Life has gotten in the way of language learning and maintaining this course, amongst other things, for a little while now but I hope to start working on it again. Especially since the Duolingo Swedish 2.0 course is not going to be ready until 2017 at the very earliest.
I’ll try to fix the above errors soon.
hello! why is “a” sometimes accepted when it should be “å”, and sometimes not? that’s a little confusing. is it something that can be fixed? best, jul
Hi there!
One thing I’ve noticed that keeps throwing me off is that both “en anledning” and “en orsak” have the same clue, “a reason, cause”. I never know which one it’s looking for, and so I have to guess and half the time I get it wrong. So of course, I get tested repeatedly on these two words in the Review process, even though I know them quite well.
Could you maybe differentiate the two somehow?
Thanks!
Ah, I didn’t see this… ever since Memrise hid the forums away I don’t really bother to use them because no one even seems to know that they exist.
I have a spreadsheet full of issues that I’ve been collecting over the last few days, now that I’ve started studying again and using my course regularly. I added yours to it and I’ll fix these soon.
Congratulations on claiming issue #107. 
The forums are getting more and more traffic, thank goodness, but the percentage of users who know about them probably still is very small.
Here is how I have defined “en anledning” in the first part of the 8,000+ Most Common Swedish Words course:
And here is “en orsak”:
Just in case this might be helpful for you …
Hmm. Feels a little bit like an advertisement for your own course more than anything else to be completely honest, haha although I’m quite cynical. 
Besides, finding definitions online isn’t really a problem (although I guess turning that into a good prompt can be), but I suppose I’ll thank you anyway?
And here’s a tip for you in return - such long definitions don’t help anyone. They make remembering vocabulary items way way more difficult and recalling them at a prompt take much longer. It merely becomes information overload, as I’ve come to learn.
I’m actually going to be shortening some of my longer definitions considerably on the new course I’m working on. Instead, extra information will be hidden away in expandable section (show more/less) much like the synonyms and such already are. Including examples and stuff.
I kind of like this [ingen ~] thing (so the use of the tilde) to represent “ingen orsak” but honestly, it’s just more symbols… more information… more things for the brain to parse for each and every initial planting… and each and every prompt. I’m going to instead have example fields and then “ingen orsak” would be one of the example for “en orsak”.
Honestly, I feel like the definitions being the most common translation is probably best? So then -
“en anledning” - “a reason”
“en orsak” - “a cause, grounds”
Then users can simply learn that these are synonymous themselves. And if the synonym field is set to always-show then that will be quite easy for them.
The issue is stuff like “ett skäl” which most often translates to either “a reason” or “a cause, grounds”… it’s just not an easy thing, at all. I’ve done a lot of thinking about this whole thing, trust me.
But yeah, to everyone else - I’m actually working on a new, improved course based on everything I have learnt from developing this and other Memrise (and non-Memrise) study materials.
There are actually a ton of issues with this course:
I plan to fix all of these issues in my next attempt. Not only that but I intend to take vocabulary (and ideas) from the best Duolingo trees (German, Norwegian etc.) and combine those with my own ideas that I’ve been developing, as well as ideas from other courses elsewhere on the internet (and even off of it) and attempt to create some kind of comprehensive Swedish course which should cover the needs of everyone.
And if it doesn’t, well, the mere act of creating these courses helps me learn the language and I kind of enjoy it so…
att ta slut to “to run out, come to an end” (avoiding confusion with “sluta”, “avsluta”).ett ... till to “… till” and “more/another …” respectively.
att tränga.ett skydd.
att bevaka.att viga to “to marry, consecrate”.
att tjata.stökig.att falla to “to fall, drop; to fall over, trip, stumble”.
att behandla to "to treat, handle, attend , deal ".
lila.ett bröllop.fin to “fine, good, nice” (the cognate “fine” was missing and should be first).jag tittar versus jag tittar på.
att tänka to “to think, ponder, imagine; to plan to”.
jag tänker.
tydligt to “clearly, plainly”.
troligen to “{believably}, probably, very likely”
en bar.hem and hemma and added additional missing [location] and [direction] markers.en skräck.direkt.sinnesjuk.i slutet and till slut.dock.allför was made…
en massa to “a mass; a mass/large amount …”så snart som möjligt.till synes.till slut.exempelvis.rimligtvis.lite grann.
