Word
Fungerar den här brödrosten bra? Den gamla var trasig.
Meaning
Does this toaster work well? The old one was broken.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Fungerar den här brödrosten bra? Den gamla var trasig.
vara
to be
bra
good / well
gammal
old
den
the (with en-words)
Questions & Answers about Fungerar den här brödrosten bra? Den gamla var trasig.
Why does the second sentence say Den gamla instead of using a Swedish word for "one"?
In English, we say "the old one" to avoid repeating a noun. In Swedish, you don't need a placeholder word like "one". Because we already know we are talking about brödrosten (the toaster), you can just use the definite article den and the definite adjective gamla. The noun is simply left out.
Why is the adjective gamla instead of gammal?
We are talking about a specific toaster, so the adjective must be in its definite form. Definite adjectives almost always end in -a. Since it follows the definite article den, gammal changes to gamla.
Why does it say den här brödrosten instead of den här brödrost?
When you use den här (this) or den där (that), Swedish requires the noun that follows to be in its definite form. Since brödrost is an en-word, it becomes brödrosten.
Why is trasig not in a definite form like gamla?