# Swedish: to make sense



## mihi

Hej hej!

Hur säger man "to make sense" i bokstavlig bemärkelse på svenska?

Min gissning är att man säger något som "gå att förstå", t.ex:

Satsen gick inte att förstå.
Han talade, men det gick inte att förstå.

Har jag rätt?

Tack!


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## MattiasNYC

Hmmm... I would say it depends on the intent. When someone says "It makes sense" in English to me it would imply that something is logically coherent, for lack of a better expression. Your second phrase in Swedish if we translated it back to English would read something like "He spoke, but it wasn't understandable." In other words, our comment would be one we'd make if he couldn't speak properly; perhaps he was so drunk he was heavily slurring his words, perhaps he had an incredibly strong accent etc. Perhaps we could use "not making sense" in a similar way in English, but to me that seems less common.

I would recommend you come up with some sample phrases in English and try some translations and we can see if they work in context.


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## AutumnOwl

You have these translations of "to make sense" at Bab.la: http://en.bab.la/dictionary/english-swedish/make-sense


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## mihi

Yes MattiasNYC, thank you for your reply, I was trying to express unintelligibility.

Consider the sentence:
_*"I for to go make cat happy joy day monkey."_

This sentence doesn't make sense - this sentence is unintelligible; it has poor grammar and the wrong words.


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## MattiasNYC

??? makes sense to me! Then again, I'm clinically insane.

Try to construct a sentence using the word "begripa"!


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## mihi

Let me think...

Man kan inte begripa satsen.
Satsen är det ingen som kan begripa.
Satsen är obegriplig.

Something along these lines maybe? 
What would be the most natural way?


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## MattiasNYC

Sorry, I typed a bit fast. Based on what we talked about before my last post I'd think that these:

"Satsen gick inte att förstå.
Han talade, men det gick inte att förstå."

are actually not that bad. Also possible are:

"Satsen gick inte att begripa.
Han talade, men det gick inte att begripa."

As well as the ones you just wrote, although the first two at least sound a bit 'unusually' phrased to me, or perhaps 'disjointed' due to a lack of context (i.e. actual conversation). But I think you've got it right. If you were to write or say what you gave as examples then everyone would understand you. Hope someone else can chime in though with more opinions...

AutumnOwl?


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## AutumnOwl

Det fanns ingen mening i satsen.
Han talade, men det/innehållet var utan mening.



mihi said:


> Consider the sentence:
> _*"I for to go make cat happy joy day monkey."_


In this case I would probably say: _Det var rena rappakaljan._


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## MattiasNYC

See, to me "mening" in Swedish implies logic rather than intelligibility. Not that unintelligibility obviously doesn't negate lack of logic, but it's not the same thing.

"Han talade, men det/innehållet var utan mening." to me could mean a person says something that we can all understand, but we disagree with it to the point of finding it "meaningless".

"Han talade, men det/innehållet var obegripligt." to me would mean that what the person says isn't understood (or "stunning" in other contexts).


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## AutumnOwl

MattiasNYC said:


> See, to me "mening" in Swedish implies logic rather than intelligibility. Not that unintelligibility obviously doesn't negate lack of logic, but it's not the same thing.


There is the old expression "utan rim och reson", https://sv.glosbe.com/sv/en/utan rim och reson ("utan förnuft") meaning without common sense, but I doubt it's still in use among younger people.

If using sense to imply logic, then the best word would probably be "förnuft", but to use it in the sentences here sounds a bit "odd".

Det fanns inget förnuft i satsen (perhaps possible)
Han talade, men det var inte förnuftigt (????)

Det fanns varken rim eller reson i satsen.
Han talade, men det var utan rim och reson.


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## DerFrosch

We also have the phrasal verb *gå ihop*, which (in some cases) comes close to the meaning of _make sense_:

_Det där går inte ihop_. (That doesn't make any sense (logically)/That doesn't add up.)

It tends to be used more about a line of argument than a single sentence, though. We rarely say: _Meningen går inte ihop_.

On a side note, I feel it should be pointed out that _sentence _is usually translated as _mening _rather than _sats_. _Sats _is mostly used when grammar is specifically discussed, it's quite rare in everyday life.


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## MattiasNYC

AutumnOwl said:


> There is the old expression "utan rim och reson", https://sv.glosbe.com/sv/en/utan rim och reson ("utan förnuft") meaning without common sense, but I doubt it's still in use among younger people.



I agree, it's probably less used in today's youth.



AutumnOwl said:


> If using sense to imply logic, then the best word would probably be "förnuft", but to use it in the sentences here sounds a bit "odd".



I swear to god I'm not doing this to be argumentative (!), but again I wonder... To me "förnuftig" often implies something "softer" than "logical". So if I wanted to point out the inherent logic in something I'd call it "logisk" whereas if it was just a more general and perhaps intuitive evaluation of someone's point I'd call it "förnuftig". But perhaps I'm recalling the use of "förnuft" a bit differently (?).



AutumnOwl said:


> Det fanns inget förnuft i satsen (perhaps possible)
> Han talade, men det var inte förnuftigt (????)
> 
> Det fanns varken rim eller reson i satsen.
> Han talade, men det var utan rim och reson.



I agree though, the former seems odd and the latter good but old-fashioned.


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## MattiasNYC

DerFrosch said:


> We also have the phrasal verb *gå ihop*, which (in some cases) comes close to the meaning of _make sense_:
> 
> _Det där går inte ihop_. (That doesn't make any sense (logically)/That doesn't add up.)
> 
> It tends to be used more about a line of argument than a single sentence, though. We rarely say: _Meningen går inte ihop_.
> 
> On a side note, I feel it should be pointed out that _sentence _is usually translated as _mening _rather than _sats_. _Sats _is mostly used when grammar is specifically discussed, it's quite rare in everyday life.



I agree with you. But could you possibly use it by implying what logic you're referring to? So rather than saying "_Meningen går inte ihop_." could we say "_Han talade, men det gick inte ihop_."? 

(come to think of it, perhaps that still refers to the message rather than being able to understand the person)


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## DerFrosch

I'd say _gå ihop_ is used when the listener/reader understands the seperate elements of the argument, but fails to see the logic relations between them, i.e. when he/she believes there's a logical discrepancy.

So I wouldn't use in the context of a drunk person talking nonsense, for example: "He was talking a lot, but he didn't make any sense." ("Han pratade mycket, men det var mest nonsens."  Not: "Han pratade mycket, men det gick inte ihop.")

_Gå ihop_ is mostly used when intellectually discussing something. 

An example:

Han sa att alla människor är lika värda, men var emot kvinnlig rösträtt. Det går inte ihop! (He said that all human beings are equal, yet he was opposed to women's suffrage. That doesn't make any sense!)

But perhaps this is not the kind of situation that the OP was referring to.


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## MattiasNYC

Well, no, he specified in post #4 that was about not understanding what's being said rather than whether it was logical or not.


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