Breakdown of Vänster axel är mer skadad än höger arm.
vara
to be
höger
right (direction)
vänster
left
skadad
injured
än
than
mer
more
armen
the arm
axeln
the shoulder
Questions & Answers about Vänster axel är mer skadad än höger arm.
Why is it vänster axel instead of den vänstra axeln for 'the left shoulder'?
Words for 'left' (vänster) and 'right' (höger) are a bit special in Swedish. When talking about body parts, directions, or sides, it is very common to just use the base form of the adjective with the indefinite noun (vänster axel), even though in English we use 'the'. You can say den vänstra axeln, but vänster axel is more common and sounds very natural.
Why do we use mer skadad instead of an ending like skadadare?
Skadad (injured) is a past participle, which is an adjective made from a past-tense verb. In Swedish, adjectives that end in -ad never take the standard -are ending for comparisons because the words would become too clunky. Instead, you always use mer (more) and mest (most).
How can I tell if axel and arm are en-words or ett-words from this sentence?
You can tell they are en-words because the adjective skadad does not have a -t added to the end. If the subject were an ett-word, the adjective would have to match it by adding a -t (skadat). For example, if you injured your knee (ett knä), the sentence would be Vänster knä är mer skadat...
If I wanted to practice this lesson's topic and say 'Both are injured', how would the sentence look?
You would say Båda är skadade. Because båda (both) refers to multiple things, the adjective skadad must take its plural form. For adjectives ending in -ad, the plural form is created by adding an -e to the end, making it skadade.
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