Breakdown of Flickan vill köpa flera pennor.
flickan
the girl
köpa
to buy
vilja
to want to
flera
several
pennan
the pen
Questions & Answers about Flickan vill köpa flera pennor.
Why does pennor end in "-or"?
Pennor is the plural of en penna (a pen). In Swedish, most "en" words that end in "-a" belong to Group 1. To make them plural, you drop the "-a" and add "-or". So, penna becomes pennor.
Is flickan also a Group 1 noun?
Yes! The basic word is en flicka (a girl), which ends in "-a" just like penna. If you wanted to say "girls", it would be flickor. However, in this sentence, it has the "-n" ending to mean "the girl" (definite singular).
Why do we use köpa instead of köper?
Köpa is the infinitive form (to buy). We use it here because it comes right after vill (wants). A helper verb like vill is followed by the basic infinitive form of the next verb, so we say vill köpa (wants to buy).
Why is pennor in the indefinite form here?
The word flera (several) acts a bit like a number. Just like you would say "three pens" without the word "the" in English, you say "several pens" (flera pennor) in Swedish using the basic indefinite plural form.
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