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### Adjectives and Participles as Nouns

In Swedish, you can turn an adjective or a past participle directly into a noun to describe a person or a group of people. This happens in English too (like "the rich" or "the elderly"), but Swedish uses this structure much more frequently, particularly to describe specific individuals.

### Singular Individuals

To refer to a specific person based on a characteristic or an action, use the standalone definite article *den* followed by the adjective.

In police, legal, and formal contexts, you will frequently see the adjective take the masculine *-e* ending. This is used when referring to a male, but it is also used generically for a perpetrator or victim whose identity is not yet known. Past participles (like *misstänkt*, suspected) act exactly like adjectives here.

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### Plural Groups

To talk about an entire group of people sharing a trait, use the plural definite article *de* followed by the plural form of the adjective, which typically ends in *-a*.

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Note that comparative adjectives, such as *äldre* (older), already end in *-e* and simply keep their normal spelling.

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### Pointing Out Specific Groups

You can also combine these substantivized adjectives with demonstrative pronouns like *de här* (these) to point out specific groups, using the same plural *-a* ending.

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Adjectives used as nouns (de unga, den misstänkte)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

The definite ending (barnet, hunden)

Indefinite articles and -ar verbs (en, ett)

Basic word order

Singular adjectives (stor, stort)

Plural adjectives (-a)

Sentence negation (inte)

Yes/No questions

Basic question words (vad, vem, var)

Regular Group 2 verbs (-er)

Short verbs and irregulars (har, gör)

The infinitive marker (att)

Modal verbs (kan, vill, måste, får)

Future intention (ska)

Time adverbs (imorgon, igår)

Word order inversion

Adverbs of frequency (ibland, aldrig)

Everyday things (dörren, stolen, tåget)

Definite suffix spelling changes

Plural nouns Group 1 and 2 (-or, -ar)

Plural nouns Group 3 (-er, -r)

Neuter indefinite plurals

Definite plural suffixes (-na, -a, -en)

Object pronouns (mig, dig, oss)

Reflexive pronouns (sig)

Expanded question words (när, varför)

Which and what (vilken, vilket, vilka)

Coordinating conjunctions (men, eller, för)

Prepositions of place (i, på, till, från)

Quantifiers (mycket, många)

Indefinite pronouns (någon, något, några)

First and second person possessives (min, din, vår, er)

Third person possessives (hans, hennes, dess, deras)

Reflexive possessives (sin, sitt, sina)

The genitive (-s)

Adjectives before singular nouns

Adjectives before plural nouns (-a)

Double definiteness (den, det, de)

Demonstratives (den här, det här, de här)

The imperative mood

Past tense of vara and ha (var, hade)

Possessives for names (-s)

Definite plural adjectives (de ... -a)

Genitive case for names (-s)

Numbers 1 to 10 (en, två, tre...)

Numbers 11 to 20 (elva till tjugo)

Counting by tens to 100 (trettio, fyrtio...)

Days of the week (måndag, tisdag...)

Months of the year (januari, februari...)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (första, andra...)

Greetings and politeness (hej, tack, förlåt)

Particle verbs of direction (gå ut, komma in)

Simple past: Group 1 (-ade)

Simple past: Group 2a (-de)

Simple past: Group 2b (-te)

Simple past: Group 3 (-dde)

Simple past: Group 4

Present perfect: Groups 1 and 2 (har)

Present perfect: Groups 3 and 4

Past perfect (hade)

Future predictions (kommer att)

Future with present tense

The adjective small (liten, litet, små)

Demonstratives of distance (den där, det där, de där)

Negative pronouns (ingen, inget, inga)

Universal pronouns (all, allt, alla)

The generic pronoun (man, en)

Possessive generic pronoun (ens)

Reciprocal pronoun (varandra)

Qualitative pronouns (sådan, sådant, sådana)

Habitual time expressions (på)

Specific past time expressions (i)

Past time expressions (för ... sedan)

Future time expressions (om)

Location and motion adverbs (här/hit, där/dit)

Consequences (så)

Correlative conjunctions (både ... och)

Either and neither (antingen ... eller, varken ... eller)

Verbs of opinion and belief (tycker, tror, tänker)

Subordinate clauses (att, om)

Time clauses (när, innan, medan)

Clauses of cause (eftersom, därför att)

Negation in subordinate clauses (inte)

V2 word order inversion

Relative clauses as subjects (som)

Relative clauses as objects (som)

Relative clauses for places (där)

Adverbs from adjectives (-t)

Adjective comparative and superlative (-are, -ast)

Question	Answer
to interrogate	förhöra
suspected	misstänkt
The police are interrogating the suspect.	Polisen håller på att förhöra den misstänkte.
elderly	äldre
the burglary	inbrottet
The elderly are afraid because of the burglary.	De äldre är rädda på grund av inbrottet.
the perpetrator	gärningsmannen
unknown	okänd
The perpetrator is still unknown.	Gärningsmannen är fortfarande okänd.
armed	beväpnad
The unknown man was armed.	Den okände var beväpnad.
criminal	kriminell
the weapon	vapnet
The criminals hid the weapon after the burglary.	De kriminella gömde vapnet efter inbrottet.
Were the criminals armed?	Var de kriminella beväpnade?
The police found the weapon in the forest.	Polisen hittade vapnet i skogen.
to testify	vittna
The young do not want to testify.	De unga vill inte vittna.
We must interrogate these suspects again.	Vi måste förhöra de här misstänkta igen.
the interrogation	förhöret
The suspect lied in the interrogation. Therefore he is guilty.	Den misstänkte ljög i förhöret. Därför är han skyldig.
The lawyer interrupts the interrogation.	Advokaten avbryter förhöret.
Everyone saw the perpetrator, but nobody wants to testify.	Alla såg gärningsmannen, men ingen vill vittna.
We ought to help the elderly.	Vi borde hjälpa de äldre.
The dead man was not armed.	Den döde var inte beväpnad.