Read The Treasure: Sir Arne's Money by Selma Lagerlöf in Swedish

Literal but understandable

Interlinear translations attempt to translate words one by one and literally except where a literal translation would impair understanding. If so, understanding is prioritized.

For example, even though the more usual translation of the next phrase would be the dog did not follow him, we have opted for a more literal translation as it is still understandable:

But try reading this translation if it were literal:

This is rather hard to understand if translated literally, therefore we prefer a more understandable and less literal translation:

In summary, we have made our translations to be literal, even if slightly clumsy. Unless such clumsiness hinders understanding, in which case we have opted for understanding.

Embracing cognates

Our Swedish translation makes use of the fact that Swedish and English are both Germanic languages: we use cognates where we can to help you remember words.

For example, the original text includes the word hjälpprästen. Dictionaries translate this word as curate. However, if you look closely at the word hjälpprästen you can see that it has two common Germanic roots: hjälp (help) + präst (priest). So, we translated this word as the priest's helper, which also fits the dictionary definition of the word curate.

Similarly, we translated the Swedish word folk as folks instead of people, därinne as therein instead of there, etc.

Usable over obsolete

Since Interlinear translations are primarily intended for learners, we have modified the original text to replace obsolete grammatical forms with contemporary ones.

For example, the original included the verb voro, which is an archaic past plural form of vara. We replaced this form with its modern equivalent var.

However, we aimed to never make such changes where that would sacrifice the originality or change the meaning of the text. Moreover, we have also left intact all of these forms which are still encountered in Modern Swedish, albeit less frequently. Thus, for example, the form skall for shall (the more frequently used current word being ska) was left in place.