Questions & Answers about Hunden sover sällan i sängen.
Why does sällan come after the verb sover?
In a standard Swedish sentence, short adverbs like sällan (rarely), ofta (often), and inte (not) usually come right after the verb. This is why we say Hunden sover sällan instead of putting it before the verb like in English ('The dog rarely sleeps').
Is sällan considered a time adverb like idag (today) or nu (now)?
Yes, it is a time adverb that describes frequency! But there is a slight difference in where you place it. While words like idag and nu often go at the very beginning or end of a sentence, frequency adverbs like sällan usually stick right next to the verb.
Both hunden and sängen end in -en. Is that how you say 'the'?
Exactly! Instead of using a separate word for 'the', Swedish attaches an ending to the noun. Both hund (dog) and säng (bed) are 'en-words', so they take the ending -en to become hunden (the dog) and sängen (the bed).
In English we often just say 'sleeps in bed'. Why does Swedish say i sängen (in the bed)?