Questions & Answers about Vår familj bor i staden.
Why do we use vår here instead of vårt or våra?
Possessive pronouns need to match the noun they belong to. Familj is a singular en-word (we say en familj), so we use the en-word form vår. If we were talking about an ett-word like hus (house), we would use vårt hus. Because we are talking about just one family, we do not use the plural form våra.
Should we use the definite form of the noun (like familjen) after vår?
No, in Swedish you always use the indefinite (basic) form of the noun right after a possessive pronoun. Just like in English, we say our family (vår familj) instead of our the family.
Our family has multiple people in it. Does the verb bor change to a plural form?
No, Swedish verbs are very friendly this way! The verb stays exactly the same no matter who or how many people are doing the action. It is always bor whether it is jag bor (I live), han bor (he lives), or vår familj bor (our family lives).
Why does the word for city (stad) have -en at the end here?
Adding -en to the end of an en-word like stad is how Swedish says the word "the". So en stad is a city, but staden means the city.