Questions & Answers about Många människor bor i staden.
Why do we use många instead of mycket in this sentence?
Människor (people) are countable—you can have one person, two people, and so on. In Swedish, we use många (many) for things we can count. Mycket (much/a lot of) is used for uncountable things like water, coffee, or time.
Is människor a plural word?
Yes! It is the plural of en människa (a person/human). In English, the word "people" acts as a plural without needing an "s" at the end, but Swedish uses the regular plural ending -or. Because it is a plural, countable noun, it pairs perfectly with många.
Could I use lever instead of bor to mean "live" here?
No, you need to use bor. In Swedish, bor means to reside or have a home somewhere. The verb lever means to be alive (the opposite of being dead). Since these people have their homes in the city, bor is the right choice.
How does staden mean "the city" instead of just "a city"?
Swedish puts "the" at the end of the noun. The basic word is en stad (a city). Because it is an en-word, we add -en to the end to make it staden (the city). You will also often hear this shortened to stan in everyday spoken Swedish!