Lesson 55 | Conditional in Swedish
- By MySwedish
- August 29, 2018
- 6:06 pm
- No Comments
Hello beautiful student, this is MySwedish and today we are going to talk about conditionals in Swedish.
Conditionals–definition
First of all, let me explain what conditionals represent. Conditional sentences are language constructions expressing factual implications, or hypothetical situations and their consequences.
Conditional sentences in Swedish
There are basically two conditional constructions in Swedish. The first one is used for present situations that happens under certain circumstances. And the second one is used in hypothetical situations in the past leading into consequences in the present.
Present conditionals
Present conditionals are constructions referring to the present. In other words there will be certain consequences in the future if there are certain actions at present.Let me show you several examples of such present conditional construction.
Om jag hinner med tåget, blir jag glad. — If I catch the train I will be happy.
Du hinner inte med tåget om du inte åker hemifrån i tid. — You will not catch the train if you do not leave home on time.
Be careful about the word order. In English, you can flip the sentence order without any problems. Either is correct: I will be mad if he comes here = If he comes here I will be mad. Keep in mind that you need to adjust the word order in Swedish. See the examples below:
Jag blir glad om jag hinner med tåget vs. Om jag hinner med tåget blir jag glad.
Om du inte åker hemifrån i tid hinner du inte med tåget vs. Du hinner inte med tåget om du inte åker hemifrån i tid.
There is another alternative to express a conditional in Swedish. You can use i fall = in caseinstead of om = if.
I fall jag hinner med tåget blir jag glad. — In case I catch the train I will be happy.
Hypothetical situations at present
It is pretty common to use hypothetical statements in common conversations. If it weren’t so important I wouldn’t write about it. That means that I can make the case that it is not important but it actually is.Let me show some examples of such expressions to make a bit more clear:
Om jag vore frisk skulle jag åka till Köpenhamn idag. — If I were healthy I would travel to Copenhagen today.
It is possible to change the construction in English without changes in the word order but not in Swedish. Keep in mind to change the word order when changing the order of the sentences:
Om jag vore frisk skulle jag åka till Köpenhamn idag vs. Jag skulle åka till Köpenhamn idag om jag vore frisk.
Past conditionals
Past conditionals are used in hypothetical statements referring to the past with consequences in the present. See the examples below to understand the problematic:
Om jag hade varit frisk skulle jag ha åkt till Köpenhamn. — If I had been healthy I would have travelled to Copenhagen.
A bit more common is the following construction:
Hade jag varit friskt hade jag åkt till Köpenhamn. — If I had been healthy I would have travelled to Copenhagen.
Bear in mind that the word order changes if you swap the sentencesin the conditional statement.
Jag hade åkt till Köpenhamn ifall jag hade varit frisk vs. Hade jag varit friskt hade jag åkt till Köpenhamn.
Thank you for taking your time reading the article and I am looking forward to see your comments in the section below. Don’t forget to study with pleasure and joy.
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