# Swedish: past tense agreement



## airelibre

In English, we say:

I didn't know you were a doctor.

Even if the person is *still* a doctor.

You _can_ say "I didn't know you're a doctor" if you want to make sure you don't get misunderstood, but it sounds slightly unnatural. 

My question is, how does this work in Swedish? (I'd be interested to hear about the other Nordic languages too, but my main interest is Swedish)

Jag visste inte att du var en läkare.
Jag visste inte att du är en läkare.

Are both correct depending on whether or not the person is still a doctor? Is the first one possible if the person is still a doctor? Does the first one sound more natural even if the person is still a doctor?


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## Warped

The norm is that the tenses should correspond to each other. And one more thing: In Swedish, there is no article before one's occupation: "... att du var läkare."


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## airelibre

Ah, whoops I should have known that! 

So, is it exactly like in English?

You can say visste...är if you want to clarify, but it sounds unnatural?


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## cocuyo

It does not sound unnatural, but I think it would be more common to use past tense for both verbs.


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## airelibre

Ok, tack tack!


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## DerFrosch

cocuyo said:


> It does not sound unnatural


It does to me. Sure, you will hear people use the present tense in cases like these in casual speech, but that's sloppy language use in my opinion. It's not elegant in writing.


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## Segorian

DerFrosch said:


> It does to me.


Me too. It simply doesn't sound right.


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## Segorian

airelibre said:


> I'd be interested to hear about the other Nordic languages too,


In Icelandic, you would say:

_Ég vissi ekki að þú *værir* læknir._ (Past subjunctive, as in English.)

Using either the present indicative or the present subjunctive would be considered a grammatical mistake, although especially the latter is something I would not be surprised to see given the tendency among some users today to replace the past subjunctive with the present subjunctive.


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## Dan2

Segorian said:


> _Ég vissi ekki að þú *værir* læknir._ (Past subjunctive, as in English.)


This is actually not a case where we'd use the subjunctive in English, in either past or present tense (both of which are alive and well in American English in other contexts).  Past indicative is most natural, as airelibre said, with present indicative possible.


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## Segorian

Dan2 said:


> This is actually not a case where we'd use the subjunctive in English


Quite right; I wrote too hastily there.


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## airelibre

Thanks for the Icelandic input Segorian.


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