The three groups of identifying words in Swedish
1. The possessive pronouns
2. Names and nouns in the genitive
3. Other words designating/indicating a specific thing or person

Definite articles and adjectives

In this chapter we will deal with the adjectives; at the same time we will introduce the so-called possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, hers etc.), since some of them follow the same pattern as the adjectives.

You may find this chapter rather heavy, but do not worry. Take one thing at a time and you will find that it is not that complicated after all; there are only some things you need to memorize. And besides, it is not a serious problem if you happen to mix the endings of the adjectives up occasionally, since people will understand you anyway.

A long day.
The days are long.
Two long days.
The long days

 As you can see the regular adjectives receive the ending -t when used together with ett words. There is only one plural ending, regardless of gender: -a (stora, långa, lätta).

The Swedish word ‘man’ is, like its English counterpart, irregular:

• Singular indefinite: En man (a man)
• Singular definite: Mánnen (the man)
• Plural indefinite: Två män (two men)
• Plural definite: Mä´nnen (the men)

This ‘man’ should not be mistaken for the common pronoun ‘man’. In English you can use the words ‘one’ or ‘you’ when talking about things in general, when not referring to a specific person: "One/you would think that etc.", "One has (you have) to accept that one is (you are) only human" and so on. The Swedish indefinite pronoun ‘man’ has the same function - "Man lär så lä´nge man léver" ("one learns as long as one lives") - and exists only in this form. (Compare with the German ‘man’ and the French ‘on’.)

The English word ‘good’ can be translated both ‘god’ (the 'o' pronounced like 'oo' in 'tool') and ‘bra’. The latter is actually closely related to the English ‘brave’ and functioned for a while as kind of an ‘amplifier’ (like ‘awfully good’, ‘very strong’), and only lately did it become used as an adjective as well, something which explains its total lack of endings. ’Bra’ is very common and can be used about practically anything, while ‘god’ nowadays primarily refers to food and drinks, or to personal qualities, sometimes even with religious connotations: "En bra mä´nniska" would be a decent, trustworthy person, whereas "en god mä´nniska" more would convey the impression of a Mother Theresa, so to speak.

The adjective ‘líten’ (‘little, small’) is also irregular, and has no plural form of its own; instead another word is used in the plural: liten, litet, små. After an identifying word (see below) ‘liten’ is changed to ‘lilla’: ‘Den lilla bílen’ (‘the/that little car’).

When an adjective is preceded by a word that points out or identifies the noun in question as a specific thing or person, or belonging to somebody, the adjective is weakened, and will only take the ending -a, no matter if it refers to an en word or an ett word or is in the singular or the plural. (With one exception: If the noun is a male person, the ending will be -e instead, a remnant of the old three-gender system, but this distinction nowadays usually applies to written Swedish only: "Den gámle mánnen" - "The old man", but "den gámla kvínnan" - "the old woman".) 

Such 'identifying' or 'pointing-out' words can be divided into three groups:

1. So-called possessive pronouns
2. Names and nouns in the genitive
3. Other words designating/indicating a specific thing or person

For the sake of clarity, a rather intimidating list of identifying words is included below. The simple key to it all is:

The adjective, when preceded by an identifying word, takes an -a.

Only the "us" pronouns (my, your, ours) have separate forms for en words and ett words, similar to the endings for the adjectives; for the others there is only one form. The possessive pronouns in Swedish can also stand independently, without any change, in contrast to English: "Är det din bil? Ja, den är min." ("Is it your car? Yes, it’s my car/it’s mine.")

The peculiar 'sin'

There is also a common pronoun without a counterpart in English which is also treated in a similar way: ‘sin’ (with ett words: 'sitt', in the plural: 'sina'). It is closely related to the possessive pronouns and can mean either ‘his’, ‘her’, ‘its’ or ‘their’. Even most Swedes many times find it difficult to tell when to use ‘sin’ or a regular possessive pronoun when a sentence becomes more complex, so you need not to be overly concerned about mastering it at this stage. The rule of thumb is:

‘Sin’ is used every time you could insert ‘own’ in English, and refers to the person or thing that does something. 

The following examples might help you to see the difference:

Han kýsser sin únga hústru passionérat.
He kisses his (own) young wife passionately.

Han kýsser hans únga hústru passionérat.
He kisses his (that is someone else’s) young wife passionately.

"John’s [old watch]" - "Jóhans [gamla klocka]"

"the woman’s [white car]" - "kvínnans [víta bil]"

"Mom’s [new job]" - "mámmas [nýa jobb/árbéte]"

English also often favors a construction with ‘of’, mainly when referring to things, but Swedish is in many cases quite happy to use the -s form even there:

"the new rector of the school" - "skólans nýa réktor"

"the city of Stockholm" - "Stóckhólms stád"

When an adjective is followed by a noun in the definite form, like above, a special definite article is placed in front of the adjective. This is quite easy, really: These ‘articles’ are old acquaintances, identical to the pronouns ‘den’, ‘det’, and ‘de’ ('dom') you met in the first chapter :

"det svénska fólket" - "the Swedish people"

‘Den’, ‘det’, and ‘de’ have a strong demonstrative quality and can also be used as synonyms to ‘den där/det där/de där’ (see also next section): 

"Jag vill ha den (där) bílen" - "I want (to) have that car".

‘This/that/these/those’ are in colloquial Swedish formed by adding a ‘här’ (‘here’) and ‘där’ (‘there’) respectively to the pronouns ‘den/det’ (‘it’) and ‘de’ (‘they’). The noun it refers to is then always in the definite form: "Den här gámla bílen/De där gámla bílarna" ("This old car/Those old cars"); please observe that ‘de’ is also pronounced ‘dom’. In more formal written Swedish the following forms still take precedence, however:

‘dénne’ (this [male person])
‘dénna’ (this [female person], this [thing]) [for en words]
‘détta’ (this [thing]) [for ett words]
‘déssa’ (these/those [people/things]) [plural]

After any of these words the noun must be in the indefinite form: "Dénna gámla bil" ("This old car").

Copyright Urban Sikeborg,
Stockholm 1997-1998.