Questions & Answers about Kvinnan hjälper dem.
How do you pronounce dem in this sentence?
In everyday spoken Swedish, dem is pronounced like "dom". The subject pronoun de (they) is also pronounced "dom". You will generally only hear dem pronounced the way it is spelled in very formal contexts or sometimes in songs.
Why use dem instead of de here?
Because dem is the object pronoun (meaning "them"), while de is the subject pronoun (meaning "they"). In this sentence, the woman is the one doing the action, and the group of people is receiving the help, so we use the object form dem.
Can this sentence also mean 'The woman is helping them'?
Yes! Swedish doesn't have a separate progressive tense (the "-ing" form in English). The present tense verb hjälper translates to both "helps" and "is helping" depending on what makes sense in the context.
Why does the word for woman have an -n at the end?
Swedish attaches its definite articles (words for "the") to the end of the noun. En kvinna means "a woman". To say "the woman", you drop the en and add an -n to the end of the word, creating kvinnan.
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