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Questions & Answers about Mannen köper tomater.
What is the singular form of tomater?
The singular is en tomat. It is a Group 3 noun, which means it forms its indefinite plural by adding -er to the end.
Is tomat an en word or an ett word?
It is an en word (en tomat). Almost all nouns that form their plural with -er (Group 3) are en words, especially international loanwords that end in a consonant, like tomat or telefon.
The translation says "buys". Can köper also mean "is buying"?
Yes! Swedish does not have a separate "is doing" (present continuous) tense. Mannen köper translates to both "The man buys" and "The man is buying".
How does the word mannen get its meaning of "the man"?
Instead of using a separate word for "the", Swedish attaches a suffix to the end of the noun. En man means "a man", and you add -nen to the end to get mannen ("the man"). Notice that the "n" doubles to keep the vowel sound short!