Breakdown of De hyrde en stor båt på semestern.
en
a, an (common)
de
they
stor
big
på
on / at / for (wait for) / in (believe in)
båten
the boat
semestern
the vacation
hyra
to rent
Questions & Answers about De hyrde en stor båt på semestern.
How do we form the past tense for the verb hyra (to rent) in this sentence?
Hyra is a regular Group 2a verb. To make it past tense (preteritum), you take the stem of the verb (hyr-) and add the suffix -de. This gives us hyrde (rented).
Why is the adjective stor (big) used here instead of stort or stora?
Adjectives in Swedish change their ending depending on the noun they describe. Because båt (boat) is a singular "en" word (en båt), the adjective stays in its basic form: stor. If it were an "ett" word like ett hus (a house), it would be ett stort hus, and if it were plural, it would be stora båtar.
Does the word semester mean a term at school, like it does in English?
No, this is a classic "false friend"! In Swedish, en semester means a vacation or a holiday from work. If you want to talk about a school term or semester, you would use the word en termin.
Why is it semestern (the vacation) instead of just semester?
In English, we say "on vacation" without the word "the". However, Swedish commonly uses the definite (the) form of the noun in phrases like this. So, "on vacation" becomes på semestern (literally: "on the vacation"). You will see this pattern a lot in time expressions, such as på helgen (on the weekend).
How should I pronounce De at the start of the sentence?
Even though it is spelled De, in everyday spoken Swedish it is almost always pronounced as dom.
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