Learn Hardcore Swedish: Barnen leker med sina vänner i parken. - The children play with their friends in the park.

barn = child / children (indefinite; the word is the same in singular and plural)
- ett barn = a child
- barn = children
barnet = the child (definite singular)
barnen = the children (definite plural)

Swedish usually shows “the” with an ending on the noun instead of a separate word. So barnen is “the children”, not just “children.”

Why is it sina vänner and not deras vänner?

Both mean “their friends,” but they work differently:

sina vänner = their own friends (refers back to the subject of the clause)
deras vänner = their friends, but not the subject’s — it usually means somebody else’s friends

In this sentence, the subject is barnen (the children).

Barnen leker med sina vänner i parken.
→ The children are playing with their own friends.

If you said:

Barnen leker med deras vänner i parken.
it would normally mean:
→ The children are playing with their friends (the friends of some other people previously mentioned).

So sina is the correct choice because the friends belong to the children who are the subject.

How do sin / sitt / sina work in Swedish?

These are reflexive possessive pronouns; they refer back to the subject of the same clause and mean “his/her/its/their own.”

They agree with the thing owned, not with the owner:

sin – used with en-words (singular)
- Barnet hittar sin boll. – The child finds his/her own ball.
sitt – used with ett-words (singular)
- Barnet hittar sitt spel. – The child finds his/her own game.
sina – used with plural nouns
- Barnet hittar sina leksaker. – The child finds his/her own toys.
- Barnen leker med sina vänner. – The children play with their own friends.

Compare with hans / hennes / deras, which do not have to refer to the subject:

Barnen leker med deras vänner.
→ The children are playing with their friends (friends belonging to some other people).

Why is leker used here instead of spelar? Both mean “to play,” right?

Swedish distinguishes between two main kinds of “play”:

leka (leker in present) – to play in the sense that children or animals play, or to play with toys, pretend, etc.
- Barnen leker i parken. – The children are playing in the park.
- Hon leker med dockor. – She plays with dolls.
spela (spelar in present) – to play a structured game, sport, or musical instrument
- De spelar fotboll. – They play football.
- Han spelar gitarr. – He plays the guitar.

In Barnen leker med sina vänner i parken, the children are just generally playing, so leker is the correct verb.

Why is there no separate word for “are” in “are playing”? Why just leker?

Swedish present tense covers both English “play” and “are playing”:

Barnen leker.
- The children play.
- The children are playing.

You normally do not use a form of vara (to be) + -ing-form. So:

You say: Barnen leker i parken.
You do not say: Barnen är leker i parken. (incorrect)

Context decides whether you should translate it as “play” or “are playing.”

What is the singular of vänner, and how is its plural formed?

en vän = a friend (singular)
vän = friend (indefinite singular)
vänner = friends (indefinite plural)
vännerna = the friends (definite plural)

The plural is formed irregularly:

vowel change: ä appears in plural (vän → vänner)
plus the ending -ner

So sina vänner = their (own) friends.

Why is it i parken and not på parken?

Both i and på can translate as “in / at / on”, but they’re used differently with places.

For park you normally use i:

i parken = in the park

Some general tendencies:

i is often used for enclosed areas or 3D spaces:
- i skolan (at school), i staden (in the city), i parken (in the park)
på is often used for surfaces, islands, many public places:
- på bordet (on the table), på jobbet (at work), på bio (at the cinema), på torget (in the square)

So the natural phrase is i parken.

Can I change the word order, for example: Barnen leker i parken med sina vänner?

Yes, that is also grammatically correct. Both of these work:

Barnen leker med sina vänner i parken.
Barnen leker i parken med sina vänner.

Both mean the same in most contexts. The slight difference is in emphasis:

First version slightly highlights who they are with (their friends), then where.
Second version slightly highlights where first, then with whom.

The basic word order is still: Subject – Verb – (Object/Prepositional phrases). Swedish is quite flexible with the order of several adverbials like “with friends” and “in the park.”

How would the sentence change if it was one child instead of several?

For one child, you change the subject from barnen to barnet (“the child”). The rest depends on whether you mean one friend or several:

One child, one friend:
- Barnet leker med sin vän i parken.
  → The child is playing with his/her own friend in the park.
One child, several friends:
- Barnet leker med sina vänner i parken.
  → The child is playing with his/her own friends in the park.

Notice how sin vs sina still depends on the number of the noun after it (vän vs vänner), not on how many children there are.

How would I say “The children are playing with their (other people’s) friends in the park”?

To make it clear that the friends do not belong to the children, you use deras:

Barnen leker med deras vänner i parken.

This suggests that “their friends” belong to some other group of people already known in the context, not to the children themselves.

How are the main words pronounced?

Approximate pronunciations (Swedish varies by region):

Barnen – roughly “BAAR-nen”
- IPA: [ˈbɑːɳɛn] (the rn becomes a retroflex [ɳ], like a darker n)
leker – roughly “LAY-ker”
- IPA: [ˈleːkɛr] (long e, like in English “late” but shorter)
med – often pronounced like “me” or “meh” in everyday speech
- IPA: [meːd], commonly [meː]
sina – roughly “SEE-na”
- IPA: [ˈsiːna]
vänner – roughly “VEN-ner” with short e and double n
- IPA: [ˈvɛnːɛr]
i – like “ee” in “see”
- IPA: [iː]
parken – roughly “PAR-ken”
- IPA: [ˈparkɛn]

Stress is on the first syllable of each word: BARN-en, LEK-er, MÉD, SÍ-na, VÄN-ner, Í, PÁR-ken.