LostInTheWoods

In my head I have little machine that translates language from one kind to another. Many moons ago I had a French one, but it became superseded by a German model. This was all I had for many years, and it was starting to get very rusty. Some parts of it didn't work, I had forgotten how it to switch it on, and I had thrown away the manual.

So now I have a Swedish one. It is cleaned and used every day. It is quite durable, but it still isn't running at 100% efficiency. There is one thing that is sure to screw up the operation of my translation machine, and that is prepositions.

If you don't know what a preposition is; it is all the important yet small words we use to donate place and time: in, over, under, with, through, on, etc....

Now, until I get a fluency upgrade, my translation machine bases the usage of these little gems upon the English usage. But Swedish uses different prepositions in different places, and it is enough to make me weep....

In the following sentences, I have literally translated a Swedish sentence into English, but using the Swedish prepositions.... you may need to read them a couple of times to notice problem.

Come and sit yourself here with the table.
We drank beer to the food.
I have not been to Germany on three years.
I have lived in France in three months.
In the summer holidays we lived on the countryside.

And so it goes on.... there are two words for “with”, several for “toward”, and some that don't exist in the English language. Of course, I am instantly recognisable as an non native speaking Swede when I mess these up, but I am determined to get that upgrade if it is the last thing I do.

From now on, whenever I hear a non-English speaker trying to string a sentence together, I will not deride them (like Mr Fawlty), but sympathise.

That is all.
LostInTheWoods