Questions & Answers about De känner inte kvinnan.
Why does the verb end in -er here?
Känner is a Group 2 regular verb. To make the present tense, we add -er to the root of the verb (which is känn-). Group 1 verbs, which you might have seen in earlier lessons, take -ar instead.
I thought the word for "know" was vet? Why use känner here?
In Swedish, vet means to know a fact or a piece of information. Känner is used when you know a person or are familiar with a place. Since they do not know a woman, we must use känner.
Why does inte come after the verb? In English we say "do not know".
In a standard Swedish main sentence, the verb is always in the second position, and the negative word inte comes right after it. Swedish also does not use a "do" word for negatives, so this literally translates to "They know not the woman."
How is the word De pronounced?
Even though it is spelled De, it is almost always pronounced like dom in everyday spoken Swedish.
How do we know this means "the woman" and not just "a woman"?
The base word for "a woman" is en kvinna. To make it "the woman", Swedish attaches the "the" to the end of the word. Since kvinna ends in a vowel, we just add an -n to the end to get kvinnan.
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