Breakdown of Hon skriver ett långt brev till sin morfar och lägger det i postlådan utanför huset.
Questions & Answers about Hon skriver ett långt brev till sin morfar och lägger det i postlådan utanför huset.
In Swedish, every noun has a grammatical gender: common (en-word) or neuter (ett-word).
- brev (letter) is a neuter noun → ett brev
- lång (long) is the base form of the adjective.
For neuter nouns in the indefinite singular, the adjective usually gets a -t ending:
- en lång bok – a long book (bok is an en-word)
- ett långt brev – a long letter (brev is an ett-word)
So you need ett (not en) and långt (not lång) because brev is an ett-word.
Adjectives in Swedish agree with the noun in gender and number.
For indefinite, singular, neuter nouns (ett-words), the adjective gets -t:
- ett stort hus – a big house
- ett rött äpple – a red apple
- ett långt brev – a long letter
Compare:
- en lång bok – a long book (common gender, no -t)
- långa brev – long letters (plural, långa)
So långt is the correct form because brev is a neuter noun: ett långt brev.
Swedish has only one present tense form, which covers both English “writes” and “is writing”.
- Hon skriver ett långt brev
→ She writes a long letter
→ She is writing a long letter
Similarly:
- Hon lägger det i postlådan
→ She puts it in the mailbox
→ (in the right context) She is putting it in the mailbox
The exact English translation (simple vs. continuous) depends on context, but Swedish uses just skriver and lägger for both.
Swedish distinguishes between own and someone else’s possessions using:
- sin / sitt / sina – reflexive possessive (refers back to the subject of the clause)
- hans / hennes – non‑reflexive possessive (refers to someone else)
In this sentence, the subject is Hon (she).
sin morfar means her own grandfather (the subject’s grandfather):
- Hon skriver ett långt brev till sin morfar.
= She writes a long letter to her own grandfather.
If you say:
- Hon skriver ett långt brev till hennes morfar.
it normally means:
- She writes a long letter to another woman’s grandfather (some other “her”).
So sin morfar is used because the grandfather belongs to the subject hon.
They all mean roughly “his/her/its/their own”, and they agree with the possessed noun, not with the owner:
- sin – with en-words:
- Hon skriver till sin morfar. – her (own) grandfather
- Han tar sin bok. – his (own) book
- sitt – with ett-words:
- Hon läser sitt brev. – her (own) letter
- sina – with plural nouns:
- Hon skriver till sina morföräldrar. – her (own) grandparents
All of these refer back to the subject of the clause.
If the possessor is someone else, you use hans / hennes / dess / deras instead.
Swedish has different words for grandmother/grandfather depending on whether they are on the mother’s or father’s side:
- morfar – mother’s father (maternal grandfather)
- farfar – father’s father (paternal grandfather)
- mormor – mother’s mother (maternal grandmother)
- farmor – father’s mother (paternal grandmother)
So sin morfar specifically means her grandfather on her mother’s side.
The pronouns den and det must match the gender of the noun they refer to:
- den → refers to en-words (common gender)
- det → refers to ett-words (neuter)
Here, det refers back to ett långt brev:
- brev is an ett-word → we use det.
- Hon lägger det i postlådan…
= She puts it (the letter) in the mailbox.
If the noun were an en-word, for example en bok (a book), you would say:
- Hon lägger den i väskan. – She puts it (the book) in the bag.
The prepositions i and på often correspond to English “in” and “on”, but usage is idiomatic.
i is used when something is inside a container or space:
- i postlådan – in the mailbox
- i väskan – in the bag
- i ett rum – in a room
på is used for on top of surfaces, or for many fixed expressions:
- på bordet – on the table
- på stolen – on the chair
- på posten – at the post office
Since the letter goes inside the mailbox, Swedish uses i postlådan.
Postlådan and huset are in the definite form, meaning “the mailbox” and “the house”.
Swedish marks definiteness by adding an ending to the noun:
- Indefinite:
- en postlåda – a mailbox
- ett hus – a house
- Definite:
- postlådan – the mailbox
- huset – the house
In this sentence, it’s a specific mailbox (the one outside the house) and a specific house (her house, or a known house), so the definite form is natural:
- …i postlådan utanför huset.
→ in the mailbox outside the house.
utanför means “outside (of)”.
As a preposition: often followed by a noun:
- utanför huset – outside the house
- utanför skolan – outside the school
As an adverb, it can stand alone:
- Hon väntar utanför. – She is waiting outside.
In postlådan utanför huset, utanför huset is describing where the mailbox is: the mailbox outside the house.
Swedish has several common “put/place” verbs:
- lägga – to put/lay something so it ends up lying (horizontally)
- ställa – to put/place something so it ends up standing (vertically, on its base)
- sätta – to set/seat something so it ends up sitting (or to make someone sit)
Examples:
- Hon lägger brevet i postlådan. – She puts the letter (so it lies) in the mailbox.
- Hon ställer flaskan på bordet. – She puts the bottle (so it stands) on the table.
- Hon sätter koppen på bordet. – She sets the cup (so it “sits”) on the table.
A letter is normally thought of as lying flat, and it is being slipped into a box, so lägger is the natural choice: lägger det i postlådan.
Swedish main clauses usually follow the verb-second (V2) rule: the finite verb (here, skriver) comes in second position.
To negate the sentence with inte, you put inte after the finite verb:
- Hon skriver inte ett långt brev till sin morfar.
= She does not write a long letter to her grandfather.
With the full original sentence:
- Hon skriver inte ett långt brev till sin morfar och lägger det inte i postlådan utanför huset.
= She does not write a long letter to her grandfather and does not put it in the mailbox outside the house.
So: Subject – Verb – inte – (rest of the clause) in a simple main clause like this.