Breakdown of De kriminella gömde vapnet efter inbrottet.
de
the (plural, before adjective)
efter
after
gömma
to hide
inbrottet
the burglary
kriminell
criminal
vapnet
the weapon
Questions & Answers about De kriminella gömde vapnet efter inbrottet.
How does "De kriminella" work here if "kriminell" is an adjective?
This is called substantivation, which means using an adjective as a noun. Instead of adding a noun (like "the criminal people"), Swedish often just uses the definite plural form of the adjective together with de. So de kriminella translates directly to "the criminals".
How would this sentence start if there was only one criminal?
It would start with Den kriminella (or Den kriminelle if referring specifically to a male). You use the singular definite article den followed by the adjective's definite form.
Why is the definite form of "ett vapen" (a weapon) spelled "vapnet" instead of "vapenet"?
Vapen is an ett-word ending in -en (ett vapen). When these words become definite, they usually drop the second-to-last -e- to make them easier to pronounce. So, vapen plus -et becomes vapnet.
Is the word "inbrottet" (the burglary) related to the Swedish word for crime?
Yes! Ett inbrott is a compound word made of in (in) and ett brott (a crime, or a physical break). So it literally means a "break-in". Since brott is an ett-word, the whole compound is an ett-word, making the definite form inbrottet.
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