Word
De mogna grönsakerna doftar utsökt.
Meaning
The ripe vegetables smell delicious.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De mogna grönsakerna doftar utsökt.
de
the (plural, before adjective)
utsökt
delicious
mogen
ripe
grönsaken
the vegetable
Questions & Answers about De mogna grönsakerna doftar utsökt.
The dictionary word for ripe is mogen. Why does it become mogna here instead of mogena?
Because mogen ends in an unstressed -en, it drops the e before adding the plural/definite -a ending. This is a common pattern in Swedish: adjectives ending in unstressed -el, -er, and -en usually drop that e when you add an a. For example, vacker becomes vackra!
Why do we need the word De at the beginning when grönsakerna already means the vegetables?
This is the Swedish double definite rule! When a definite noun like grönsakerna (the vegetables) is described by an adjective like mogna, you must also add the freestanding plural definite article de in front of the whole phrase.
I learned that luktar means to smell. Why is doftar used here instead?
While luktar is the general word for to smell (and often implies a bad smell), doftar specifically means to smell good or fragrant. Since the vegetables smell delicious, doftar is the perfect choice!
Since grönsakerna is plural, why doesn't utsökt (delicious) get a plural -a ending too?