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Questions & Answers about Staden är stor.
Why does the word for city end in -en in staden?
Stad means city. In Swedish, you usually do not use a separate word for 'the' before the noun. Instead, you attach a suffix to the end. Adding -en makes it staden (the city).
Is är one of the high-frequency irregular verbs?
Yes! Är (am, is, or are) is the present tense of the verb vara (to be). It is a highly irregular verb, which is why it looks so different from its base form.
Why do we use stor here instead of stort?
Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because stad is an en-word, we use the basic form stor. If it were an ett-word like ett hus (a house), we would use stort instead.
How would the adjective change if we said the cities are big?
The adjective would become stora. When describing plural nouns, Swedish adjectives almost always get an -a added to the end.