Breakdown of Vi besöker staden och dess parker.
vi
we
och
and
parken
the park
staden
the city
besöka
to visit
dess
its
Questions & Answers about Vi besöker staden och dess parker.
Why do we use dess for "its" here, and does it change depending on the word that follows it?
Dess means "its" and refers back to a non-human thing (in this case, the city). Unlike possessive words from earlier lessons such as min (my) or din (your), dess never changes its form. It stays exactly the same whether it is followed by an en-word, an ett-word, or a plural word like parker.
Why is it dess parker instead of dess parkerna?
In Swedish, whenever you use a possessive word (like dess, hans, hennes, or min), the noun that comes after it must be in the indefinite form. Even though we are talking about specific parks belonging to the city, we must use the indefinite plural parker (parks), not the definite parkerna (the parks).
How does staden mean "the city"?
The basic word for a city is stad, which is an en-word (en stad). To say "the" in Swedish, you take that article and attach it to the end of the noun. Adding -en to stad gives us staden (the city).
Does besöker mean "visit" or "are visiting"?
It translates to both! Swedish does not have a separate continuous tense (the "-ing" form) like English does. Vi besöker can mean "we visit" or "we are visiting", depending on what makes the most sense in the English translation.
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