Breakdown of Barnet sover. God natt!
barnet
the child
sova
to sleep
god natt
good night (only to someone going to bed)
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Questions & Answers about Barnet sover. God natt!
How does the word barnet mean the child?
In Swedish, you do not use a separate word for the. Instead, you add an ending to the noun. Barn means child, and because it is an ett word (ett barn), you add -et to the end to make it barnet (the child).
I see sover translates to is sleeping. Is there a Swedish word for is in this sentence?
Swedish does have a word for is (är), but it does not use it to create an ongoing action like English does with is sleeping. Swedish only has one present tense. This means sover can translate to both sleeps and is sleeping. The context tells you which one sounds best in English!
Why is it God natt and not Gott natt?
In Swedish, adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. The word for night is an en word (en natt), so the adjective takes its basic form, god. If it were describing an ett word, you would add a t to make it gott.
Is God natt always written as two words?
Yes! Unlike English where we can sometimes write goodnight as a single word, in Swedish it is always written as two separate words: god natt. This rule also applies to similar greetings like god morgon (good morning) and god kväll (good evening).