Breakdown of Läraren lär oss svenska.
svenska
Swedish
oss
us
läraren
the teacher
lära
to teach (lära sig = to learn)
Questions & Answers about Läraren lär oss svenska.
Wait, doesn't lär mean 'learn'? How do you know it means 'teaches' here?
In Swedish, the verb lära can mean both 'to teach' and 'to learn'. When it means 'to learn', it is used with a reflexive pronoun (a word like myself, yourself, ourselves). For example, 'We learn Swedish' is Vi lär oss svenska. Here, the teacher is doing the action to someone else (oss), so lär simply means 'teaches'.
Why is it läraren and not lärareen for 'the teacher'?
The base word for 'a teacher' is en lärare. For nouns that already end in -are, you only add an -n to make them definite ('the'), instead of the usual -en. This avoids awkwardly putting two 'e's together!
Why isn't svenska capitalized like 'Swedish' is in English?
In Swedish, you do not capitalize the names of languages or nationalities. Words like svenska (Swedish) or engelska (English) are always written with a lowercase starting letter unless they are at the very beginning of a sentence.
Could I use the verb undervisar to mean 'teaches' in this sentence instead?
Yes, undervisar is another common word for 'teaches', but it requires an extra word to work. If you use it here, you would say Läraren undervisar oss i svenska, which translates to 'The teacher instructs us in Swedish'.