Breakdown of Hunden hittar de röda bollarna.
hunden
the dog
bollen
the ball
hitta
to find
röd
red
de
the (plural, before adjective)
Questions & Answers about Hunden hittar de röda bollarna.
Why is there a 'de' before 'röda' if 'bollarna' already means 'the balls'?
In Swedish, when a noun has an adjective and is in the definite ('the') form, you have to use double definiteness. You use the freestanding plural article de (the) plus the adjective, AND you still keep the definite ending on the noun bollarna. So it literally translates to 'the red the balls'.
How is the word 'de' pronounced in this sentence?
Even though it is spelled de, it is almost always pronounced like 'dom' in everyday spoken Swedish. You will hear native speakers say 'dom röda bollarna'.
Why does the adjective 'röda' end in an 'a' here?
The basic word for red is röd. We add an 'a' to make it röda because the noun it describes (bollarna) is plural, and also because it is in the definite ('the') form. In Swedish, adjectives almost always take an 'a' ending when used with plural or definite nouns.
How do we build the word 'bollarna' from its base form?
The base singular word is boll (a ball). To make it plural, you add -ar to get bollar (balls). Finally, to say 'the balls', you add the definite plural ending -na, resulting in bollarna.
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