Questions & Answers about Matresterna står i kylskåpet.
Because Swedish very often makes compound nouns by joining words together.
Here, mat means food and rester means leftovers / remains. Together, matrester means food leftovers.
Then the ending -na is added to make it definite plural, so matresterna means the leftovers.
This is very normal in Swedish. English often uses separate words where Swedish prefers one combined word.
-na is the definite plural ending here.
So:
- en matrest = a leftover / a food remnant
- matrester = leftovers
- matresterna = the leftovers
In this sentence, the speaker is talking about specific leftovers, so Swedish uses the definite form matresterna.
Because leftovers is very often treated as a plural idea in both English and Swedish.
The singular matrest exists, but in everyday life people usually talk about matrester because there is normally more than one bit of leftover food, or because the food is thought of as a collection.
So matresterna is the most natural way to say the leftovers.