Word
Barnen lägger sig sent på helgen.
Meaning
The children go to bed late on the weekend.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Questions & Answers about Barnen lägger sig sent på helgen.
Why is it barnen and not just barn if the English translation is “the children”?
In Swedish, -en at the end of a noun often marks the definite form (“the …”).
- barn = child / children (indefinite)
- barnet = the child (definite singular)
- barnen = the children (definite plural)
So barnen literally means “the children.”
If you only said Barn lägger sig sent på helgen, it would sound odd or incomplete, a bit like saying “Children go to bed late at the weekend” without specifying which children. In normal speech, if you mean some specific, known children (for example, in your family), you’d use barnen.
Why do we say lägger sig and not just lägger?