Word
Vi tar den femte bussen.
Meaning
We are taking the fifth bus.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Vi tar den femte bussen.
Why does the sentence use both den and bussen? Isn't that like saying "the fifth the bus"?
Yes, literally it translates to "the fifth the bus"! This is a standard rule in Swedish called double definiteness. When a specific noun has a descriptive word like an adjective or number in front of it (like femte), you must use both the standalone "the" (den) and the definite ending on the noun (-en).
How do I know whether to use den or det before the number?
It depends on the gender of the noun. Buss is an en-word (a bus = en buss). For en-words, we use den as the standalone "the" before a describing word. If we were talking about an ett-word like tåg (train), it would be det femte tåget.
Where is the word for "are" in "are taking"?
Swedish doesn't use an "are -ing" or "is -ing" structure like English does. The single present tense verb tar covers both "take" and "are taking". You just rely on the context to know which one makes the most sense in English.
Does the word femte (fifth) change its ending if we talk about an ett-word instead of a buss?
No, it stays exactly the same. While normal adjectives usually change their endings based on the noun's gender and number, ordinal numbers (words for position like first, second, fifth) have a fixed form. Femte always ends in -e.