Questions & Answers about Färgerna bleknar i mörkret.
How is the verb bleknar formed, and what does the -na ending do?
Bleknar is an inchoative verb, which is a grammatical term for a verb that describes a process of "becoming" something. It is formed by taking the adjective blek (pale) and adding the suffix -na. So, att blekna literally means "to become pale" or "to fade".
Can I use blekna to say something like "the sun fades the colors"?
No. Verbs ending in -na are almost always intransitive, meaning they cannot take a direct object. They only describe a change happening to the subject itself. To say that something causes the colors to fade, you would need the active verb bleka (to bleach or fade something). So the sun bleker the colors, but the colors themselves bleknar.
Are these -na verbs conjugated like regular verbs?
Yes! These derived verbs belong to Verb Group 1, which means they are completely regular. For blekna, it becomes bleknar in the present tense, bleknade in the past tense, and bleknat in the supine.
Why is "the dark" written as mörkret instead of mörkeret?
The base word for "darkness" or "the dark" is mörker, which is an ett-word. As a quick refresher: when you make an ett-word ending in -er, -el, or -en definite, you drop the final e from the root before adding the -et ending. This makes it easier to pronounce, so mörker becomes mörkret.
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