Questions & Answers about Barnen lyssnar på musiken.
Why is "the children" written as barnen? Doesn't the -en ending usually mean a singular word?
While -en is the singular "the" ending for en words, barn is an ett word (ett barn). Short ett words stay exactly the same in the plural (so barn also means "children"). To say "the children" (definite plural), you add -en to that plural form, giving us barnen.
The English translation says "are listening", but I only see the word lyssnar. Where is the word for "are"?
Swedish doesn't have an "ing" form or a separate way to say that an action is happening right now. The single present tense verb lyssnar translates to both "listen" and "are listening" in English.
Why do we use the preposition på here instead of a word that translates directly to "to"?
Prepositions are tricky because they rarely translate word-for-word. In Swedish, you always "listen on" something, so the verb lyssna pairs with the preposition på instead of till (which often means "to" in other contexts).
Is musik an en word or an ett word?
It is an en word (en musik). We know this because it takes the -en ending to become musiken (the music) in this sentence.
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