# Swedish: Få



## zhanning

I've been studying Swedish for a few months now, and while I don't have a problem understanding *få* when others use it, I shy away from using it myself because I'm not entirely sure as to how. Could a native speaker enlighten me on how to employ it properly?


----------



## Wilma_Sweden

Hello zhanning and welcome to the Nordic forum!

While the foreros are eager to help, we do need you to provide sample sentences where the meaning and usage of få elude you. This is a global rule for all the WordReference language forums. Another fundamental requirement is keeping each thread to a single  topic. 

If you have trouble finding sample sentences, a good place to start is the Norstedts online dictionary, and Språkbanken, a Swedish text corpus. Don't forget to search for the tensed forms (får, fick, fått) in the corpus.

As the verb få has so many different meanings, we would need to write you a grammar book, which is not really what the forum is for. 

I'll start off with a counter-question: do you mean få + noun (used transitively) or do you mean få + verb (used as a modal-like auxiliary)?

/Wilma, Moderator


----------



## iAnna

...or do you mean få=few?


----------



## sindridah

Interesting... so I guess Få ( Icelandic = Fá ) is exactly the same in Swedish and Icelandic!


----------



## zhanning

Thanks Wilma! I apologize for being overbroad.

My main trouble with få is not in the sense of 'may', like 'Får jag...', but rather with using it as a modal få + verb.

Compare the following two sentences, the first I wrote myself, and the second what a Swedish friend of mine corrected it to:

Jag skriver till dig för att lära mer om ...
Jag skriver till dig för att få veta mer om ...

If I were reading DN or something and encountered the second sentence, I would have no problem understanding it, but I wouldn't have written it personally, which I'm working on because I feel like it sounds way more 'swedish' and way less translated from English that way.


----------



## Wilma_Sweden

zhanning said:


> Jag skriver till dig för att lära mer om ...
> Jag skriver till dig för att få veta mer om ...
> 
> If I were reading DN or something and encountered the second sentence, I would have no problem understanding it, but I wouldn't have written it personally, which I'm working on because I feel like it sounds way more 'swedish' and way less translated from English that way.


In this particular context, we have two problems, in fact. The first one is the different senses of learn in English and in Swedish - they don't always match - and the second problem is the usage of få + infinitive verb.

In the above context, I assume you used learn in the sense to find out/to get information about something. In this sense, få veta is more or less a fixed expression. In other contexts, find out can also be translated as få reda på, [få] höra, erfara.

I think the usage of få as a modal auxiliary + verb could best be described as approximately matching English get to in the sense of being allowed/getting the opportunity to do something as in:
My daughter has moved to London, so I rarely get to see her.
Min dotter bor i London så jag får sällan träffa henne.
He skived off work to [get to] see his girlfriend.
Han skubbade från jobbet för att få träffa sin flickvän.
Come along to the British Museum and you'll [get to] see all the nice things they have there!
Följ med till British Museum så ska du få se alla de fina sakerna de har där!

I hope this long rant made it somewhat clearer. Just read a lot of Swedish text and try to analyse whether få + verb means may or get to. If you run into trouble, just add another post to this thread!


----------



## e2efour

As a translator, the problem I have with får is that it is sometimes not clear whether it means, among other things, "have to" (om du kör alltför fort så får du betala en bot) or "may, can" (du får röka inomhus om du vill) eller "should" (om du vill köpa vin så får du åka till Systemet) (of course, the sentences I get are rather more complicated than this).
With a negative it's much easier (får inte = may not = mustn't).

I suppose it's just as difficult to decide in English between the various meanings of "can" and "may", but I'll try your suggestion, Wilma, of thinking of "get to" as the first meaning.


----------



## Poposhka

Far, får får får?
Nej. Får får inte får, får får lamm.


----------



## zhanning

Poposhka said:


> Far, får får får?
> Nej. Får får inte får, får får lamm.



Someone reads Unencyclopedia


----------



## zhanning

Wilma_Sweden said:


> In this particular context, we have two problems, in fact. The first one is the different senses of learn in English and in Swedish - they don't always match - and the second problem is the usage of få + infinitive verb.
> 
> In the above context, I assume you used learn in the sense to find out/to get information about something. In this sense, få veta is more or less a fixed expression. In other contexts, find out can also be translated as få reda på, [få] höra, erfara.
> 
> I think the usage of få as a modal auxiliary + verb could best be described as approximately matching English get to in the sense of being allowed/getting the opportunity to do something as in:
> My daughter has moved to London, so I rarely get to see her.
> Min dotter bor i London så jag får sällan träffa henne.
> He skived off work to [get to] see his girlfriend.
> Han skubbade från jobbet för att få träffa sin flickvän.
> Come along to the British Museum and you'll [get to] see all the nice things they have there!
> Följ med till British Museum så ska du få se alla de fina sakerna de har där!
> 
> I hope this long rant made it somewhat clearer. Just read a lot of Swedish text and try to analyse whether få + verb means may or get to. If you run into trouble, just add another post to this thread!



Thank you Wilma, that was precisely the problem I was having. 

Följ med till British Museum så ska du få se alla de fina sakerna de har där!

That sentence is perfect for illustrating this. I would have written something like "Kom med mig till British Museum så du kan se alla de fina sakerna de har där", which sounds much less natural.


----------



## Poposhka

uncyclopedia? that's a clasic swedish tongue twister


----------



## zhanning

Oh, my bad then. I've revealed a bit too much about myself it seems


----------

