People: killen, eleven, svensken
Swedish has a full set of everyday words for people, and they are not interchangeable with the ones you already know. Killen is the guy — more casual than pojken (the boy), and used of grown men as easily as teenagers. Eleven is a pupil at school, where studenten is a university student; keep them apart, because Swedish does.
Svensken means the Swede, the person. Nationality words in Swedish distinguish the person (en svensk) from the language (svenska) — you have already met the language.
| The pupil is reading a book. | Eleven läser en bok. |
Collectives: folket and klassen
Folket is the people as a single body, and it is an ett-word, so it takes neuter agreement. Klassen is both the group of pupils and the lesson-hour itself.
Two Everyday Nouns
Lunchen is the midday meal — Swedes eat it early, often before noon. Musiken is the music. And kon is the cow: short, irregular in the plural (kor), and one of the first farm words any Swedish child learns.
| The cow is on the farm. | Kon är på gården. |
