Flere af ansøgerne lød som om de var bange.
Several of the applicants sounded as if they were afraid.
Breakdown of Flere af ansøgerne lød som om de var bange.
være
to be
de
they
bange
afraid
af
of
flere
more (with plurals); several
lyde
to sound
som om
as if
ansøgeren
the applicant
Questions & Answers about Flere af ansøgerne lød som om de var bange.
Why does this sentence use the definite form ansøgerne instead of the indefinite ansøgere?
This is the core of the subset construction. When you use a quantifier like flere (several) followed by af (of), you are referring to a specific, known group. Therefore, the noun must be in the definite form (ansøgerne). If you wanted to talk about applicants in general, you would drop af and use the indefinite form: flere ansøgere (several applicants).
I learned that flere means 'more'. Why does it mean 'several' in this context?
Flere can mean both 'more' (the comparative of mange) and 'several'. When used in this partitive construction with af and a definite noun, it almost always translates to 'several of'. If you wanted to say 'more of the applicants' in a comparative sense, you would usually need surrounding context showing what they are being compared to.
The pronoun de is plural, so why doesn't the adjective bange get a plural ending?
The adjective bange is an exception to the standard rule of adding an -e for plural adjectives. Because it already ends in an unstressed -e, its form is locked. It looks exactly the same whether it describes one person or a hundred people.
What kind of clause does som om introduce, and does it affect word order?
The phrase som om (as if) is a conjunction that introduces a subordinate clause. This means the clause follows subordinate word order rules. If you needed to add an adverb like ikke, it would have to be placed before the main verb: som om de ikke var bange.
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