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Questions & Answers about Vi letar i hela huset.
Why is it letar i instead of just letar?
In English, you can 'search a house', but in Swedish, you need a preposition here. You use leta i when searching physically inside a location. If you were looking for a specific lost item, you would use leta efter.
Since it means 'the whole house', why isn't there a separate word for 'the' like det hela huset?
Normally, when you have an adjective and a definite noun, you need a standalone article (like det stora huset for 'the big house'). However, hela (meaning 'the whole') is a special exception. It goes directly in front of the definite noun (huset) without needing det.
Hus is an ett-word, so why doesn't the adjective end in -t (helt)?
Because we are talking about a specific house, the noun is in its definite form (huset). When an adjective describes a definite noun, it almost always takes the -a ending, no matter the gender of the word. If you wanted to say 'a whole house' (indefinite), it would be ett helt hus.
Could I use söker instead of letar to mean 'search'?
You can, but letar is much more natural for everyday physical searches, like looking around the house for your keys. Söker is generally used in more formal or abstract situations, like applying for a job (söker jobb).