Breakdown of Han fyller nitton år i maj.
han
he
i
in
året
the year
nitton
nineteen
maj
May
fylla
to turn (an age), to fill
Questions & Answers about Han fyller nitton år i maj.
Why does the sentence use fyller to mean 'turns'?
The verb fyller literally means 'fills'. In Swedish, when talking about age, you do not 'turn' or 'become' an age; you 'fill' that number of years. The general expression for having a birthday is att fylla år.
Since the current lesson is about dates, how would I change this to say 'He turns nineteen on the fifth of May'?
You would use the exact date format from this lesson: Han fyller nitton år den femte maj. Notice that you add den before the ordinal number (femte) and you remove the preposition i when giving the specific date.
Why is maj written with a lowercase 'm'?
Unlike in English, Swedish does not capitalize months, days of the week, or languages unless they are the very first word in a sentence.
Why doesn't the word for 'years' (år) change to a plural form after nitton?
Because ett år is an ett-word (neuter noun) that ends in a consonant. In Swedish, these types of nouns have the exact same form in the singular and the indefinite plural. So 'one year' is ett år, and 'nineteen years' is nitton år.
Could I leave out år and just say Han fyller nitton i maj?
Yes! Just like in English, it is very common in everyday Swedish to drop the word for 'years' and simply say Han fyller nitton.
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