# Swedish: nästan



## kilton

Hej,

Jag förstår inte användningen av ordet *nästan* i den här meningen från en tidning:

_Det är säkert roligare för Trafikverket och infrastrukturministrar att inviga nya spår men det har ju visat sig att det viktigaste nu *nästan* är att de spår vi redan har fungerar. 
_
För *nästan* vet jag endast den översättning *almost*. Vad menar det övan?

Tack!

(Också snälla rätta grammatiska fel övan.)


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## Tjahzi

While it's true that _nästan_ means 'almost', it's somewhat hard to explain what exactly that is supposed to mean in this context. However, I'm under the impression that since the phrase contains a personal belief of the writer (that it's more important to ensure the functionality of the existing tracks than building new ones), _nästan_ is used to denote that this is not an absolute truth (together with _säkert_ earlier in the sentence). 

That said, other natives might interpret it differently.


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## Ben Jamin

This is typical of both Swedish and Norwegian (I don't know about the Danish) that many speakers are reluctant to make an impression of beeing too sure of their meaning (which would make an arrogant impression) and that's why they put such small words that soften their message.


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## hanne

kilton said:


> Det är säkert roligare för Trafikverket och infrastrukturministrar att inviga nya spår men det har ju visat sig att det viktigaste nu *nästan* är att de spår vi redan har fungerar.


We use the same kind of construction in Danish, so here's my opinion:

I'd interpret the above as something like "... it has turned out that we're almost in (= we have approached) a situation where the most important thing is to make sure that ...". I don't agree with Tjahzi and BenJamin that it is stating uncertainty on the part of the speaker. I think it's rather implying that it would be ridiculous to actually imagine/be in a situation where maintenance had higher priority than new constructions (a company which doesn't have sufficient funding for maintenance of existing structures, and therefore can't make new investments, doesn't have a healthy business position). The situation described if you remove "nästan" from the sentence is seen as "absurd", hence "nästan" means that we're not quite in that situation, but almost.

I do agree with Tjahzi that different people will probably have slightly different interpretations of the sentence.


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## Ben Jamin

hanne said:


> We use the same kind of construction in Danish, so here's my opinion:
> 
> I'd interpret the above as something like "... it has turned out that we're almost in (= we have approached) a situation where the most important thing is to make sure that ...". I don't agree with Tjahzi and BenJamin that it is stating uncertainty on the part of the speaker. I think it's rather implying that it would be ridiculous to actually imagine/be in a situation where maintenance had higher priority than new constructions (a company which doesn't have sufficient funding for maintenance of existing structures, and therefore can't make new investments, doesn't have a healthy business position). The situation described if you remove "nästan" from the sentence is seen as "absurd", hence "nästan" means that we're not quite in that situation, but almost.
> 
> I do agree with Tjahzi that different people will probably have slightly different interpretations of the sentence.



I didn't mean that the speakers using "nästan/nesten" er uncertain of what they say, but that they wish to soften the message, "pack it in cotton".


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## Wilma_Sweden

Ben Jamin said:


> This is typical of both Swedish and Norwegian (I don't know about the Danish) that many speakers are reluctant to make an impression of beeing too sure of their meaning (which would make an arrogant impression) and that's why they put such small words that soften their message.



I agree entirely. It would be very arrogant to use absolutes, particularly if you are an outsider/layman, i.e. someone who is not a railway management professional or similar expert. Even if it's evident that train services have been consistently curtailed due to substandard track maintenance, a layman would still need to add some minute reservation to their statement, an 'in-case-I'm wrong-disclaimer'. Hence the 'disclaimer' words like säkert or nästan are needed. 

At the moment I can't think of a suitable 'disclaimer phrase' in English for the topic phrase, if almost or nearly cannot be used in idiomatic English. Perhaps a modal auxiliary could be used, but I'll leave this particular issue in the hands of any professional translator (another Swedish cop-out)...


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## LilianaB

_As if_ perhaps.


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## kilton

Thanks everyone. Very helpful. I'll just add that it is indeed possible to use_ *surely* _this way in English, which is why _*säkert*_ didn't confuse me.


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## JohanIII

Perhaps the journalist might have wanted to put the word someplace else, but due to old butterfingers - as is so easy to do in today's cut-and-paste wor(l)d -it got shifted a few places (i.e. from before _viktigaste_).

Else, in spoken language, it would indicate the kind of disclaimer discussed above - and be "thrown in" at this very place. I don't find it particularly understandable in written language though, but perhaps you could reflect the spoken language as " - nästan - ".


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## Wilma_Sweden

I agree about the sloppy placement of nästan, it looks like spoken language written down.


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