Learn how to form first conditional tense sentences
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Elin: Hej allihopa! I’m Elin. |
| Becky: Hi everyone, I’m Becky. Welcome back to SwedishPod101.com. This is Upper Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 21 - Can You Afford to Go On Vacation in Sweden? In this lesson you’ll learn how to form first conditional. |
| Elin: The conversation takes place at the break room of Emma’s office. |
| Becky: It’s between Emma and her employee Simon. They’re using informal Swedish, since they work together. |
| Elin: Great! Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Emma: Simon, vad ska du göra på semestern? |
| Simon: Jag vet inte. |
| Emma: Ska du inte åka någonstans? |
| Simon: Nej jag har inte råd. Om jag vann pengar skulle jag åka till Mallorca. |
| Emma: Finns det något annat du kan göra? Något som är billigt? |
| Simon: Om jag kunde låna en cykel, skulle jag cykla på Gotland. |
| Emma: Finns det inte något du kan göra här i Stockholm? |
| Simon: Jag kanske åker till stranden. |
| Becky: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Emma: Simon, vad ska du göra på semestern? |
| Simon: Jag vet inte. |
| Emma: Ska du inte åka någonstans? |
| Simon: Nej jag har inte råd. Om jag vann pengar skulle jag åka till Mallorca. |
| Emma: Finns det något annat du kan göra? Något som är billigt? |
| Simon: Om jag kunde låna en cykel, skulle jag cykla på Gotland. |
| Emma: Finns det inte något du kan göra här i Stockholm? |
| Simon: Jag kanske åker till stranden. |
| Becky: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Emma: Simon, vad ska du göra på semestern? |
| Emma: Simon, what are you doing during your holiday? |
| Simon: Jag vet inte. |
| Simon: I don't know. |
| Emma: Ska du inte åka någonstans? |
| Emma: Are you not going somewhere? |
| Simon: Nej jag har inte råd. Om jag vann pengar skulle jag åka till Mallorca. |
| Simon: No, I can't afford it. If I won money, I would go to Majorca. |
| Emma: Finns det något annat du kan göra? Något som är billigt? |
| Emma: Isn’t there something else you can do? Something that's cheap? |
| Simon: Om jag kunde låna en cykel, skulle jag cykla på Gotland. |
| Simon: If I could borrow a bicycle, I would bike on Gotland. |
| Emma: Finns det inte något du kan göra här i Stockholm? |
| Emma: Isn’t there something you can do here in Stockholm? |
| Simon: Jag kanske åker till stranden. |
| Simon: Maybe I'll go to the beach. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: It seems like Simon is feeling a bit sad about for not being able to go Majorca! |
| Elin: Yes I think you’re right! And Swedes in general love to go abroad on their vacations. |
| Becky: But aren’t there things you can do in Sweden if you can’t go abroad for whatever reason? |
| Elin: Yes, Sweden actually has a lot of thing to offer when it comes to nice vacation spots and activities. |
| Becky: Tell me more! |
| Elin: Well in the winter, you can always head north for some winter sports such as snowboarding or skiing. |
| Becky: That sounds nice, and what about summer? |
| Elin: There are many places to go in the summer, and camping is a very popular activity among Swedes. Many Swedes go to the two islands Gotland or Öland. |
| Becky: They’re on the east coast of Sweden, right? |
| Elin: That’s right, and there are several nice beaches on both islands. They are also very good for biking, since the landscape is quite flat. |
| Becky: Listeners, be sure to check them out on your vacation to Sweden! Now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is... |
| Elin: om [natural native speed] |
| Becky: if |
| Elin: om [slowly - broken down by syllable] om [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: råd [natural native speed] |
| Becky: afford |
| Elin: råd [slowly - broken down by syllable] råd [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att vinna [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to win |
| Elin: att vinna [slowly - broken down by syllable] att vinna [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: pengar [natural native speed] |
| Becky: money |
| Elin: pengar [slowly - broken down by syllable] pengar [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: finnas [natural native speed] |
| Becky: there is/are |
| Elin: finnas [slowly - broken down by syllable] finnas [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att låna [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to borrow |
