Spelpjäserna ligger överallt.

The playing pieces are everywhere.

Breakdown of Spelpjäserna ligger överallt.

• ligga: to lie
• spelpjäsen: the playing piece
• överallt: everywhere

Questions & Answers about Spelpjäserna ligger överallt.

Why is spelpjäserna one long word?

Because Swedish very often makes compound nouns by writing them as one word.

Here, spelpjäserna is built from:

• spel = game
• pjäs = piece, token
• plural ending -er
• definite plural ending -na

So the base noun is spelpjäs = game piece, and the full form spelpjäserna means the game pieces.

This is completely normal in Swedish. English often uses separate words where Swedish prefers one compound.

Why is there no separate word for the?

In Swedish, the is often attached to the noun as an ending instead of being a separate word.

With spelpjäs, the forms are:

• en spelpjäs = a game piece
• spelpjäsen = the game piece
• spelpjäser = game pieces
• spelpjäserna = the game pieces

So in this sentence, -na is doing the job of the.

What form is ligger?