Brottsplatsen ligger utanför huset.

the house

Breakdown of Brottsplatsen ligger utanför huset.

• ligga: to lie
• utanför: outside
• brottsplatsen: the crime scene

Questions & Answers about Brottsplatsen ligger utanför huset.

Why is brottsplatsen one word?

Swedish very often forms nouns as compounds, where English would use two or more separate words.

• brott = crime
• plats = place, site
• brottsplats = crime scene
• brottsplatsen = the crime scene

So Swedish prefers brottsplatsen as one word, not something like brotts platsen.

A useful rule:

• English: crime scene
• Swedish: brottsplats

And then the definite ending gets added to the whole compound:

• en brottsplats = a crime scene
• brottsplatsen = the crime scene

Why does brottsplatsen end in -en?

The ending -en is the definite article attached to the noun. Swedish usually puts the at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English.

Here:

• en brottsplats = a crime scene
• brottsplatsen = the crime scene

This happens because brottsplats is an en-word (common gender noun), so its singular definite form takes -en.

Compare:

• en plats → platsen = the place
• en brottsplats → brottsplatsen = the crime scene

Why is it ligger and not är?