| Elin: att låna [slowly - broken down by syllable] att låna [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: cykel [natural native speed] |
| Becky: bicycle |
| Elin: cykel [slowly - broken down by syllable] cykel [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: att cykla [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to bike |
| Elin: att cykla [slowly - broken down by syllable] att cykla [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Elin: strand [natural native speed] |
| Becky: beach |
| Elin: strand [slowly - broken down by syllable] strand [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last... |
| Elin: billig [natural native speed] |
| Becky: cheap |
| Elin: billig [slowly - broken down by syllable] billig [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Elin: First up is the Swedish noun “råd” which in this dialogue is used together with the verb “att ha” meaning “to have” to say things like, “att ha råd”. |
| Becky: Which means “to afford”. |
| Elin: That’s right! But the noun “råd” can also mean “advice”. |
| Becky: I see! So for example, how would I say, “my advice to you is to take that job”? |
| Elin: That’s, “mitt råd till dig är att ta det jobbet”. |
| Becky: Let’s try another one as well! How would you say, “can I give you some advice”? |
| Elin: ”Kan jag ge dig ett råd”. |
| Becky: Great! Now let’s move on to the next word. |
| Elin: Next is the verb “att låna”. |
| Becky: It means “to borrow” and was used by Simon in this lesson’s dialog, when he said, “If I could borrow a bicycle, I would bike on Gotland.” |
| Elin: That’s correct! In Swedish, that’s “om jag kunde låna en cykel skulle jag cykla på Gotland”. |
| Becky: But, Swedes use this verb to say, “to lend” as well, right? |
| Elin: That’s right, but there’s a way to tell the “att låna” meaning “to borrow” and the “att låna” meaning “to lend” apart. |
| Becky: Ok, what is it? |
| Elin: If the verb “att låna” is followed by the preposition “ut” meaning “out”, it then means “to lend”. |
| Becky: I see! So how would you say, “Anna lent her book to Martin”? |
| Elin: “Anna lånade ut sin bok till Martin”. |
| Becky: And how would you say, “Martin borrowed a book from Anna”? |
| Elin: That’s, “Martin lånade en bok från Anna”. |
| Becky: Great! Now let’s move on to the grammar! |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson you’ll learn how to form first conditional tense sentences. In previous series, we have learned how to ask someone to do something for you, by using first conditional tense sentences. And in this lesson, we’ll continue to look at how first conditional tense sentence are structured, and how we can use them to describe actions or states that can only occur under certain conditions in the present. Before we start, I should mention that there’s several ways of forming first conditional tense sentences, but we’ll only focus on sentences that follow the same structure as the first conditional tense sentences from the dialog. |
| Elin: That’s right. Here we have sentences like, “if I won money, I would go to Majorca”. Which was “om jag vann pengar, skulle jag åka till Mallorca”. |
| Becky: We also have the sentence “if I could borrow a bicycle, I would bike on Gotland”. |
| Elin: Which was “om jag kunde låna en cykel, så skulle jag cykla på Gotland”. |
| Becky: Ok, I think the best way to learn how to form this type of first conditional tense sentence, is to start examining the sentences in more detail. Let’s start by looking at the first part of the sentence, which is the clause that describes the actual condition that needs to take place, in order for something else to happen. |
| Elin: Which were the “if I won money” and “if I could borrow a bicycle” part. In Swedish, “om jag vann pengar” and “om jag kunde låna en cykel”. |
| Becky: Both of these clauses are introduced by the conditional conjunction “if”. |
| Elin: That’s right. “If” in Swedish is “om”. “Om” is then followed by a statement that describes the condition that needs to take place, in order for something else to happen. |
| Becky: One of these statements in the dialog was “I won money” |
| Elin: Which was “jag vann pengar” . |
| Becky: It seems like this statement follows a straight word order. |
| Elin: Yes, the statement starts with the subject “jag”, which is then followed by the verb “att vinna”, meaning “to win” in its preterite form “vann”. |
| Becky: And then? |
