Fingeravtrycket kan identifiera tjuven.

Swedish normally writes compound nouns as a single word. Fingeravtryck is made from finger + avtryck, literally finger + print/impression.

This is very common in Swedish. Where English may use two words, Swedish often uses one:

• finger print → fingeravtryck
• school book → skolbok
• coffee cup → kaffekopp

Because Swedish usually marks definiteness by adding an ending to the noun.

So:

• ett fingeravtryck = a fingerprint
• fingeravtrycket = the fingerprint

The ending -et is the definite ending for this noun.

Because fingeravtryck is an ett noun:

• ett fingeravtryck = a fingerprint

For many ett nouns, the definite singular ends in -et:

• ett hus → huset
• ett äpple → äpplet
• ett fingeravtryck → fingeravtrycket

So -et here means the.

Tjuv means thief or a thief, depending on context.
Tjuven means the thief.

This noun is an en noun:

• en tjuv = a thief
• tjuven = the thief

So Swedish is using the definite ending -en instead of a separate word like English the.

Because Swedish has two main noun genders:

• en words
• ett words

That affects the definite ending:

• en tjuv → tjuven
• ett fingeravtryck → fingeravtrycket

So both endings mean the, but the form depends on the noun’s gender.

Kan is the present tense of kunna, which means can or be able to.

In this sentence, it expresses possibility or ability:

• Fingeravtrycket kan identifiera tjuven = The fingerprint can identify the thief

Depending on context, English might also express this as can be used to identify.

Because it comes after the modal verb kan.

After modal verbs in Swedish, the main verb stays in the infinitive:

• kan identifiera = can identify
• vill gå = want to go
• ska läsa = will read / am going to read

So identifiera is correct here, not identifierar.

Because Swedish modal verbs normally take the infinitive directly, without att.

So you say:

• kan identifiera
• måste gå
• vill äta

not:

• kan att identifiera

This is similar to English, where we say can identify, not can to identify.

Yes. This is a normal main clause.

It breaks down like this:

• Fingeravtrycket = subject
• kan = finite verb
• identifiera = main verb in infinitive
• tjuven = object

So the structure is essentially:

• Subject + finite verb + infinitive + object

Also, Swedish main clauses follow the verb-second rule, and this sentence fits that pattern perfectly.

It is grammatical and easy to understand. But in real-life usage, Swedish might sometimes choose a slightly less literal phrasing, because a fingerprint does not really do the identifying by itself.

For example:

• Fingeravtrycket kan användas för att identifiera tjuven = The fingerprint can be used to identify the thief
• Med hjälp av fingeravtrycket kan man identifiera tjuven = With the help of the fingerprint, one can identify the thief

So the original sentence is fine, but it is a little compressed in meaning.

Yes. It is a close cognate and means almost the same thing. In this sentence, identifiera tjuven means identify the thief in the sense of establishing who the thief is.

This is one of many Swedish words that look familiar to English speakers, especially in formal or international vocabulary.