Word
De pratar flera språk på jobbet.
Meaning
They speak several languages at work.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De pratar flera språk på jobbet.
de
they
prata
to speak
på
on / at / for (wait for) / in (believe in)
jobbet
the work
Questions & Answers about De pratar flera språk på jobbet.
Since the sentence means "several languages", why doesn't språk have a plural ending?
Språk (language) is an ett-word that ends in a consonant. In Swedish, these words belong to Group 5 and do not change their spelling in the indefinite plural! So, ett språk (one language) and flera språk (several languages) use the exact same form.
If språk looks exactly like the singular form, how do we know it is plural here?
The word flera (several) gives it away. Because flera means more than one, the noun that follows it must be plural.
Why is it på jobbet rather than using a word like i (in) or vid (at)?
Swedish often uses på (which translates literally to "on") for locations where you perform a specific activity, like a job. So, "at work" translates to på jobbet. You will also see this pattern with places like på kontoret (at the office) or på sjukhuset (at the hospital).
Just a quick refresher: how is the word De pronounced here?
In everyday spoken Swedish, De (they) is almost always pronounced as dom. You will usually only hear it pronounced as it is spelled in very formal contexts, like reading a news broadcast.