Word
Både klänningen och byxorna är av bomull.
Meaning
Both the dress and the trousers are made of cotton.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Både klänningen och byxorna är av bomull.
vara
to be
och
and
byxan
the trousers
klänningen
the dress
Questions & Answers about Både klänningen och byxorna är av bomull.
Why do we use av before bomull, and do we need to include a word for 'made'?
In Swedish, the preposition av is used to show what material something is made from. You do not need an extra verb like 'made' (gjord); just saying är av bomull (literally 'is of cotton') perfectly translates to 'is made of cotton'.
How does the phrase både ... och work in this sentence?
Både ... och translates directly to 'both ... and'. It is a paired conjunction used to link two things that are equally true. Here, it links the two clothing items: klänningen (the dress) and byxorna (the trousers).
In English we often say 'a pair of trousers'. Does Swedish use a similar phrase for byxorna?
You can say ett par byxor (a pair of trousers), but in Swedish it is very common to just use the plural noun on its own to mean one pair, just like in English. Here, byxorna is the definite plural form meaning 'the trousers'.
Why isn't there an article like en or ett before bomull?
When talking about materials or fabrics in a general sense, like bomull (cotton), they are treated as uncountable nouns. Just like in English, you do not use an article before it when stating what something is made of.