Breakdown of Vi måste köpa mat, för vi har inga ägg.
vi
we
maten
the food
köpa
to buy
ha
to have
måste
to have to, must
för
because (coordinating)
inga
no (plural)
ägget
the egg
Questions & Answers about Vi måste köpa mat, för vi har inga ägg.
Why do we use inga here instead of ingen or inget?
The word inga means 'no' when used before plural nouns. Because we are talking about eggs in the plural, we use inga. If we had no food (a singular en-word), we would say ingen mat, and for a singular ett-word like vatten (water), we would use inget.
How can I tell that ägg is plural here when it looks exactly like the singular word for egg?
Ägg is an ett-word that ends in a consonant (ett ägg). In Swedish, these words do not change their spelling in the indefinite plural (when you don't say 'the'). The clue that it is plural here comes from the plural word inga right before it!
Could I use inte (not) to make the second part of this sentence negative instead?
Yes, but you would need to add några (any). Saying vi har inte några ägg (we do not have any eggs) means exactly the same thing as vi har inga ägg (we have no eggs). Both are very common in Swedish.
Why is the verb köpa (buy) in its infinitive form instead of the present tense köper?
It follows måste (must), which is a modal verb. Just like in English, modal verbs are followed directly by the infinitive form of the next verb, without using att (to) in between.
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