Questions & Answers about Kvinnan skrattar inte.
Why does the Swedish word for woman end in an 'n' here?
Kvinna means 'a woman'. To say 'the woman', Swedish attaches the 'the' to the end of the word. Since kvinna is an en-word ending in a vowel, we just add an -n to make it kvinnan.
The translation says 'is not laughing', but where is the word for 'is'?
Swedish doesn't have a separate 'is doing' form like English does. The single word skrattar covers both 'laughs' and 'is laughing'. You don't need to add a separate word for 'is' here!
Why does inte come after the verb?
In regular Swedish statements, the word inte (not) comes directly after the verb. A literal translation would actually be 'The woman laughs not.'
How would I ask 'Why is the woman not laughing?' using our current lesson's words?
You would start with varför (why). Remember that questions flip the subject and the verb, so the verb comes right after the question word. The sentence becomes: Varför skrattar kvinnan inte?
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