Breakdown of Den gamla kungen vann kriget.
gammal
old
den
the (with en-words)
kungen
the king
vinna
to win
kriget
the war
Questions & Answers about Den gamla kungen vann kriget.
Why doesn't the verb vann (won) have a past tense ending like -de or -te?
Vann comes from the verb vinna (to win). It belongs to Group 4, which consists of strong verbs. Instead of adding a suffix to show the past tense, they change their core vowel. Here, the i in vinna changes to a in vann. It works exactly like "win" changing to "won" in English!
Do a lot of Swedish strong verbs follow the same patterns as English?
Yes! Because English and Swedish are both Germanic languages, many of their irregular verbs share the same historical roots. Noticing that vinna / vann sounds just like "win" / "won" is a great trick for remembering these Group 4 vowel changes.
Why is the adjective gamla instead of gammal here?
Because the phrase is definite ("the old king"). When using an adjective with a specific, definite noun, Swedish requires the "double definite" structure: you need the standalone article Den, the adjective with an -a ending (gamla), and the noun in its definite form (kungen). Also, note that gammal is slightly irregular and drops an m when it gets the -a ending.
Why is "the war" translated as kriget instead of krigen?
Because "war" is an ett word in Swedish (ett krig). To say "the" for an ett word, you add -et to the end. You can see the contrast in the same sentence: kung (king) is an en word, so it takes the -en ending to become kungen.
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