Breakdown of Den hungriga räven ser hjorten äta.
se
to see
äta
to eat
hungrig
hungry
den
the (with en-words)
hjorten
the deer
räven
the fox
Questions & Answers about Den hungriga räven ser hjorten äta.
Why is there no att before äta?
Because ser (sees) is a verb of perception. When you see, hear, or feel someone do something, Swedish uses the object (hjorten) followed by the bare infinitive (äta), skipping the word att. It works exactly like English "sees the deer eat".
In English, I would probably say "sees the deer eating". Can I use the Swedish -ing equivalent here?
No, Swedish doesn't use its present participle (words ending in -ande or -ende) this way. While English can use either "eat" or "eating" in this situation, Swedish strictly uses the infinitive äta when describing the action you perceive someone else doing.
Why does hungriga end in -a if there is only one fox?
You are seeing the definite adjective ending. When you have a specific, definite noun indicated by both the standalone article Den and the noun's definite suffix in räven, the adjective between them must take the -a ending, regardless of whether the noun is singular or plural.
Since "deer" is both singular and plural in English, how do we know if hjorten is singular or plural here?
In Swedish, the noun forms tell you exactly. The base en-word is en hjort. Hjorten has the singular definite ending -en, meaning it is one specific deer. If it were multiple specific deer, it would be hjortarna (the deer, plural).
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