Word
Anna har namnsdag den tolfte april.
Meaning
Anna has her name day on the twelfth of April.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Anna har namnsdag den tolfte april.
Why do we need the word "den" before "tolfte"?
When saying dates in Swedish, you always use the definite article den before the ordinal number. It literally translates to "the twelfth April", which is how Swedish expresses "the twelfth of April".
How is the ordinal number "tolfte" formed from the regular number twelve?
The Swedish word for twelve is tolv. To make it "twelfth", the spelling changes slightly: the v changes to an f before adding the ordinal ending -te. This makes tolfte an irregular ordinal number you just have to memorize.
Why isn't the month "april" capitalized in the Swedish sentence?
Unlike English, Swedish does not capitalize the names of months, days of the week, or languages. They are only capitalized if they happen to be the very first word of a sentence.
Why doesn't the Swedish sentence include a word for "her" like the English translation does?
In Swedish, possessive words like sin (her/his own) are often dropped when talking about things that obviously belong to the subject, such as body parts, birthdays, or a namnsdag (name day). Saying Anna har namnsdag is the most natural way to phrase it.