Questions & Answers about Vi kan se små djur i skogen.
Why do we use små here instead of liten?
Små is the plural form of the irregular adjective liten (small). Because djur (animals) is plural in this sentence, the adjective must also be plural. You will always use små to say 'small' when talking about more than one thing.
If it means 'small animals', why doesn't djur have a plural ending?
Djur is an ett-word that ends in a consonant. In Swedish, these types of words do not change their form in the indefinite plural. Ett djur means 'an animal', but here it means 'animals'. The plural adjective små is your biggest clue that we are talking about more than one animal.
Why is there no att (to) before se?
Kan (can) is a helper verb. Just like in English where we say 'can see' rather than 'can to see', Swedish drops the word att after helper verbs. The second verb, se, simply stays in its basic dictionary form.
Why does the sentence use the definite form skogen (the forest) if we don't know which forest it is?
Just like in English, Swedish often uses the definite form for natural environments like skogen (the forest) or stranden (the beach) when talking about being out in nature generally, even if we are not referring to one specific mapped-out forest.