1:a advent!

See English version below.

Tiden rusar, säger vi ju på svenska. Time flies. Nu är det dags att tända ett ljus i adventsljusstaken igen. Jag minns varje år den första gången min kanadensiska man skulle tända i vår svenska adventsljusstake. Han tände alla fyra ljusen! På samma gång! Vilken katastrof! Eller inte. Det var ju bara att blåsa ut tre av dem. (Och om jag känner mig själv rätt och minns väl, så bytte jag så klart de tre tända ljusen för att dölja misstaget.) För så är det ju: traditionen att tända ett ljus per vecka finns inte i Kanada. Finns den i Europa? Någon som vet? Jag vet inte. Googla skulle jag kunna göra, men söka svar bland svenskintresserade kan också vara en effektiv metod.

Likaså finns inte den elektriska adventsljusstaken i Kanada, och inte heller julstjärnor som lyser upp i mörkret. Jo, om man går till Ikea, så klart. Men i övrigt består julbelysningen i Kanada av den klassiska utomhusdekorationen som ju sprider sig snabbt i Sverige, med överdådigt inkädda hus i elektriska elljusslingor.

På www.swea.org kan man läsa följande text om den elektriska ljusstaken:

Elektriska ljusstakar började dyka upp på 1930-talet. Man säger att mannen bakom den första ljusstaken i världen hette Oscar Andersson (1909-1996). Han började sin anställning på Phillips i Göteborg 1925 och blev företaget troget i 49 år. Philips lanserade den första elektriska julgransbelysningen under åren 1929-30. Oscar, som var uppfinningsrik hade lite nya ideer, började experimentera med en elektrisk ljusstake, som till en början lyste i hans föräldrahem. Detta lär vara föregångaren till alla de miljoner elljusstakar som nu finns i de flesta svenska hem och även numera i mängder av länder i världen (källa www.Adventsljusstake.se).

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In English we say "time flies". A direct Swedish translation of the Swedish way of saying it would be "time runs". And it does. It's the 1st of Advent already. It's time to light the first candle of four in our advent candle holder.

Every year I get reminded of my husbands first advent in Sweden. I had put out the advent candle holder already the night before, to be ready to lit in the morning. My husband was the first one to the table - and he lit all four of the candles! At the same time! Catastrophy! Not really, but I was quick to blow three of them out, and if I remember right, I also changed the three of them into new ones, to cover the mistake. So why did this happen? Well, my husband is Canadian, and the tradition to light one candle a week is not common where he comes from. And I don't know if it's common in other countries. Do you? I could google about it, but another less time consuming way would be to let Swedish-interested people like you tell about your country.

The same is with the electrical advent light and the electrically lit stars that decorates our windows in the dark december nights (and mornings and afternoons...). I can't see any of that in my husbands home country either. I did find it at Ikea to buy, lucky me, to save my one Christmas the year I lived in Canada. What I did see a lot of in Canada was the overwhelmingly light-decorated houses and yards, a tradition that also rapidly is being spread to Sweden. A combination of both traditions is very welcomed in the darkness of December in Sweden.

Varför grammatik? (Why grammar?)

Good question! Some people don't need to study grammar when learning a new language. BUT some people do. And in the communication between the student and the teacher, grammar is the tool we use to explaine WHY something should be said in a certain way.

Why do we say: "Jag måste gå hem", instead of: "Jag måste gå till hemma"? Well, for the teacher to be able to explain this, grammar would be necessary. The alternative answer is: "Just because!"

So learning grammar is simply like buying tools when your building a house. You don't really need to know about all the rules when you finally know the language (how many kids speaking Swedish knows about nouns and adjectives?) just like you don't need all the tools when the house is done. But only a few people can build houses without tools!

So... do you want to know the grammatical answer to the qustion above?

Hem, instead of hemma is used togehter with verbs showing a direction (går, kommer, åker, flyger, flyttar...). We don't need to use the preposition till with these adverbs.

The form hemma is used togeher with all the verbs that show no direction (är, sitter, ligger...). We have a few of these direction adverbs. For a more thorough explanation, sign up for Swedish2go grammar- and language rules tutorial pack.

Nära skjuter ingen hare

 I got a question the other day: "What does ´Nära skjuter ingen hare´ mean?" To literally translate it: "Close does not shoot a rabbit".

???

Well, if you miss the rabbit, there won't be any rabbit for supper, so to be close is just not good enough. Expressions that mean about the same in English would be:

"almost doen't count"
"close but no cigarr"
"a miss is as good as a mile"

Från Wiktionary.org

Here we go!

This blog will be in both Swedish and English:

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