Questions & Answers about Jag hör er!
Why is the word for 'you' er here instead of dig?
In English, we use 'you' for both one person and multiple people. In Swedish, you must choose! Use dig when you are talking to one person, and er (like 'you guys' or 'y'all') when you are talking to more than one person. Here, the speaker is talking to a group.
Could I say Jag hör ni?
No, because ni is a subject pronoun, meaning it is used for the people doing the action. Since 'you' is receiving the action here (they are the ones being heard), you have to use the object pronoun, which is er.
Why doesn't the verb hör end in -ar or -er like many other present tense verbs?
The dictionary form of this verb is höra. Usually, verbs like this get an extra ending in the present tense. However, because the base of the verb (hör-) already ends in an r, Swedish doesn't add another one. It stays as simply hör in the present tense to make it easier to pronounce.
I have seen er used to mean 'your'. Is it the same word here?
They look exactly the same, but they have different jobs! er can be the object pronoun meaning 'you' (plural), as it is in this sentence. It can also be the possessive word for 'your' (plural) when used before an en-word, like in er bil (your car). You can tell it means 'you' here because it is the object of the verb and isn't attached to a noun.
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