Breakdown of Sätt glaset på bordet!
bordet
the table
på
on / at / for (wait for) / in (believe in)
glaset
the glass
sätta
to put, to place
Questions & Answers about Sätt glaset på bordet!
Why is the word "sätt" used here for "put", and are there other words for "put" in Swedish?
English uses "put" for almost everything, but Swedish chooses the verb based on how the object is placed. You can use sätt (from sätta, to set/place) as a general word for putting something down. However, because a glass has a base and stands up, you will also very frequently hear ställ (stand it up). If you were putting down something flat, like a book, you would use lägg (lay it flat).
How do we form the command word "sätt"?
To give a command in Swedish, you use the imperative form. You build this by taking the dictionary form of the verb and dropping the final -a. The dictionary form of this verb is sätta (to set/place), so dropping the -a gives you the command sätt!
Why do both "glaset" and "bordet" end in "-et"?
Both glas (glass) and bord (table) are ett-words. In Swedish, you create the word "the" by attaching a suffix to the end of the noun instead of putting a separate word in front. For ett-words, you add -et, which gives us glaset (the glass) and bordet (the table).
Is "sätt" related to the common Swedish phrase for "sit down"?
Yes! When you tell someone to sit down in Swedish, you say sätt dig! (literally "set yourself!"). In our sentence here, because it doesn't include a reflexive pronoun like dig, it simply means to place or put a physical object.
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