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Learn Hardcore Swedish: Polisen läser polisanmälan. - The police officer reads the police report.

Hardcore Swedish
/Reporting a burglary to the police
/Polisen läser polisanmälan.

Polisen läser polisanmälan.

Word

Polisen läser polisanmälan.

Meaning

The police officer reads the police report.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Swedish

Lesson

Reporting a burglary to the police

Breakdown of Polisen läser polisanmälan.

the police report

the police officer

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Questions & Answers about Polisen läser polisanmälan.

Why is there no separate word for the before polisen?

Because Swedish usually puts the definite article on the end of the noun instead of using a separate word.

en polis = a police officer
polisen = the police officer

So polisen already includes the idea of the.

Is polisen singular or plural? And does it mean the police officer or the police?

Grammatically, polisen is singular.

en polis = a police officer
poliser = police officers
polisen = the police officer

But in real Swedish, polisen can also mean the police as an institution, depending on context. So learners often need context or a translation to know which meaning is intended.

What form is läser?

läser is the present tense of läsa, which means to read.

A useful thing to know is that Swedish verbs do not change for person:

jag läser = I read / I am reading
du läser = you read / you are reading
polisen läser = the police officer reads / is reading

So läser stays the same no matter who the subject is.

Why is polisanmälan written as one word?

Because Swedish writes compound nouns as one word.

polisanmälan is made from:

polis = police
anmälan = report, notification, complaint

So the whole word means something like police report or report to the police.

This is very normal in Swedish. English often writes similar expressions as two words, but Swedish usually joins them.

Does polisanmälan mean a report written by the police?

Usually not. It more often means a report or complaint made to the police.

So even though English often translates it as police report, the Swedish word often refers to the act or document of reporting something to the police, not necessarily something authored by the police.

Why is there no en before polisanmälan?

Because here the noun is most naturally understood as definite.

With this kind of noun, the spelling can be a little tricky:

en polisanmälan = a police report
polisanmälan = the police report

The head noun anmälan belongs to a group where the singular definite form looks the same in spelling as the basic noun form. So the absence of en is important.

For a learner, the safest rule here is:

if you see en polisanmälan, think a police report
if you see just polisanmälan in a normal sentence, think the police report

What is the word order in this sentence?

It is the normal Swedish main-clause order:

subject + verb + object

Polisen = subject
läser = verb
polisanmälan = object

So this sentence is very straightforward.

If you turned it into a yes/no question, Swedish would normally put the verb first:

Läser polisen polisanmälan? = Is the police officer reading the police report? / Does the police officer read the police report?

How is ä pronounced in läser and anmälan?

A useful approximation is that ä sounds somewhat like the vowel in bed, but when it is long it can sound closer to the vowel in British there without the r. It is definitely not like English a in late.

A rough pronunciation guide for the whole sentence is:

po-LEE-sen LEH-ser po-LEE-s an-MEH-lan

That is only approximate, but it is a good starting point for an English speaker.

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