It\u2019s time for a little bit of grammar today, don\u2019t you agree? And this particular bit of grammar is always confusing for English speakers.<\/p>\n
People, Swedish people naturally, will tell you that Swedish nouns are classed according to gender. And it\u2019s all good, except when you try to find out exactly what gender those Swedish nouns have. In most languages, when talking about gender, you come up with the usual of masculine, feminine, and neuter. But not so in Swedish. Here, there are only two choices, and they are defined by these two indefinite articles: en<\/strong> and ett<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Every noun is either an \u201cen<\/strong>\u201d or an \u201cett<\/strong>\u201d noun, and which is which you have to learn the hard way by memorizing the appropriate article together with the noun. Why? That pesky indefinite article will show you how make the correct form of the definite article. It also comes up in other grammatical issues, involving adjectives, for example.<\/p>\n But for now, let\u2019s stick to nouns. Why this is called \u201cgender\u201d I\u2019m not really sure, because while some Swedish nouns do have both masculine and feminine forms, the article in front of such nouns is the same in both cases.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So how does it look in practice? Like this for example: And now let\u2019s try some \u201cett<\/strong>\u201d words: When the article comes in front of the word, it\u2019s more or less equivalent to the English \u201ca\u201d or \u201can\u201d. stolen<\/strong> \u2013 the chair It gets a bit funky when the word ends in a vowel. Then instead of \u201cen<\/strong>\u201d you only stick \u201cn<\/strong>\u201d at the end of the noun, like this: Of course, it wouldn\u2019t be grammar if there weren\u2019t exceptions to the above rule, but we will discuss those exceptions in a separate post.<\/p>\n And how does it work for \u201cett<\/strong>\u201d words? Pretty much the same, you attach the article at the end of your nouns, except you drop one \u201ct\u201d and \u201cett<\/strong>\u201d becomes \u201cet<\/strong>\u201d: And when the word ends in a vowel? Then you simply attach only \u201ct\u201d, like this: See? It\u2019s not that complicated, is it? One important thing to remember is that words denoting people are always \u201cen<\/strong>\u201d words. Except for that pesky exception, which you already saw above, which is \u201cbarn<\/strong>\u201d: Other than that, there are no rules regarding which indefinite article comes with which noun, and it\u2019s best to learn both the article and the noun at the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s time for a little bit of grammar today, don\u2019t you agree? And this particular bit of grammar is always confusing for English speakers. People, Swedish people naturally, will tell you that Swedish nouns are classed according to gender. And it\u2019s all good, except when you try to find out exactly what gender those Swedish…<\/p>\n
\nen stol<\/strong> \u2013 a chair
\nen katt<\/strong> \u2013 a cat
\nen skola<\/strong> \u2013 a school
\nen pojke<\/strong> \u2013 a boy
\nen banan<\/strong> \u2013 a banana<\/p>\n
\nett hus<\/strong> \u2013 a house
\nett bord<\/strong> \u2013 a table
\nett kvitto<\/strong> \u2013 a receipt
\nett \u00e4pple<\/strong> \u2013 an apple
\nett barn<\/strong> \u2013 a child<\/p>\n
\nSo how do you make a \u201cthe\u201d in Swedish? Simple! Stick that \u201cen<\/strong>\u201d or \u201cett<\/strong>\u201d at the end of the word. Take a look:<\/p>\n
\nkatten<\/strong> \u2013 the cat
\nbananen<\/strong> \u2013 the banana<\/p>\n
\nskolan<\/strong> \u2013 the school
\npojken<\/strong> \u2013 the boy<\/p>\n
\nhuset<\/strong> \u2013 the house
\nbordet<\/strong> \u2013 the table
\nbarnet<\/strong> \u2013 the child<\/p>\n
\nkvittot<\/strong> \u2013 the receipt
\n\u00e4pplet<\/strong> \u2013 the apple<\/p>\n
\nett barn<\/strong> \u2013 a child
\nbarnet<\/strong> \u2013 the child<\/p>\n