Swedish: An Essential Grammar, 2nd edition

Först igår fick jag veta det.
It was only yesterday that I found out.
Jag kom hem först igår.
I didn’t get home until yesterday.
5 Gärna
(a) = ‘willingly’, ‘with pleasure’, ‘by all means’:
Dricker du kaffe? 
Do you drink coffee? 
Ja, gärna.
Yes, by all means.
(b) = ‘like to’:
Han badar gärna.
He likes to swim.
Note: Hellre and helst, the comparative and superlative forms of gärna, correspond
to ‘prefer(s ) . . . to . . .’, ‘rather’ and ‘preferably’, ‘most of all’ respectively:
Han dricker hellre öl än vin.
He prefers beer to wine.
Te eller kaffe? Hellre kaffe, tack.Tea or coffee? I’d rather have coffee, please.
När vill du åka? Helst idag.
When do you want to go? Today, preferably.
(c) = ‘certainly’:
Han får gärna försöka.
He can certainly try.
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Some difficult
adverbs
149

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6 Långt/länge
(a) Långt = ‘far’ (distance):
Hur långt är det till stan?
How far is it to town?
(b) Länge = ‘long’ (time):
Hur länge har du bott 
How long have you lived 
i Sverige?
in Sweden?
Notice, however, that the adjective in time expressions like those below is always
lång:
Hur lång tid tar det?
How long will it take?
7 Ju, nog, väl, nämligen
As unstressed modal adverbs these words indicate the speaker’s attitude
to the utterance. When stressed, however, nog = ‘enough’, väl = ‘well’,
‘rather’.
(a) Ju = ‘you know’, ‘of course’, ‘to be sure’, ‘it is true’. You expect the
listener to agree.