Breakdown of De spelar tio matcher under sommaren.
Questions & Answers about De spelar tio matcher under sommaren.
In normal spoken Swedish, de is almost always pronounced /dom/, like “dom” in English.
So:
- Written: De spelar tio matcher under sommaren.
- Spoken: Dom spelar tio matcher under sommaren.
The spelling de is mostly a writing convention; the everyday pronunciation is dom.
They all represent forms of “they / them”, but they are used differently in writing vs speech:
de – subject form in writing (they)
- De spelar fotboll. – They play football.
dem – object form in writing (them)
- Jag ser dem. – I see them.
dom – the way almost everyone pronounces both de and dem in speech
- Dom spelar fotboll. (spoken for De spelar fotboll.)
- Jag ser dom. (spoken for Jag ser dem.)
So in careful writing you distinguish de (subject) and dem (object), but in everyday speech both are pronounced dom.
Swedish often uses the present tense to talk about scheduled or regular future events, similar to English “They play ten matches this summer” (instead of “will play”).
De spelar tio matcher under sommaren. can mean:
- a general fact about every summer, or
- a plan/schedule for an upcoming summer.
Context decides whether it is about a habitual action or a specific future period. You don’t have to add a separate future marker like ska.
Yes, that is also correct.
De spelar tio matcher under sommaren.
- Neutral statement of fact; can be habitual (“they usually play”) or a scheduled future (“they are playing”).
De ska spela tio matcher under sommaren.
- Emphasises intention/plan: They are going to play ten matches during the summer.
- Sounds a bit more like a concrete plan that has been decided.
Both are natural; choice depends on whether you want to highlight that it’s a plan.
The noun match (a game/match in sports) is:
- en match – a match (common gender)
- matchen – the match
- matcher – matches (indefinite plural)
- matcherna – the matches (definite plural)
So tio matcher = ten matches, indefinite plural.
You cannot say tio match; you must use the plural ending -er.
You need the definite plural form of the noun plus a definite determiner:
- de tio matcherna – the ten matches
Example sentence:
- De spelar de tio matcherna under sommaren. – They play the ten matches during the summer.
Notice: here de is used twice:
- first De = they (subject pronoun)
- then de tio matcherna = the ten matches (definite noun phrase with determiner de)
Both are pronounced dom in speech.
Several points:
- sommar (summer) normally needs a determiner or ending in this kind of time expression. You don’t say under sommar.
- The natural phrase for “during the summer” is under sommaren:
- en sommar – a summer
- sommaren – the summer
- i sommaren is not used in this meaning. i with sommaren is unusual or poetic and would sound wrong in normal speech.
So under sommaren is the standard way to say “during the summer”.
These three are common but not identical:
under sommaren
- literally during the summer
- often refers to a specific summer (this coming one, or the one just gone), or the whole duration of a particular summer.
- De spelar tio matcher under sommaren.
→ They play ten matches during that summer period.
på sommaren
- literally on (the) summer
- typically means “in (the) summer, generally / every summer”, like a habit.
- De spelar många matcher på sommaren.
→ They play many matches in (the) summertime (as a general habit, every year).
i sommar
- means “this summer” (the upcoming or current summer).
- De spelar tio matcher i sommar.
→ They will play ten matches this summer.
So:
- habitual/general: usually på sommaren
- a specific summer period: under sommaren
- specifically “this summer”: i sommar
Yes, that is correct and quite natural.
Two main word orders:
De spelar tio matcher under sommaren.
- neutral, subject-first.
Under sommaren spelar de tio matcher.
- time expression moved to the front, often used if you want to emphasise the time frame.
Swedish allows fronting of time/place adverbials like Under sommaren, but then the verb must still come early in the clause (spelar is second element here), which this sentence respects.
No. de is gender‑neutral plural. It does not change for:
- all men
- all women
- mixed group
- a team, a band, etc.
In all cases you use de (pronounced dom) for “they” as the subject. Swedish third‑person plural pronouns do not show gender differences.
In sports contexts:
match / matcher = a (sports) match/game
- en match – a match/game
- tio matcher – ten matches/games
spel is more general: play, game, gaming, often not a specific sports fixture:
- datorspel – computer game
- kortspel – card game
- Han tycker om att spela spel. – He likes to play games.
For organised sports fixtures (football, hockey, etc.), you normally say match / matcher, not spel.
It is capitalised only because it is the first word of the sentence.
- At the beginning of a sentence: De spelar tio matcher under sommaren.
- In the middle of a sentence, it would normally be lowercase:
- Jag vet att de spelar tio matcher under sommaren. – I know that they play ten matches during the summer.
So de is not a special formal “You” here (that old usage exists but is rare today); this is just normal capitalization rules.
Typical neutral stress pattern (stressed syllables in caps):
- DE spelar TIo MATCHer UNder SOMmaren.
Content words (tio, matcher, sommaren) usually carry the strongest stress. Function words like de, spelar, under are less strongly stressed, though DE can get more stress if you contrast them with someone else.