Breakdown of Katten äter den sjätte fisken.
katten
the cat
äta
to eat
fisken
the fish
den
the (with en-words)
Questions & Answers about Katten äter den sjätte fisken.
Why does the sentence use both den and fisken for 'the'?
This is a Swedish rule called double definiteness. When a definite noun like fisken (the fish) is described by an adjective like sjätte (sixth), you must also add a separate 'the' word in front. Because fisk is an en-word, we use den, literally creating 'the sixth the fish'.
Why is äter translated as 'is eating' instead of 'eats'?
Swedish does not have a separate continuous tense like English does. The single present tense verb äter covers both 'eats' as a habit and 'is eating' right now. You can usually figure out which one is meant from the context of the sentence.
Why does the word for sixth (sjätte) look so different from the word for six (sex)?
While the Swedish word for six is sex, the ordinal number 'sixth' is an exception that changes its spelling entirely to sjätte. Most other ordinal numbers in Swedish just add an ending to the base number, but sjätte is an irregular form you just have to memorize.
How do we know Katten means 'The cat' and not just 'Cat'?
Instead of putting a separate word for 'the' in front of a noun, Swedish usually attaches it to the end. Since the word for a cat is en katt, we add -en to the end to make it katten, which means 'the cat'.