Breakdown of Köket är litet, men de mysiga stolarna gör att alla vill sitta där.
Questions & Answers about Köket är litet, men de mysiga stolarna gör att alla vill sitta där.
Swedish usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun instead of in front of it.
- ett kök = a kitchen (indefinite)
- köket = the kitchen (definite)
Since we are talking about a specific, known kitchen (typically “the kitchen” in someone’s home), Swedish uses the definite form köket.
Rooms in a home are very often spoken about in the definite form like this: köket, vardagsrummet, badrummet, etc.
The base form of the adjective is liten (small), but it changes depending on gender/number and how it is used.
For liten:
- Common gender singular (en-word, attributive): en liten stol – a small chair
- Neuter singular (ett-word, attributive): ett litet kök – a small kitchen
- Plural (all genders): små stolar – small chairs
After the verb är, the adjective is predicative (describing the subject). With an ett-word like kök, the predicative form is also litet:
- Köket är litet. – The kitchen is small.
You only use the definite form lilla with a definite noun in front of it:
- det lilla köket – the small kitchen (attributive, with det)
In Swedish, a comma is normally used before men when it introduces a new main clause, just like English often does before but.
- Köket är litet, men de mysiga stolarna …
Both parts are full clauses, so the comma is standard and recommended. Writing it without a comma is sometimes seen informally, but the comma is the norm in careful writing.
In standard written Swedish:
- de is the subject form (like they in English)
- dem is the object form (like them in English)
In the sentence, de mysiga stolarna is the subject of the verb gör:
- de mysiga stolarna gör … – the cozy chairs make …
So the subject form de is correct.
In speech, both de and dem are usually pronounced the same way: dom. That’s why many Swedes make mistakes in writing, but the formal rule is still de (subject) and dem (object).
Adjectives in front of nouns agree with the noun’s form (gender/number/definiteness).
The pattern for mysig (cozy) is:
- en mysig stol – a cozy chair (singular, indefinite)
- flera mysiga stolar – cozy chairs (plural, indefinite)
- de mysiga stolarna – the cozy chairs (plural, definite)
With a definite plural noun (stolarna), the adjective ends in -a, and you also need the definite article de before the whole phrase:
- de mysiga stolarna = the cozy chairs
The base noun is stol (chair), an en-word. Its main forms are:
- en stol – a chair (indefinite singular)
- stolen – the chair (definite singular)
- stolar – chairs (indefinite plural)
- stolarna – the chairs (definite plural)
So stolarna is the chairs. Together with de mysiga, you get:
- de mysiga stolarna – the cozy chairs
The phrase gör att literally looks like “makes that”, but it really means “causes / results in / makes (it so that)”.
Pattern:
- [subject] + gör att + [clause]
Examples:
- Det gör att alla vill sitta där. – That makes everyone want to sit there.
- Regnet gör att vi stannar hemma. – The rain makes us stay at home.
You can also say gör så att, but in modern Swedish the så is often dropped:
- gör (så) att alla vill sitta där
Two different things are going on:
att after gör
Here, att is a subordinating conjunction, introducing a clause:
gör att alla vill sitta där – “makes (it so) that everyone wants to sit there”.No att after vill
When vill means “want to (do something)”, it normally takes an infinitive without att:- Jag vill sitta. – I want to sit.
- Alla vill sitta där. – Everyone wants to sit there.
If vill is followed by att, that almost always introduces a clause with a subject:
- Jag vill att du kommer. – I want you to come.
- Hon vill att alla ska sitta där. – She wants everyone to sit there.
So:
- vill sitta (no att) – want to sit
- vill att alla sitter – wants everyone to sit
In a main clause, Swedish usually has verb-second word order:
- Alla vill sitta där. – Subject Alla, verb vill in second position.
But in a subordinate clause introduced by att, the word order is:
- att + subject + verb + …
So:
- Main clause: Alla vill sitta där.
- Subordinate clause: att alla vill sitta där.
att vill alla sitta där would be ungrammatical.
där is a place adverb meaning there, and it refers back to the place just mentioned, here köket.
- Köket är litet … → that location is already clear
- … vill sitta där. → want to sit there (in that kitchen).
To repeat i köket (… vill sitta i köket) would still be correct, but it sounds more natural and less repetitive to use där once the place is known from context.
If the speaker were physically in the kitchen, they would more likely say här (here) instead of där:
- Här vill alla sitta. – Everyone wants to sit here.
alla can mean both:
- alla = everyone (as a general group of people)
- alla [noun/pronoun] = all [of something/someone]
In this sentence, alla stands on its own, so it means everyone in general:
- alla vill sitta där – everyone wants to sit there.
You could make it more specific, for example:
- alla gäster vill sitta där – all the guests / every guest wants to sit there.
- alla i familjen vill sitta där – everyone in the family wants to sit there.
Very roughly, for an English speaker:
Köket ≈ “SHUH-ket”
- kö has the Swedish ö (like British English “bird” or “nurse”, but with rounded lips) and k before ö is pronounced like English sh in many dialects ([ɕøː]).
- -ket has a short e and a t: [kɛt].
mysiga ≈ “MEE-see-gah” (but with Swedish sounds)
- my has Swedish y, like the u in French lune, or like saying English ee with rounded lips: [myː].
- si is like see but short: [sɪ].
- ga has a hard g and short a: [ga].
So in IPA:
- Köket: [ˈɕøːkɛt]
- mysiga: [ˈmyːsɪɡa]