Questions & Answers about Han äter en stor smörgås.
Why is the adjective stor instead of stort in this sentence?
In Swedish, adjectives change to match the noun they describe. Because smörgås (sandwich) is an en-word, we use the base form of the adjective, which is stor. If it were an ett-word, like äpple (apple), you would use stort.
How can I tell that smörgås is an en-word just by looking at this sentence?
There are two big clues here. First, the word for "a" is en. Second, the adjective is stor (not stort). Both of these words match the gender of the noun they belong to.
Could this sentence also mean "He is eating a big sandwich"?
Yes! Swedish doesn't have a separate "is doing" form like English does. So, Han äter translates to both "He eats" and "He is eating", depending on the context.
What does the word smörgås literally mean?
It is a fun compound word! Smör means butter, and gås means goose. Historically, small lumps of butter floating on churned milk were called "butter geese", which eventually became the everyday word for a sandwich.