De ser polisen passera och hör bilen tuta.
They see the police officer pass by and hear the car honk.
Questions & Answers about De ser polisen passera och hör bilen tuta.
Why are passera and tuta in the infinitive form instead of the present tense (passerar, tutar)?
This is the main rule for verbs of perception, like ser (see) and hör (hear). When you see or hear an object doing something, you use the object (polisen, bilen) followed by the bare infinitive of the action verb. English does the exact same thing: we say "hear the car honk", not "hear the car honks".
Shouldn't there be an att before the infinitives passera and tuta?
No, verbs of perception are followed by a "bare infinitive," meaning the infinitive form without att (to). Just like in English where you say "see the officer pass" instead of "see the officer to pass", Swedish skips the att.
The translation says "the police officer", but doesn't polisen just mean "the police"?
It means both! In Swedish, polisen is very commonly used in everyday speech to refer to a single police officer. Depending on the context, it can also refer to the police force as a whole.
In English, I could also say "hear the car honking". Can I use the Swedish present participle here, like tutande?
You technically can, but it is much less common and can sound a bit unnatural. Swedish strongly prefers using the bare infinitive (tuta) after verbs of perception, even when English would naturally use an "-ing" word.