Questions & Answers about Hunden är här.
Why is the word for "the" attached to the end of hunden?
In Swedish, the definite article (the word for "the") isn't a separate word that goes before the noun like it does in English. Instead, it gets attached directly to the end of the noun as a suffix. The basic word for dog is hund, so we add -en to the end to make hunden (the dog).
How do I know whether to add -en or -et to a noun to mean "the"?
It depends on the noun's gender. Swedish nouns are divided into two groups: en-words and ett-words. Because dog is en hund (an en-word), it takes the -en ending. If it were an ett-word, like ett äpple (an apple), it would take an -t or -et ending to become äpplet (the apple).
Does är change if the subject is plural or a different person?
No, it stays exactly the same! A wonderful thing about Swedish verbs is that they don't change based on who or what the subject is. Whether you are saying "I am" (jag är), "you are" (du är), "we are" (vi är), or "the dog is" (hunden är), the verb is always är.
Här looks and sounds a lot like the English word "here". Are they related?
They are! English and Swedish are both Germanic languages, so you will often find words that look and sound very similar (known as cognates). Här and "here" mean the exact same thing, which makes this word very easy to remember.
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