Questions & Answers about Vi sitter i salongen.
Why doesn't the Swedish sentence use a continuous tense like 'are sitting'?
Swedish doesn't have a direct equivalent to the English '-ing' form for verbs. The simple present tense sitter means both 'sit' and 'are sitting'. Swedish frequently relies on posture verbs like sitta (to sit), stå (to stand), or ligga (to lie) to naturally express that a state is currently ongoing.
Does salongen only mean a hair or beauty salon?
It can mean that, but salong has a much broader use in Swedish. It often refers to a drawing room, a lounge, or an elegant living room in a house. It is also the standard word for the auditorium or seating area in a theater or cinema.
How does the word salongen show 'the' here?
Salong is an en-word. As a quick refresher, to make a Swedish noun definite ('the'), you attach the article to the end of the word rather than putting a separate word in front. So en salong (a salon or lounge) becomes salongen (the salon or lounge).
Since this lesson focuses on changes of state, how would we change this sentence to say 'We sit down' (a change of state)?
While sitter describes the static state of already being seated, Swedish uses the reflexive verb sätta sig for the action of taking a seat. To express that change of state, you would say Vi sätter oss i salongen (We are sitting down in the salon).
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