Learn Swedish: Kusten är varmare än huvudstaden. - The coast is warmer than the capital.

In Swedish, än translates to 'than' and is used for unequal comparisons, like when something is varmare (warmer). You would use som if you were saying they are equally warm, using the pattern lika varm som (as warm as).

How do you form the comparative 'varmare' from 'varm'?

For most regular short adjectives like varm (warm), you simply add the suffix -are to the end to make it comparative. This gives us varmare (warmer).

Does 'huvudstad' literally mean 'head city'?

Yes! The word is a compound of huvud (head or main) and stad (city). When you put them together, it means 'capital' or 'capital city'.

Why do both 'kust' and 'huvudstad' end in '-en' here?

They are both in the definite form because the sentence talks about specific places: the coast and the capital. Since both kust and stad are en-words, they take the -en suffix at the end to mean 'the'.