Breakdown of Vi måste välja en ny sekreterare och en ny kassör.
vi
we
en
a, an (common)
och
and
måste
to have to, must
välja
to choose
ny
new
kassören
the treasurer
sekreteraren
the secretary
Questions & Answers about Vi måste välja en ny sekreterare och en ny kassör.
Can I use the word som (as) in this sentence, like välja som en ny sekreterare?
No, because here you are simply stating what you are choosing. You use som when talking about the role someone takes. If you named the person being chosen, you could use it: Vi måste välja honom som sekreterare (We must choose him as secretary). Note that Swedish also commonly uses the preposition till for this exact situation: välja honom till sekreterare.
Normally we drop the article (a/an) for professions in Swedish. Why are we using en here?
You are remembering the rule right—for example, you would say Han är sekreterare (He is a secretary) without an article. However, as soon as you add an adjective to describe the profession (like ny), you must bring the article back: en ny sekreterare.
Why is the adjective ny instead of nya? Aren't there two people being chosen?
Even though you are choosing two people in total, the adjective ny is modifying each singular noun individually (en ny sekreterare and en ny kassör). Since both are singular en-words, the adjective stays in its base form ny.
If we needed to choose multiple secretaries and treasurers, how would the nouns change?
Words for people ending in -are usually don't change in the plural, so it remains sekreterare (secretaries). Words ending in -ör generally take the -er ending, becoming kassörer (treasurers). The whole phrase would be välja nya sekreterare och nya kassörer.
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