate to vårat kalas, while "our dinner" would translate to våran middag. It is also good to
know that we change vårat/våran" to vårt/vår when we use it in writing.

att ge ("to give")

In this lesson's dialogue, the Swedish verb att ge corresponds to the English verb "to give,"

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but it can also have other meanings. For example, in Swedish, we use it when we talk about
distributing cards at a card game, but we can also use it when talking about someone giving
up on a dream or giving up certain behavior.

GRAMMAR

The Focus of This Lesson Is Learning How to Talk About Things People Generally Do With
the Help of the Pronoun Man.
Man äter julmat, man ger varandra presenter och man tittar på Kalle Anka.
"You eat Christmas food, you give each other presents and you watch Donald Duck."

In this lesson, we will learn how to talk about things that people generally do. In order to do
so, we need to look more closely at the commonly used Swedish pronoun man. It is an
indefinite pronoun, which means a pronoun that refers to one or more unspecific objects,
places, or beings. In Swedish, we use the pronoun man when we talk about things in general,
when we are not referring to a specific person, or when we are talking about conditions that
concern everybody. In this lesson's dialogue, the pronoun man corresponds to both the
English pronouns "you" and "we." Let's look at the examples from this lesson's dialogue.

For Example:

1. I Sverige, firar man jul tillsammans med våran familj...

"In Sweden, we celebrate Christmas together with our family..."

2. Man äter julmat, man ger varandra presenter och man tittar på Kalle Anka.
"You eat Christmas food, you give each other presents, and you watch Donald
Duck."

In Swedish, we can also use man to mean "one" or "they." Here are some examples.

For Example:

1. Man lär så länge man lever.

"One learns as long as one lives."

2. Man skulle kunna tro att alla affärer har stängt idag.
"One would think that all stores are closed today."

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3. I Japan äter man rå fisk.
"In Japan, they eat raw fish."

4. I USA friar man jul den tjugofemte december.

"In the United States, they celebrate Christmas on the twenty-fifth of December."

Language Tip

In a previous lesson, we looked at how to refer to a specific date in Swedish by using this kind
of structure.

For Example:

1. Den fjärde januari.

"The fourth of January."

In this lesson's dialogue, an alternative way of referring to a specific date is introduced:

namely, tjugofjärde i tolfte, which translates to "the twenty-fourth of December." Den
tjugofjärde i tolfte literally translates to "the twenty-fourth in the twelfth," where the first part of
the sentence, den tjugofjärde, is referring to the day (in this case, the twenty-fourth), and the
last part of the sentence, tolfte, is referring to the month (in this case, December). When
writing, we usually do not write this way of referring to a specific date in letters; instead, we
more commonly use numbers. Here are a few examples of how it would look and how we
should pronounce it.

For Example:

Date Swedish "English"

5/2 den femte i andra "the fifth of February"

7/8 den sjunde i åttonde "the seventh of August"

19/3 den nittonde i tredje "the nineteenth of March"

CULTURAL INSIGHT

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The Role of Christianity in Swedish Culture

Many of the Swedish holidays and traditions that are celebrated within the Swedish culture
have a Christian connection; for instance, we celebrate both Easter and Christmas. But are
Swedes really that religious? It is not the easiest question to answer, but let's start with some
simple facts. Historically, Sweden can be said to be a Christian country, but in the year 2000,
the church was separated from the state. In 2011, almost seventy percent of the whole
population were members of the Swedish church. This might seem like a quite high figure, but
only a fraction, less than four percent of these members, actually attend church on a regular
basis. There are, however, occasions when the church still seems to play an important part in
Swedes' lives, such as when they get married, when they baptize their children, and when
they are buried. From these facts, it would be fair to conclude that Swedes in general are not
that religious, but Christian traditions are still celebrated and part of Swedish culture.

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