dold.en dom to “a {doom}; a conviction, judgement, verdict; (a) doomsday” (cognates should be first).en fasa.att övertyga and vice versa.att växla.att smyga and vice versa.ett skräp to “(a) {scrap}, garbage, junk” (cognates should be first).att avbryta and vice versa.att slå sönder.en present.gränslös and vice versa.vidare.omedelbart.emellertid.förstås.
en firma.en allmänhet.en orsak to “a cause/grounds; a reason”.en anledning to “a reason; a cause/grounds”.härlig.bakåt to “backwards, to(wards) the rear”.Is that a bad thing? 
And it isn’t “my” course, by the way, either. The user who calls himself “sehiralti” created the course; I am merely a lowly course contributor that has been maintaining the course for the last couple of years.
So gracious 
I disagree
I just borrowed that convention from “regular” dictionaries; it’s a common method used to save space. Anybody that is familiar with dictionaries will be familiar with this symbol and won’t find it annoying, IMHO.
You kind of like it, but then you don’t … LOL
My solution for “ett skäl” looks like this:
My observation of language learners (I teach English as a foreign language here in Germany) is that people often like to learn a particular phrase to go with a new word, apart from anything else, if there is a noun or an irregular verb to learn, if you learn a phrase that includes the grammar that goes with the new word - in this case, that “skäl” is an “ett” word - then you not only learn a new word, but you remember its gender and have a useful phrase that you can put into practice straight away.
I really don’t see what’s not to like about this method of disambiguation
Seeing as “ett skäl” is an “ett” word, the prompt immediately excludes “en orsak” and “en anledning”.
Oh, and by the way, “en anledning” is used to mean “an occasion” quite often, too, from my reading of Swedish so far.
I am also well aware that this is not an easy thing, which is why I wrote my post including some of the ways I have tried to solve this problem. Sure, I wanted to advertise “my” course - and why not? there is no competition here, we just all want to learn Swedish - but I also wanted to share my solutions because, like you, I spent a lot of time pondering the problem before I came up with the solutions I have found. I started using the sehiralti four-part course just over three years ago now, and noticed a lot of frustrating false synonyms quite soon which I was able to notify him of quite easily in the old forums. And then, when he realized that I knew what I was talking about, he allowed me to be a course contributor, which was about two years ago.
My main purpose, though, in responding to this post was to offer some possibly new ideas for dealing with the pesky synonym problem.
I didn’t mean to tread on your toes or offend you.
Wow! You have been busy!
Can you add a link to the course, please?
Is that a bad thing?
I suppose not, actually!
And it isn’t “my” course, by the way, either. The user who calls himself “sehiralti” created the course; I am merely a lowly course contributor that has been maintaining the course for the last couple of years.
Haha, exactly the same situation that I found myself in. I think hrothbert did the first like 15-20 levels (but this way back when there were no synonyms; antonyms; no audio) and then the rest is my handiwork.
I disagree
Right, well, are you going to explain that? I feel like when it comes to the speedy acquisition and recall of vocabulary, at least, that these long prompts don’t help whatsoever. I’m not saying that the information shouldn’t be there at all, don’t misinterpret me, I’m saying that it shouldn’t be in the PROMPT.
The prompt which is, you know, supposed to prompt the brain to recall information, quickly and efficiently - it’s not supposed to prompt the brain to read and decipher a short novel first. Also with no control over line-wrapping/breaking, these long prompts not only look awful but are also difficult to read, especially on mobile.
I just borrowed that convention from “regular” dictionaries; it’s a common method used to save space. Anybody that is familiar with dictionaries will be familiar with this symbol and won’t find it annoying, IMHO.
Hmm, I’ve probably seen it too… I must have - I’ve definitely used dictionaries before. I guess I don’t use them particularly often! I mostly use online resources.
You kind of like it, but then you don’t … LOL
Yes, I am an enigma of a man.
My observation of language learners (I teach English as a foreign language here in Germany) is that people often like to learn a particular phrase to go with a new word, apart from anything else, if there is a noun or an irregular verb to learn, if you learn a phrase that includes the grammar that goes with the new word - in this case, that “skäl” is an “ett” word - then you not only learn a new word, but you remember its gender and have a useful phrase that you can put into practice straight away.
