Breakdown of Hennes händer är väldigt ömma.
vara
to be
hennes
her (possessive)
handen
the hand
väldigt
very (extremely)
öm
sore
Questions & Answers about Hennes händer är väldigt ömma.
Why is ömma spelled with a double 'm' when the dictionary form is öm?
This happens because the base word öm has a short vowel sound. When you add the plural ending -a to match the plural noun händer, Swedish spelling rules require you to double the m to keep the ö short. If it were spelled öma, the ö would become a long vowel sound.
I thought the singular Swedish word was en hand. Why does it become händer here?
En hand is the singular form. It belongs to a small group of nouns that change their main vowel in the plural (from a to ä), making it händer (hands). You might remember this same pattern from en tand (a tooth), which becomes tänder (teeth).
Why does väldigt end in a -t?
In this sentence, väldigt (very) is acting as an adverb because it describes the adjective ömma (sore). In Swedish, you usually create an adverb by adding a -t to the base adjective (in this case, väldig).
Why do we use hennes here instead of the reflexive pronoun sina?
We use hennes because hennes händer is the subject of the sentence. The reflexive possessive pronoun sina is only used when the object of the sentence belongs to the subject. Since the hands are the ones experiencing the soreness here, they are the subject, so we must use the standard non-reflexive hennes.
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