*Crawls out of North-American language ignorance*
So I have a quick question for people who speak Swedish... I just started learning it (on my own, on the internet, probably not the next way but whatever)
The site I'm using (something on Memrise) seems to suggest that both "this" and "that" = den/dett (implying also that den is more commonly used). Is this right? It doesn't seem right...
"den" and "det" generally mean "it" as a pronoun, or "the" when they're being used as definite articles before a noun phrase with an adjective (t.ex., "det mörka rummet" = "the dark room").
the most common way to say "this" is "den här" or "det här" (lit. "the here"), depending on whether the object in question is common gender (en) or neutral (ett). likewise "that" is "den där" or "det där". an important thing to remember when you use it is that, if you use a noun after it, you have to use the definite ending for the noun that follows. ("these" and "those" are "de här" and "de där", respectively, though remember that "de" is pronounced "dom"!)
så, till exempel:
:sweden: "
den här kursen är långtråkig."
:uk: "
this course is boring."
you can also use it without a noun afterwards:
:sweden: "
det där är ett foto av min familj."
:uk: "
that is a photo of my family."
hope that clears things up!
