Questions & Answers about Fållen sys med små, noggranna stygn.
How does the spelling of noggranna follow the rules for adjectives with short vowels?
The base form is noggrann (careful). Because the second a is a short vowel, it must be followed by a double consonant (nn). When we add the plural -a ending to match stygn, we keep the double consonant, making it noggranna. As a reminder, if it were modifying an ett-word, it would drop an n to become noggrant to avoid having three consonants in a row.
The word stygn (stitch) looks like a singular noun here. How can we tell it's plural in this sentence?
Stygn is an ett-word that doesn't change its spelling in the indefinite plural (just like ett hus, flera hus). You can tell it's plural here because of the adjectives modifying it: both små (the plural of liten) and noggranna (which has the plural -a ending) require a plural noun.
What form of the verb is sys?
It is the present tense s-passive form. The active verb is syr (sews), but because the hem isn't sewing itself, we use the passive form to say it "is sewn" or "is being sewn". You form this by dropping the present tense -r from syr and adding an -s.
Why is the plural of "small" just små? Don't plural adjectives usually end in ?