Breakdown of Är du nitton eller tjugo år?
vara
to be
du
you (singular)
året
the year
eller
or
nitton
nineteen
tjugo
twenty
Questions & Answers about Är du nitton eller tjugo år?
Why is the word for "old" missing at the end of the sentence?
In Swedish, it is very common to just say år (years) when talking about age. While you can add gammal to say "years old" (år gammal), it is completely optional. Asking literally "Are you nineteen or twenty years?" sounds perfectly natural.
Since the numbers are nineteen and twenty, shouldn't the word år (year) be plural?
It actually is in the plural! In Swedish, nouns that go with ett instead of en (neuter nouns) and end in a consonant do not change their form when they become plural. Because of this rule, ett år means "one year", and tjugo år means "twenty years".
How do you know this is a question just by looking at the first two words?
In Swedish, you create a "yes/no" question by swapping the order of the subject (du) and the verb (är). The statement Du är (You are) becomes the question Är du (Are you) simply by putting the verb first.
Will native speakers pronounce tjugo exactly as it is spelled?
Sometimes, but in casual, everyday spoken Swedish, it is very common to hear tjugo pronounced as "tjuge" (ending with a short "eh" sound instead of an "oh" sound).
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