Breakdown of Har den modige prinsen svärdet?
ha
to have
den
the (with en-words)
modig
brave
prinsen
the prince
Questions & Answers about Har den modige prinsen svärdet?
Why does the adjective end in -e (modige) instead of the usual -a (modiga)?
Because prinsen (the prince) is a male person. In Swedish, when an adjective describes a definite masculine person, you can use the -e ending instead of the standard -a. You could also say den modiga prinsen and it would be perfectly correct, but the -e ending is very traditional and common for men and boys.
Why do we say den modige prinsen? Doesn't prinsen already mean "the prince"?
It does! However, Swedish uses something called "double definiteness." Whenever you put an adjective in front of a definite noun, you must use a standalone article (den in this case) and keep the definite ending on the noun (-en). So it literally translates to "the brave the-prince".
There is no word for "does" in the Swedish sentence. How do we form this question?
Swedish doesn't use helper verbs like "do" or "does" to ask questions. Instead, you just swap the subject and the verb. While a statement would be Den modige prinsen har (The brave prince has), you simply move the verb to the front to make it a question: Har den modige prinsen (Does the brave prince have).
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