LESSON NOTES

Upper Beginner S1 #22

Doing the Grocery Shopping in
Sweden

CONTENTS
2
2
3
3
4
5
7

Swedish
English
Vocabulary
Sample Sentences
Vocabulary Phrase Usage
Grammar
Cultural Insight

22

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SWEDISH
1.

Emma:

Har du veckohandlat?

2.

David:

Ja, jag hade lite tid efter jobbet.

3.

Emma:

Vad bra! Kan jag hjlpa till att packa upp?

4.

David:

Ja. Stll in mjlken i kylen, r du snll.

5.

Emma:

Sjlvklart! Ngot mer?

6.

David:

Ja. Lgger du brdet i frysen.

7.

Emma:

Klar. Var det allt?

8.

David:

Ja, det var allt.

ENGLISH
1.

Emma:

Have you done the weekly grocery shopping?

2.

David:

Yes, I had some time after work.

3.

Emma:

That's great! Can I help unpack?

4.

David:

Yes. Put the milk in the fridge, please.

5.

Emma:

Of course. Anything else?

6.

David:

Yes. Will you put the bread in the freezer?

CONT'D OVER
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7.

Emma:

Done. Is that everything?

8.

David:

Yes, that was everything.

VOCABULARY
S w e dish
att veckohandla

English
to do weekly grocery

C lass

shopping

verb

efter

after

preposition

att packa upp

to unpack

verb

frys

freezer

noun

att hjlpa till

to help

verb

att stlla

to put

verb

kyl

fridge

noun

allt

everything

pronoun

brd

bread

noun

att lgga

to put

verb

SAMPLE SENTENCES
Eva har kt fr att veckohandla.

Efter sndag kommer mndag.

Eva has gone to do weekly grocery

After Sunday comes Monday.

shopping.
Har du packat upp din vska?

Lgg glassen i frysen.

Have you unpacked your bag?

Put the ice cream in the freezer.

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Kan du hjlpa till?

Jag stllde vasen p bordet.

Can you help?

I put the vase on the table.

Min kyl har gtt snder.

Jag har gjort allt jag behvde idag.

My fridge is broken.

I have done everything I needed today.

r allt okej?

Kan du kpa brd?

"Is everything okay?"

Can you buy bread?

Brd r viktigt fr mig.

Var kan jag lgga dina nycklar?

"Bread is important for me."

Where can I put your keys?

Jag lgger den hr borta.

Ill put it over here.

VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE

att packa upp ("to unpack")
In this lesson's dialogue, we introduced the verb att packa upp. Att packa upp translates "to
unpack" and needs some special attention because it differs from its English counterpart in
that that the word upp has the same function as the "un-" in "unpack." If you instead would use
the word in ("in") after att packa, that would correspond to the English verb "to wrap."
Let's look at some sentences that illustrate this.
1.

Jag mste packa min vska.

"I have to pack my bag."

2.

Jag ska bara packa upp min vska.

"I'm just going to unpack my bag."

efter ("after")

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In this lesson's dialogue, we used the preposition efter in a way corresponding to "after," and
we use this preposition in Swedish to talk about something that happened after something
else in time. Let's look at the sentence from the dialogue.
For Example:
1.

Ja, jag hade lite tid efter jobbet.

"Yes, I had some time after work."

The preposition efter also corresponds to "after," and we use it in the same way as "after"
when we want to talk about something that's after something else in a sequence. Let's look at
some examples that illustrate that.
For Example:
1.

Lisa stod efter Anna i kn.

"Lisa stood after Anna in the queue."

2.

Efter skolan lg en vacker trdgrd.

"After the school was a beautiful garden."

GRAMMAR
The Focus of This Lesson Is to Learn How to Use the Swedish Verbs Att Stlla and Att
Lgga Correctly.
Stlla in mjlken in kylen, r du snll.
"Put the milk in the fridge, please."

In this lesson, we'll learn how to use the Swedish verbs att stlla and att lgga correctly. Both
these verbs, as you might already have understood, correspond to the English "to put," but we
use them differently in Swedish depending on the object they're referring to. Understanding
the meaning and how to use the verbs att stlla and att lgga can be quite difficult, and it is a
common mistake that nonnative speakers make. Before we go into the details of each verb,
let's look at the sentences from this lesson's dialogue that use these verbs.
For Example:

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Stlla in mjlken in kylen, r du snll.

1.

"Put the milk in the fridge, please."

Lgger du brdet i frysen.

2.

"Will you put the bread in the freezer?"

As you can see from the sentences above, the first sentence uses the verb att stlla, while the
second sentence uses the verb att lgga. Let's start with the verb att stlla. This verb
corresponds to the verb "to put" but literally translates to "stands," and we only use it when we
are referring to an object that's supposed to be put in a vertical position. In the sentence from
this lesson's dialogue, David tells Emma to "put the milk in the fridge," and since David is
talking about the milk, which is a package that most of the time is put in a vertical position, he
uses the verb att stlla. Now let's look at some more examples of sentences that use the verb
att stlla since they're referring to an object that's put in a vertical position.
For Example:
1.

Jag stllde vattenflaskan p bordet.

"I put the water bottle on the table."

2.

Karin stller kaffekopparna p brickan.

"Karin puts the coffee cups on the tray."

3.

Kan du stlla alla blomkrukor i skuggan?

"Can you put all the flower pots in the shade?"

Let's now move on to the verb att lgga, which also corresponds to the English "to put" but
literally translates to "lies." Instead, we use this verb when we're talking about putting an
object in a horizontal position. For example, in this lesson's dialogue, David used the verb att
lgga when he asked Emma, "Will you put the bread in the freezer?" because a package of
bread is most commonly put in a horizontal position. Here are some more examples of
sentences that use the verb att lgga since they're referring to an object that's put in a
horizontal position.
For Example:

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1.

Lgg inte nycklarna p bordet!

"Don't put the keys on the table!"

2.

Var har du lagt din plnbok?

"Where did you put your wallet?"

3.

Du kan lgga rapporten p mitt skrivbord.

"You can put the report on my desk."

CULTURAL INSIGHT
Doing the Weekly Shopping in Sweden

In this lesson's dialogue, David has just returned after doing some weekly grocery shopping.
Swedes typically shop once a week, and doing weekly grocery shopping is also
recommended by many Swedish Internet sites that store recipes and shopping lists covering
lunches and dinners for one week. When Swedes do their weekly grocery shopping, they
usually visit popular stores such as Willys and ICA Maxi, which usually sell groceries at
affordable prices. Of course, what people actually buy varies from family to family, but Swedes
tend to make sure to get typical Swedish staple foods such potatoes, bread, milk, and cheese.
Even though the potato historically has been and still is a natural part of the Swedish diet, the
consumption of other products such as pasta, bulgur, and quinoa is on the rise. For those who
don't have time to or don't like to go to the store, there are also some Swedish companies that
operate online. These companies build on the concept of weekly grocery shopping and
deliver bags of food together with cooking instructions once a week to their customers.

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