| Elin: The verb is followed by the object of the sentence, which in this case is the noun “pengar” meaning “money”. |
| Becky: Great! So let’s try to form some other clauses that follow the same pattern. For example, how would you say, “if I became rich”? |
| Elin: You have to start with the conditional conjunction “om” meaning “if”, which is then followed by the statement “jag blev rik” which means “I became rich”. |
| Becky: So “if I became rich” in Swedish is? |
| Elin: “Om jag blev rik”. |
| Becky: Let’s get our listeners to practice that. |
| Elin: Listeners, repeat after me please. |
| Elin: “Om jag blev rik”. |
| Becky: Let’s try one more! How would you say, “if I had time”? |
| Elin: As usual, we’ll have to start with the conditional conjunction “om” meaning “if”, followed by the statement “om jag hade tid” which means “if I had time”. |
| Listeners, repeat after me! “Om jag hade tid”. |
| Becky: Great! Now, let’s move on and look at another part of the first conditional tense sentence - the clause that describes the action that only can take place under certain conditions. In the two first conditional tense sentences from the dialog, this is represented by the clauses “I would go to Majorca” and “I would bike on Gotland”. |
| Elin: In Swedish those were, “skulle jag åka till Mallorca” and “skulle jag cykla på Gotland”. |
| Becky: It seems like the auxiliary verb for “would” appears in both these sentences. |
| Elin: That’s right! The auxiliary verb “skulle” always appears in first conditional tense sentences, together with a main verb in its infinitive form, but without the “att” which means “to”. So in the clause, “I would go to Majorca” the auxiliary verb “skulle” meaning “would” is used together with the infinitive form of the verb “att åka” meaning “to go”, but without the “att” meaning “to”. |
| Becky: So “I would go to Majorca” is? |
| Elin: “Skulle jag åka till Mallorca”. Listeners repeat after me please! |
| Elin: “Skulle jag åka till Mallorca”. |
| Becky: Great! But it seems to me that there is something different about the word order in this clause. |
| Elin: Well spotted! Yes, the word order in this clause is inverted. That means that the clause is introduced by the first verb, the auxiliary “skulle” meaning “would”, and then followed by the subject, “jag” meaning “I”, and after that comes the main verb “att åka” meaning “to go”. |
| Becky: I see. What are some examples? How would you say, “I would buy a house”? |
| Elin: You start with the auxiliary verb “skulle” meaning “would”, followed by the subject “jag” meaning “I”. “Jag” is followed by the main verb “att köpa” meaning “to buy”, but without the “att” meaning “to”, and then comes the object, “ett hus” which means “a house”. |
| Becky: Altogether, what is “I would buy a house”? in Swedish? |
| Elin: “Skulle jag köpa ett hus”. Listeners, repeat after me! |
| Elin: “Skulle jag köpa ett hus”. |
| Becky: Okay let’s try one more! How would you say, “I would quit my job”? |
| Elin: Start with the auxiliary verb “skulle” meaning “would”, followed by the subject “jag” meaning “I”, then the main verb “att sluta” meaning “to quit”. |
| Becky: But without the “to”. |
| Elin: That’s right, without the “att”. After that comes the object, “mitt jobb” which means “my job”. |
| Becky: Let’s put that together. |
| Elin: Sure! It’s, “skulle jag sluta mitt jobb”. Listeners, repeat after me please! |
| Elin: “Skulle jag sluta mitt jobb”. |
| Becky: Great! We have now learned about the two clauses that makes up a first conditional tense sentence. Let’s try to put these clauses together to form a whole sentence! How would you say, "If I earned more, I would travel around the world”? |
| Elin: “Om jag tjänade mer, skulle jag resa runt jorden”. |
| Becky: Listeners, repeat after Elin! |
| Elin: “Om jag tjänade mer, skulle jag resa runt jorden”. |
| Becky: How would you say, "If I had vacation, I would go to the beach everyday"? |
| Elin: “Om jag hade semester, skulle jag åka till stranden varje dag.” Listeners, repeat after me please! |
| Elin: “Om jag hade semester, skulle jag åka till stranden varje dag.” |
| Becky: Ok. Remember to check the lesson notes to reinforce what you’ve learned in this lesson. |
Outro |
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| Becky: Okay that’s it for this lesson. Thanks for listening everyone, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Elin: Hej då. |
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