Word
Den elake kungen besegrade den modige hjälten.
Meaning
The mean king defeated the brave hero.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Den elake kungen besegrade den modige hjälten.
den
the (with en-words)
kungen
the king
modig
brave
besegra
to defeat
Questions & Answers about Den elake kungen besegrade den modige hjälten.
Why do the adjectives end in -e (elake, modige) instead of -a (elaka, modiga)?
Since a king and a hero are male people, we can use the special masculine ending -e for definite adjectives. Normally, definite adjectives end in -a, but for natural males, swapping -a for -e is very common and sounds a bit more traditional or formal.
Why does the sentence use both Den and kungen? Doesn't that mean 'The mean the king'?
Yes, it literally looks like that! This is the Swedish double definite rule. Whenever you put an adjective before a definite noun, you need a freestanding article (den for en-words) plus the definite ending on the noun itself (kungen).
What is the base form of the word hjälten?
The base word for hero is en hjälte. Because it already ends in a vowel, you only add -n to make it definite (hjälten), just like how en pojke becomes pojken.
How does the verb besegrade work here?
Besegrade is the past tense of att besegra (to defeat). It is a regular verb, meaning the base form ends in -a and you simply add -de to talk about an action completed in the past.