Breakdown of Den kloke kungen läste sagan.
läsa
to read
den
the (with en-words)
kungen
the king
klok
wise
sagan
the fairy tale
Questions & Answers about Den kloke kungen läste sagan.
Why does the adjective end in -e (kloke) instead of the usual -a?
Because kungen (the king) refers to a male person. In Swedish, definite adjectives describing biological males often take the special masculine ending -e instead of the standard -a. You could say den kloka kungen, but den kloke kungen is very common and traditional!
Why do we use both Den and the -en ending on kungen?
This is a great example of Swedish "double definiteness." Whenever you have a standalone "the" word like Den along with an adjective, the noun itself must also take its definite ending (-en). So literally, it translates to "The wise the-king".
How do we know läste is in the past tense?
The verb att läsa (to read) forms its past tense by adding -te to the stem (läs-). If the king were reading right now, the present tense would be läser.
What kind of word is sagan, and why does it end in -n?
Sagan means "the fairy tale" or "the story". The base word is an en-word: en saga. Because the base word already ends in a vowel, you just add -n to make it definite, rather than a full -en.
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