Yes, learning phrases along with vocabulary seems like a great idea - I’m not contesting that, as it likely is.
I really don’t see what’s not to like about this method of disambiguation
Seeing as “ett skäl” is an “ett” word, the prompt immediately excludes “en orsak” and “en anledning”.
True… in this case. Most words are utrum though, so most often this won’t apply.
Oh, and by the way, “en anledning” is used to mean “an occasion” quite often, too, from my reading of Swedish so far.
I read a lot of Swedish and it seems rather rare that it’s used to mean that in my experience… shrug.
I am also well aware that this is not an easy thing, which is why I wrote my post including some of the ways I have tried to solve this problem.
Yeah and I do appreciate that.
Sure, I wanted to advertise “my” course - and why not? there is no competition here, we just all want to learn Swedish
-
Life is not treating me especially kindly as of late and yesterday was especially stressful, so I’m just on the edge and that will be apparent that in my writing. I’m not trying to be hostile.
but I also wanted to share my solutions because, like you, I spent a lot of time pondering the problem before I came up with the solutions I have found. I started using the sehiralti four-part course just over three years ago now, and noticed a lot of frustrating false synonyms quite soon which I was able to notify him of quite easily in the old forums. And then, when he realized that I knew what I was talking about, he allowed me to be a course contributor, which was about two years ago.
Yeah, I need to think about the synonym thing more for the next course I plan to make and I’ll take what you’ve said into account.
But given that the synonyms for this course are all images that were generated by a script I wrote, which I lost when my old computer died and given that this image approach has major issues (the images don’t even load on mobile - blame Memrise), even if it is very pretty (complete control over text formatting, bold, italics, monospaced fonts/alignment, line-breaking)… I mean, it’s going to be so much work to fix this course.
I don’t really feel like manually uploading thousands of images. Again. Just to fix some synonym issues. I feel like using images was a huge mistake (just like Memrise not letting us use bloody line-breaks or text formatting in the attributes and fields is a huge and very lazy mistake…) and one that would be very hard to fix.
Wow! You have been busy!
Just a few issues I noticed over the last week while I’ve been using the course actively. But as I said above, I think this course is beyond saving due to the whole debacle with Memrise not letting us use text formatting thus me turning to generated images…
Can you add a link to the course, please?
Yeah.
Level 96
“kräftlös” needs to be changed to “kraftlös”
“avskydvärd” needs to be changed to “avskyvärd”
Good to know!
Thanks
I hope things improve for you. Life is not kind sometimes.
I’m only on level 94 or so myself so I didn’t get a chance to notice those issues yet. I’ve just fixed them.
I had a look at level 1 and saw that it was beginner’s Swedish, so I thought, “OK, I’ll just start at the other end!”
And, lo and behold, there were lots of words which I was familiar with to lesser or greater degrees, but had not come across in other courses, so I decided to start there. The levels with adjectives have some good words in them 
And this way, I am covering levels you haven’t done yet!
But it is a huge course so it is no surprise that there are a few typos here and there. No big deal to report or to amend them, thank goodness!
Yup, level 1 to 69 is essentially a copy of the Duolingo tree (but with added synonyms and such).
Everything after 69 is from things that I’ve read - I underline any new words in my books as I come across them and then create lists/spreadsheets and such - or at least I used to (it’s not really necessary anymore unless I’m reading like classic literature novels or poetry).
Lots of C1-C2 vocabulary once you get towards the end (I read a lot of novels), it’s pretty nice.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us here on memrise!
I have notebooks where I have written down stuff from books, too, but I haven’t got very far with putting stuff on memrise, I’m afraid …
Level 95 - duplicate found
kraftlös is in Level 96, too
fasansfull - typo in translation, should be appaLLing, not appaLing
But don’t get me wrong, I am not here to criticize the course, I am OVERJOYED to have found a new course with words that I don’t know very well or at all!
It’s nice to have someone actually reporting mistakes!
There’s a lot more where that came from… I probably have another 1-2K words, at the very least, underlined in my books and such and many of these are not found in frequency lists like KELLY (although many are… too).
Since I’ve almost finished the course myself, I’ll need to get to work on the new and improved one but I’ll continue to maintain this one.
