Questions & Answers about Nej, hunden hämtar inte bollen.
If this is the answer, how would I ask "Does the dog fetch the ball?" in Swedish?
To make a yes/no question, you swap the subject and the verb so the verb comes first. The question would be: Hämtar hunden bollen? Notice that Swedish does not use a helper word like "does" for questions.
Why is there no word for "does" in hämtar inte?
Swedish does not use "do" or "does" to make negative sentences. Instead of saying "does not fetch", you simply put the negative word inte immediately after the verb, making it hämtar inte (literally: fetches not).
Does the word Nej at the beginning change the word order?
No, words like ja (yes) and nej (no) sit completely outside the main sentence structure and are usually separated by a comma. They do not count as the first position. The subject hunden is in position 1, and the verb hämtar stays exactly where it belongs in position 2.
Why do both nouns end in -en here?
In Swedish, you say "the" by adding an ending to the noun instead of using a separate word before it. Because hund and boll are both "en-words" in their base forms, they take the -en ending to become hunden (the dog) and bollen (the ball).