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Hunden äter aldrig fisken.

Hunden äter aldrig fisken.
The dog never eats the fish.
From Lesson 17:Adverbs of frequency (ibland, aldrig)·Swedish

Breakdown of Hunden äter aldrig fisken.

hunden
the dog
aldrig
never
äta
to eat
fisken
the fish

Questions & Answers about Hunden äter aldrig fisken.

Why is aldrig placed after the verb äter instead of before it like in English?
In a standard Swedish main clause, the verb must be the second piece of information (this is called the V2 rule). Because the subject Hunden comes first, the verb äter has to come second. The frequency adverb aldrig then gets placed right after the verb.
Do I need to use the word inte (not) with aldrig to make the sentence negative?
No, you don't. The word aldrig (never) is already a negative word. Swedish doesn't use double negatives here, so you just use aldrig by itself without adding inte.
Both Hunden and fisken end in -en. What does this ending do?
The -en ending is how Swedish says "the" for most nouns (specifically, nouns that use en for "a/an"). Instead of a separate word in front, Swedish attaches it to the end of the word. So hund (dog) becomes hunden (the dog), and fisk (fish) becomes fisken (the fish).
Could this sentence also mean "The dog is never eating the fish"?
Yes! Swedish does not have a separate tense for actions happening right now. The single present tense word äter covers both "eats" and "is eating" in English.

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