Breakdown of Vilken diskmaskin letar ni efter, den billiga eller den dyra?
ni
you (plural, subject)
vilken
which / what a (en-word)
billig
cheap
eller
or
dyr
expensive
den
the (with en-words)
leta efter
to look for (physical items, everyday)
diskmaskinen
the dishwasher
Questions & Answers about Vilken diskmaskin letar ni efter, den billiga eller den dyra?
The English translation says "the cheap one", but there is no word for "one" in the Swedish sentence. Why?
In Swedish, you don't need a placeholder word like "one" when referring back to a noun you've already mentioned. Since we already know we're talking about a diskmaskin, we can just use the definite article and the adjective together (den billiga) and leave out the noun entirely. This is called noun ellipsis.
Why do billig and dyr have an -a at the end here (billiga, dyra)?
Because they are in the definite form. When an adjective follows a definite article like den, det, or de, it almost always takes an -a ending. This rule applies even when the noun itself is left out, as it is in this sentence.
Why does the sentence start with Vilken instead of Vilket?
The word for "which" has to agree with the gender of the noun it belongs to. Because diskmaskin is an en-word (en diskmaskin), we use Vilken. If you were asking about an ett-word, like hus (house), you would use Vilket.
Why are letar and efter separated by ni?
Leta efter is a phrasal verb meaning "to look for." In a question, the verb (letar) comes right after the question phrase (Vilken diskmaskin) to satisfy the Swedish V2 (verb-second) rule. The subject (ni) immediately follows the verb, and the preposition (efter) comes right after that.
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