Even more things
Nouns in the plural Sentences to study NumbersAs soon as you know to which group a noun belongs, you can easily determine what the definite form (‘the cars’, not just any cars) must be:
| 1. -or (definite form: -na) |
2. -ar (definite form: -na) |
3. -(e)r (definite form: -na) |
4. -n (definite form: -a) |
5. - (definite form: -en) |
| 'en words' that end in an unstressed -a | 'en words' that end in an unstressed -e, and monosyllabic 'en words' that end in a consonant | 'en words' with the stress on the last vowel, and 'ett words' with more than one syllable with a stress on the last vowel | Mainly 'ett words' that end in a vowel | 'ett words' that end in a consonant, and 'en words' ending in -are |
| en klócka tvĺ
klockor
klóckorna (the clocks) |
en dag tvĺ
dágar dágarna
(the days) |
en telefón tvĺ
telefóner
telefónerna (the telephones) |
ett stä´lle (place, spot) tvĺ
stä´llen
st´ällena (the places) |
ett barn tvĺ
barn bárnen |
| en mä´nniska tvĺ
mä´nniskor
m´änniskorna (the human beings) |
en bil tvĺ
bílar bílarna
(the cars) |
en minút (minute) tvĺ
minúter minúterna
(the minutes) |
ett árbéte (job, work) tvĺ
árbéten árbétena
(the jobs) |
ett ĺr (year) tvĺ
ĺr ĺren
(the years) |
There are also some irregular nouns in Swedish, like in English, which do not follow this model (e.g. ‘en man’ / ‘tvĺ män’, ‘en fot’ / ‘tvĺ fötter’, for ‘man’ and ‘foot’, respectively ). Many of them are very common and will therefore be easy to remember. Lists like the one above may look rather terrifying, even in this simplified form, but should not cause you any discomfort. It is not primarily by word lists and grammars that you learn a language and its structure, but by reading, listening, and repeating.
There are some general rules for what ending to take - for instance that the most common ending for en words is -ar - but, after all, in the end your choosing the right ending will most likely be because you have met the word in different contexts several times before, not because of grammatical charts.
In many dictionaries you will find the nouns listed with the singular endings in the definite and the plural endings in the indefinite form, which is enough to know for most nouns: ‘frĺ´g/a -n -or (en) = question’ shows you that the word 'frĺga' has the following forms:
en frĺga = a question
(indefinite form singular)
frĺgan =
the question (definite form singular)
frĺgor =
(any) questions (indefinite form plural)
frĺgorna =
the questions (definite form plural)
JaI know not where the bikes are - I see them not, in all cases (i.e. anyway).
De
[pronounced 'dom'] kánske stĺ´r
bákom húsen
dä´r bórta. De
var där
fö´rút.
They maybe stand behind the houses over there.
They were there before.
Kan vi
ínte ta bússen
istä´llet?
Can we not take the bus instead?
Bússarna gĺ´r
ínte lä´ngre hä´rifrĺ´n,
tyvä´rr.
The buses go not longer herefrom,
unfortunately/'I'm sorry'
Vet
du var
statiónen
lígger dĺ? Vi
kan ta tĺ´get
istä´llet,
fast det ä´r
sent. Vad
týcker du?
Know you where the station lies, then? We can take
the train instead, even-though it is late. What think
you?
Det
gĺr bra.
Det tar
en tímme lä´ngre hem, men jag
har ínte
brĺ´ttom.
It goes well (i.e. It’s fine/OK’). It
takes a/one hour longer (to) home, but I have not hurry
(i.e. ‘I’m in no hurry’).
Vi
ä´r ä´ndĺ
hémma snart.
We are still (at) home soon.
Notes
The regular verbs in Swedish end in -r
in the present. The irregular verbs, often the most
frequent ones, can also have other endings: 'vet' (a
distant relative of the English word 'wit')= 'know',
'kan' = 'can'.
'Dem' - the objective form of the personal
pronoun 'they' - is pronounced the same way as 'they':
'dom'.
Nouns like 'cýkel' lose their -e when
forming the plural: en cýkel, cýkeln, tvĺ
cýklar, cýklarna.
'Ta' in 'kan ta'
= 'can take' is a form of the verb which is called the
infinitive (see Chapter 7).
'Hem' means 'home' as in "Home, sweet
home" and is also used as an expression of direction
(like in "Let's go home"), while 'hémma' is
the equivalent to 'at home'.