Looking: titta and kolla
You already know titta på (to watch). The bare verb titta is narrower — it is to direct your eyes somewhere, for a moment: Titta! is what you say when you want someone to look right now.
Kolla is the everyday verb for checking something — a price, a phone, a time. It is informal and extremely common in spoken Swedish.
| Can you check the price? | Kan du kolla priset? |
Listening and Speaking
Lyssna is to listen; with an object it takes på (lyssna på musiken), which you have already met. Tala is to speak — the more formal sibling of prata. In everyday conversation Swedes say prata; in writing, in announcements and in the phrase tala svenska, you will meet tala.
| everyday | more formal |
|---|---|
| prata | tala |
| jobba | arbeta |
Searching, Liking, Asking, Naming
Leta is to search; to search FOR something is leta efter, which the course has already taught. Gilla is the everyday to like — you know tycka om, and the two are interchangeable in most sentences.
Be is to ask for something, not to ask a question — that is fråga. And kalla is to call in the sense of giving a name, never the telephone sense, which is ringa.
| Everyone calls him the boss. | Alla kallar honom chefen. |
