Approximating Quantities with "-tal"
To estimate a quantity like "around ten" or "roughly a hundred," Swedish adds the suffix -tal to a base number. This creates a neuter collective noun used with ett.
- ett tiotal (around ten)
- ett tjugotal (around twenty)
- ett hundratal (around a hundred)
- ett tusental (around a thousand)
Place these directly in front of a plural noun. Notice that you do not need an equivalent to the English preposition "of".
| Around ten bargain hunters waited for the opening. | Ett tiotal fyndjägare väntade på öppningen. |
Because you are describing a plural group, any adjectives modifying the noun take their plural forms.
| Around twenty discounted items were crushed in the large store. | Ett tjugotal nedsatta varor krossades i den stora butiken. |
| The boss had to stop around a hundred angry bargain hunters. | Chefen var tvungen att stoppa ett hundratal arga fyndjägare. |
| Imagine that around a thousand people participated in the madness! | Tänk att ett tusental människor deltog i galenskapen! |
Multitudes with "-tals"
To express vast, unspecified amounts like "hundreds of" or "thousands of," add an -s to the -tal noun.
This creates quantifiers like hundratals (hundreds of), tusentals (thousands of), and tiotusentals (tens of thousands of). Just like the -tal phrases, these sit immediately before the plural nouns and adjectives they modify.
| Hundreds of discounted books were sold before the opening. | Hundratals nedsatta böcker såldes före öppningen. |
| Thousands of abandoned shopping carts were found outside the large store. | Tusentals övergivna kundvagnar hittades utanför den stora butiken. |
| We saw tens of thousands of happy customers, regardless of the crowd. | Vi såg tiotusentals glada kunder, oavsett trängseln. |
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