Word
De små barnen tittar på myran.
Meaning
The small children are looking at the ant.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De små barnen tittar på myran.
barnet
the child
titta på
to look at
de
the (plural, before adjective)
myran
the ant
Questions & Answers about De små barnen tittar på myran.
Why do we use små here instead of liten?
Små is the irregular plural form of liten (small). Because barnen (the children) is plural, the adjective describing them must also be in its plural form, små.
Why do we need De when barnen already has a definite ending?
This is a rule called double definiteness. When you add an adjective before a definite noun in Swedish, you must use a separate front article (here, De for plural) AND keep the definite ending on the noun (-en). Literally, you are saying "The small the children".
Can I just say De små barnen tittar myran?
No, you need the preposition på. Just like in English where you "look at" something, in Swedish you tittar på something. Tittar by itself just means "look" or "watch".
What is the base form of the word myran?
The base form is en myra (an ant). Because it is an en-word that ends in a vowel, you make it definite (the ant) simply by adding an -n to the end, creating myran.