# Swedish: command form



## Lili Marlen

In Swedish, the command forms (or the imperative form) for "äta" "sitta" and "komma" are given as follows:

_ät! sitt!_ and _komm!_

So why does that become different when you say, for ex. "come here and eat" which is:

_komma hit och äta_

or is that wrong? I live in a Swedish-speaking area of Finland and that's what it sounds like, but please tell me if I'm wrong and it's actually _komm hit och ät_ because I may of course have heard it differently!


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## cocuyo

Oh yes, they are both wrong. 
"Come here and eat" would rather be "kom hit och ät", or more colloquial "kom och ät". 
And the imperative form of 'komma' is *kom!*


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## Lili Marlen

Okay... phew, that makes much more sense! Thank you for the quickly reply


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## jonquiliser

Well, they are 'wrong' as far as the standard language is concerned, but dialects are a whole different matter. What you heard probably wasn't "komma hit och äta" but "koma hit å ät (nu)" or something similar. I.e., short, stressed o (o like in boll). You might also hear "komin hit å ät" in some parts.


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## cocuyo

It might be stressed that the word 'dialect' is often used by Swedish-speakers for 'vernacular', as we use the word 'dialekt' for a vernacular. There are many anomalities in different vernaculars, so you might expect to hear different ways of expressing almost everything. The North-West of Finland (quite logically called _Österbotten_) is notorious for forms that sound strange in the ears of people from the South of Sweden. I would indeed recommend any foreigner to use forms as close to 'standard' as possible, although I don't really believe in a standard for any language.


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## Lugubert

"[K]_omma hit och äta_" would be normal in a sentence like "Vill du komma hit och äta?"


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## cocuyo

Lugubert said:


> "[K]_omma hit och äta_" would be normal in a sentence like "Vill du komma hit och äta?"



And in English that would be something like "would you care to come here and eat?" or as well "would you like to come here and eat?". Depending on speech tone, it could be a straight question, or it might be a rather strong imperative in an irritated tone.


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## Lili Marlen

The mystery to this question has been solved. I have found out that some Swedish-speaking Finns pronounce the word "att" as "o" which means that what I heard was actually "komma hit att äta," but I thought it was "komma hit och äta" which didn't make sense!


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## dinji

Lili Marlen said:


> The mystery to this question has been solved. I have found out that some Swedish-speaking Finns pronounce the word "att" as "o" which means that what I heard was actually "komma hit att äta," but I thought it was "komma hit och äta" which didn't make sense!


You are right, and the pronounciation _å_ for "att" is much more spread also in Sweden, it is also standard Norwegian.

As regards dialectal "koma" (with short -o- and short -m-): it is certainly not an infinitive, the syntax unambiguously points to an imperative. 
I suspect it is an analogous form typical for Finland Swedish promoted by the fact that due to the apocope (loss of last vowel) of words with long syllables the infinitive almost always coincides with the infinitive. Therefore also in strong verbs with short syllables a vowel is added from the infinitive:

Note the perfect correspondance with long syllable:
xxxxxxxxxxxx Weak verb / Strong verb
Infinitive: ti (å) kall 'to call' / ti (å) sti:g 'to step'
Imperative: ----- kall ! ----- / ---sti:g !

And with short syllable (note the vowel is short in the dialect):
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Weak verb xx / Strong verb
Infinitive: ti (å) tala 'to speak' / ti (å) koma
Imperative: ----- tala ! ------ / ANALOGOUS IMPERATIVE: *koma !*


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## cocuyo

Lili Marlen said:


> The mystery to this question has been solved. I have found out that some Swedish-speaking Finns pronounce the word "att" as "o" which means that what I heard was actually "komma hit att äta," but I thought it was "komma hit och äta" which didn't make sense!



Colloquial expressions seldom make sense directly. Indeed it is "Vill du komma hit och äta". Maybe it does not make sense when you dissicate it, but that's the way we say.


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## Södertjej

Lili Marlen said:


> I have found out that some Swedish-speaking Finns pronounce the word "att" as "o"


Not just "some Swedish-speaking Finns", it's also common in Stockholm and other areas. When texting/chatting a lot of people (most people? at least those under 30) won't write att but o.


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