# Swedish: ställningstaganden



## goldfish174

Hej!

Jag undrar hur man kan översätta detta till engelska: 

"Till det njutbara med hans sätt att skriva hör att hans ställningstaganden ligger så inbäddad i hans stoff."

Tack på förhand.


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## DieuEtMonDroit

goldfish174 said:


> Hej!
> 
> Jag undrar hur man kan översätta detta till engelska:
> 
> "Till det njutbara med hans sätt att skriva hör att hans ställningstaganden ligger så inbäddad inbäddade i hans stoff."
> 
> Tack på förhand.



Jag tror att du ska försöka själv först och kanske fråga om något specifikt ord eller så... Om du undrar över _ställningstagande_ betyder det ungefär _standpoint_ på engelska...


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## goldfish174

Tack. OK, jag ska försöka göra det. 
"The enjoyment of his way to write belongs  that his standspoints are so embedded in his texts.


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## DieuEtMonDroit

I am suprised at this sentence at a basic level of Swedish as it, indeed, rather complicated.

Concerning the word _njutbara_ it is an inflected singular form of the adjectiv _njutbar_.

In Swedish we usually inflect nouns and adjectives in four forms:
a) obestämd form singularis
b) bestämd form singularis
c) obestämd form pluralis
d) bestämd form pluralis

Look at these four corresponding sentences with the adjective _god_ and the noun _tårta_:

a) Jag äter en god tårta.
b) Jag äter den goda tårtan.
c) Han bakar goda tårtor.
d) Han köper de goda tårtorna.

You will see that in the b) sentence the form is inflected, ending with an a. This is the form of _njutbar_ that you have after _det_ in your sentence. This is called _kongruensböjning_ in Swedish.

So _njutbara_ is a singular form. And you are right that is is being used as a noun.

The word _till_ belongs to the _hör_, with the verb _höra till_, meaning _belong to_, _be a part of_.

This being said, I think that your translation is more than adequate; I wouldn't know how to translate it differently. And you have translated with the plural form (aspects).

I am being clear at all?


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## Dan2

A half hour ago I posted a question about the grammar of the sentence,
"Till det njutbara med hans sätt att skriva hör att hans ställningstaganden ligger så inbäddade i hans stoff."
and seconds after I hit the Submit button I realized what the answer was.  But it appears that in the 2 minutes it took me to figure out how to delete my message, DieuEtMonDroit read it and started composing a (very very nice) reply.

So I'm sorry, DEMD, that I caused you all that work, but hopefully other Swedish learners will read your clear description and benefit from it!

My suggested translation of the original sentence was:
Among the enjoyable aspects of his way of writing is that his viewpoints lie so embedded in his material.


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## DieuEtMonDroit

Haha, lucky for me I enjoy writing down grammar stuff! I would be interested in knowing how and why you (and others) are learning Swedish.


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## Dan2

DieuEtMonDroit said:


> I would be interested in knowing how and why you (and others) are learning Swedish.



I can only speak for myself.  Here's something I posted in another thread.  (Excuse the Norwegian in this Swedish thread.)

Jeg besøkte Norge for to år siden med konen min (kona mi? min kone?). For vi reiste, lærte jeg litt norsk. ... Nå vil kona mi besøke Sverige. I think it will be a good challenge for my poor brain to try to a) learn some Swedish, and b) keep it separate from the Norwegian.

I'm just one of those people who enjoy learning languages, and travel provides the specific motivation.


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## Wilma_Sweden

Dan2 said:


> Among the enjoyable aspects of his way of writing is that his viewpoints lie so embedded in his material.


This is an interesting solution in that it looks slightly 'Swenglish' to me. Since I love translation exercises, I'd like to ask whether the 'that' clause couldn't be replaced by an non-finite 'ing' clause, thus:
Among the enjoyable aspects of his way of writing is *his viewpoints being so embedded in his material.*

At uni, we were warned against over-using 'that' clauses, so maybe I'm influenced by over-zealous professors in love with '-ing' clauses. I'd certainly like to know if both solutions sound equally natural to a native English speaker. 

/Wilma


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## Dan2

First let me say that since the original poster (and I) were simply trying to _understand_ the sentence, I didn't pay much attention to style in the translation.  In particular, my "lies so embedded" is an excessively word-for-word translation.  You're right to move away from that.


Wilma_Sweden said:


> At uni, we were warned against over-using 'that' clauses, so maybe I'm influenced by over-zealous professors in love with '-ing' clauses.


Altho I don't recall being taught that explicitly, I think you are correct.  So while (1) is fine, (2) is better:
(1) The most enjoyable aspect ... is that he uses ...
(2) The most enjoyable aspect ... is his use of ...

Turning to the actual sentence, your "his viewpoints being" seems to me just a bit awkward.  But I do like your avoidance of the that-clause.  So following on that, and moving even further from a word-for-word translation, I would suggest:
Among the enjoyable aspects of his style of writing is the way in which he weaves his personal views into his material.


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## goldfish174

How nice with different contributions to the thread. I liked the latest translation which is free and more concrete: 

"Among the enjoyable aspects of his style of writing is the way in which he weaves his personal views into his material. "

Tack för hjälpen.


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