Language/Swedish/Vocabulary/How-to-talk-about-location-with-här,-där,-and-där-borta

How to talk about location with här, där, and där borta.

In this lesson, we'll learn how to talk about the location of an object by using adverbs such as här, där, and där borta. We'll start by looking at some of the sentences from this lesson's dialogue in which these adverbs are used.

Examples from this dialogue:

1. Nej, det är är min godispåse."No, this one here is my bag of candy."
2. Nej, det där är min godispåse. "No, that one there is my bag of candy."
3. Godispåsen där borta är din godispåse. "The candy bag over there is your bag of candy."

In Swedish, as in many other language, we use certain adverbs that indicate the location of an object that we're talking about in relation to the speaker. Before we look more closely at each of these adverbs and their usage, we'll look at a sentence formula that will make it easy to use these adverbs when talking about the location of an object. Here we'll use sentences like Nycklen är här. ("The key is here.") or Väskan är där ("The bag is there."). This means that we'll use a formula that looks like this:

[noun in its definite singular form] + är + [här / där / där borta].

Now, let's look more closely at the adverb här ("here"), which is used when the speaker is talking about something that is close to himself or herself. To illustrate this, we'll use the adverb här together with the nouns boken ("the book"), väskan ("the bag"), and penskrinet ("the pencil case") in the formula previously described.

For example:

1. Boken är här."The book is here."
2. Väskan är här."The bag is here."
3. Penskrinet är här. "The pencil case is here."

The adverb där ("there"), on the other hand, is used to talk about something that's located away from the speaker (usually not that far away). To make it more comprehensible, we'll use the same nouns that we saw previously, together with the adverb där.

For example:

1. Boken är där."The book is there."
2. Väskan är där. "The bag is there."
3. Penskrinet är där."The pencil case is there."

Finally, the adverb där borta ("over there") is used to talk about something that's located far away from the speaker. Let's look at some examples.

1. Boken är där borta. "The book is over there."
2. Väskan är där borta. "The bag is over there."
3. Penskrinet är där borta. "The pencil case is over there."

With the completion of this lesson, consider investigating these related pages: Feelings and Emotions, Swedish Vocabulary → Body parts and health → Symptoms and ..., Asking for directions & Job applications and interviews.

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