Questions & Answers about Pojken växer och är nu längre än sin bror.
Why does the word for "taller" (längre) have an ä when the base word is lång?
This is a great example of a vowel mutation! Some common Swedish adjectives change their main vowel when they turn into comparative (more) and superlative (most) forms. For lång, the å changes to an ä. Notice also that it takes the shorter ending -re instead of the regular -are.
Wait, doesn't lång mean "long"? How does it mean "taller" here?
In Swedish, lång means both "long" (for objects) and "tall" (for people). So when comparing people, längre translates to "taller", but if you were talking about ropes or distances, it would mean "longer".
Why does the sentence use sin bror instead of hans bror for "his brother"?
Because sin is a reflexive possessive pronoun. It always refers back to the subject of the clause, which is Pojken (the boy). This shows he is taller than his own brother. If we used hans bror, it would mean the boy is taller than some other guy's brother!
The English translation says "is growing". Why isn't there a Swedish word for "is" before växer?